I’ve recently discovered IRC or re-discovered you could say. I had initially looked into the protocol and culture a year ago but after installing a client I didn’t really know how to use and exploring Libera.chat looking through channels I wasn’t sure where best to converse.
Fast forward to now and I was suggested a post on r/irc last week about a younger person getting into IRC. Looking through the comments lead me onto finding a small comment from Avatar the creator of MansionNET or inthemansion.com a fully self hosted set of services online focussing on data privacy and transparency with the users utilising the those services. One of which happened to be the IRC network.
I proceeded to join the network using the handy built in webchat that is advertised which Is a nice entry point for new people. I was thoroughly welcomed by a number of people only recognisable by their chosen nickname. I began learning the various commands used for interacting with services on the network such as registering my nickname so nobody could take it.
The whole experience of learning something new after being interested in computers since I was a kid and taking a career in it was amazing. It felt exactly how I feel the internet should be; free and sort of raw no corporate product just people in a chat room running of a protocol developed in 1988. I wish I could have been around to experience the glory days of IRC though it seems to have a niche community to this day.
I didn’t spend long before looking into things like clients and bouncers available to me in order to capture messages so I could catchup while not at my desktop or viewing my phone. I swiftly got the cheapest VPS OVH could offer me and locked it down and installed TheLounge.chat on it in a private configuration to work as my bouncer and client for both desktop and mobile.
I must say the conversations feel like they’re had with more intent and channels for specific topics are nice but finding a community of welcoming like minded people has made it a great process. I think more people should adopt it in the age where everything is monitored, companies make decisions on the applications you use for better or worse, IRC exists in the realm of time when the internet was free and it is simply a protocol anyone is free to use.
If I could convert all my friends to IRC and mumble I would do it in a heartbeat.
In the meantime I’ll be enjoying my time on MansionNET and think I’ll try my hand at coding my own IRC bot using python sockets and maybe even reading into the protocol or the history behind the idea for it.
If you’ve made it this far thanks for reading, still deliberating the style I’d like to get across in my posts whether short opinions or technical write ups.
Till the next post, see you on 6697