Re: Should we do something with #git-devel on Freenode?

From: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Date: May 19, 2021, 19:08 UTC
Message-ID: <YKViF9OVLeA95JPH@google.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAJoAoZ=e62sceNpcR5L5zjsj177uczTnXjcAg+BbOoOkeH8vXQ@mail.gmail.com>

Hi,

Emily Shaffer wrote[0]:

> Seems like there's been some kerfuffle with Freenode staff and new
> ownership[1][2][3]. What does this mean for Git project? I think #git
> on Freenode isn't maintained by Git developers directly, right?

https://gitirc.eu/ involved a lot of work by Jan Krüger (thanks!), so cc-ing him since he likely knows who else is active there.

[...]

>                                                             We do
> theoretically keep up #git-devel on Freenode, though it's largely
> silent. Should we be worrying? Migrating?

The main practical struggle on #git-devel has been spam. I don't know that any particular IRC network is better at spam prevention than others.

It looks like most of the Freenode admins have moved to https://libera.chat/, so that would be a close equivalent. Another alternative is OFTC <https://www.oftc.net/>, which is used by irc.debian.org, for example.

There are also other real-time chat programs such as Zulip (open source, used in Outreachy), Discord (used by LLVM), and Slack (used by Chromium); each has its benefits and flaws.

Thanks, Jonathan

[0] https://lore.kernel.org/git/CAJoAoZ=e62sceNpcR5L5zjsj177uczTnXjcAg+BbOoOkeH8vXQ@mail.gmail.com/

> [1] https://boingboing.net/2021/05/19/freenode-irc-staff-quit-after-new-owner-seizes-control.html
> [2] https://gist.github.com/joepie91/df80d8d36cd9d1bde46ba018af497409
> [3] https://fuchsnet.ch/freenode-resign-letter.txt