As you might know, we have tons of little IRC channels, Slack Groups and Skype chats full of stuff only programmers will know. Let’s unite everyone in a big chat. I will be a lot easier to communicate and help other programmers. Social coding, you know. We currenlty have a very small amount of users in the chat and because this place is crowded with Developers, I thought Sponge would be a great way to start. I know that there is a Sponge-Chat Slack, I was even a -somewhat- dedicated Admin on there but it was limited to Sponge only, so I decided to create this web-wide chat. Who is with me?
⚑ To join, you can Private Message me your e-mail, or post them down in the comments if you prefer that.
⚑ You can also e-mail me at [email protected], spam and you WILL be blocked!
⚑ Once you have received an e-mail from me click the link and you can sign up for the group.
⚑ The link to the website (use this after you signed up!) can be found here.
Have any questions, you can PM me about it or ask it in the comments.
It is hard to manage an IRC chat and keep it organized. Messages don’t get stored in most IRC channels and there is alot less customization. An IRC is very limited and unsecure. I prefer Slack.
You can see my previous post about that why I prefer Slack over an IRC. In an IRC everyone is allowed to join. It is harder to access from mobile devices and just plain messy. There are no channels, nor are there any private groups or chats. It is just plain less pratical. Slack has intergrations and is more professional. But I am not forcing you to join it.
Think of this more as a place to hangout for developers and get help. This is totally unrelated to the official #sponge and #spongedev channels. If you’re looking for a cool place to speak about code and stuff, you’re welcome.
Sorry about the confusion.
Yeah, I still am an active member on there. But the chat itself is more SpongeDev focused. This Slack chat is about unorganized coding in all sorts of languages (and pizza). If an admin thinks this shameless advertising should not be on here, he’s more than welcome to tell us and remove it.
IRC has all of these things. What do you mean IRC doesn’t have “channels”? That’s literally where 100% of conversation happens, unless it’s a private chat.
You can make a channel private, or require invitation, or require that the user joining be registered. You can have private chats, obviously. You can have hidden channels, which don’t appear on the list. You can have passworded channels. Also, there are a plethora of apps for Android when it comes to IRC networks.
I’ll admit it’s a bit harder to find a free solution on the iPhone if you use a BNC, but that’s about my only complaint, and most people don’t use BNCs anyways.
You do have a point. However, you do not have any intergrations. And it looks less clean. Most of the times. Also I still find Slack more professional and easier to use. Although you do have a point.
That’s just an example of not being familiar with the platform.
Most IRC servers do not come bundled with neat integration to other platforms. However, given the community support for IRC as a whole, there are more integration available in the form of bots than anything Slack could ever offer.
As far as how it “looks less clean”, IRC doesn’t have an “appearance”. The look and feel of how you interact with an IRC network is entirely dependent on what client you use. Don’t like the look? Get another client. You can hardly blame that on IRC itself.
Admit it, this also looks clean http://fast.customer.io/s/Slack_20140602_154640_20140602_154645.png. Alright I got one point that I am pretty convinced is true. Slack stores and archives messages, you can have profile pictures and custom smileys. Links automatically get previewed and file sharing is a lot easier. Right?
I suppose it looks “nice”. Although, what appears nice to one person, doesn’t necessarily to another. With IRC, if you don’t like the appearance, it’s fairly simple to change it. With Slack, the appearance is decided by the people who develop it.
By default, similar to integration, IRC does not store/archive messages, allow you to have profile pictures, have custom smilies, “preview” links, and file-sharing isn’t really for novices.
However, bots can be made (and most already exist) which can store/archive messages, and preview links.
As far as those extra features go, such as profile pictures and file-sharing and smilies: Great. However, if I wanted to bundle a social media platform with my everyday discussions, I would have already transferred away from IRC.
We already have all of that on the forums. Why would I want to setup another profile just to talk to people?
This is not an advantage over irc. Irc is nicely looking clean chat. If you want to have useless profile pictures, emoticons, memes and other “internet” nonsence everywhere go to facebook.
It is a nice addition, isn’t it? I never said IRC wasn’t a nice looking clean chat. I only said that Slack is probably better managable on a bigger scale. Plus you can connect to Slack using a IRC or XMPP client. Slack is basically an IRC with a UI which is alot easier to set up. Although I do agree having a open IRC channel is still important, it’s nice to have something from both worlds an bridge them togheter. Everyone can join the Sponge IRC, the Slack group is for more advanced developers and a place for like minded people to hang out without the place beinging invaded by 12 year olds.
