Lets all use the IRC channel for once

[Evan Leibovitch]

Jamon Camisso wrote:

> Walter Dnes wrote:
>
>>   - Email enables TIVO-like "timeshifting".  This gives me time to
>>     compose a readable reply.  This not only helps the slow typists, but
>>     allows one to do offline research ("googling") before replying to
>>     questions.
>
>
> I've had many an exchange of ideas and help that consisted entirely of 
> links posted to a channel. Email cannot compare with something like 
> that for speed and effectiveness.

Speed? Sure, because it's in real time.
Effectiveness? Certainly not.

IRC is horrible for lengthy messages, especially when you want to do any 
kind of formatting such as using point form or quotations or code 
fragments. If you break up a message into usable chunks it's likely to 
get split by other peoples' conversation. Compounding the problem is 
when that other conversation is totally unrelated. And as you point 
people to hacks such as pastebins, you already diminish the supposed 
benefits of IRC.

If your question can be answered by a one-line answer, and the person 
with the right answer is there in the 'room', then IRC is good. Often 
waiting for the experts to see and answer, in a format and time 
convenient to them, provides a more effective -- if not faster -- 
response to complex questions and issues.

You can't follow IRC easily by thread as you can in email. And, unlike 
using a list server such as mailman, archiving is haphazard, redundant, 
and lacks the facility of email to create mailboxes and file stuff for 
you automatically using tools like procmail.

Internet Relay Chat is good for just that -- Chat. It is a reasonable 
tool for specific scheduled online meetings; the Open Source Weekend 
folks use it to great advantage in this way. It's also good for social 
interaction because it provides immediate gratification. But IRC doesn't 
scale -- having more than a dozen people talking at the same time, 
especially in multiple unrelated conversations, is almost unreadable.

> One thing that I still have trouble with in irc/im is lack of 
> punctuation and grammar. While I'm not perfect in my own usage by any 
> means, I nevertheless find it rather disconcerting -- I agree with you 
> (I think) on that point.

I find that use of smilies is an imperative in IRC/IM, as written 
sarcasm etc has less time to be digested or even recognized. The lack of 
vocal inflection is even more of an issue when the conversation is so 
immediate.

> If your name appears in the channel, you are notified by your client, 
> and can easily change the colour of any line containing your name. 
> This system allows multiple conversations at once without you loosing 
> track of who said what to whom. Audio notifications too.

Being able to traverse an thread in isolation, whether current or 
archived, is a strength of email that IRC can't begin to approach.

Then there's the issue of aliases. Most IRC users don't even offer their 
real names for "info" requests, so you don't know who you're talking to 
(and -- worse -- can't match IRC names to mailing-list names or emails). 
This may not be a biggie to some, but I've definitely heard from others 
who liken the widespread use of oh-so-clever aliases on IRC/IM to a trip 
to kiddieland or CB radio.

>>   IRC has its place, and where immediacy is required it's nice, but 
>> one-size-does-not-fit-all.
>
>
> Agreed. There is a time and a place for both email and IRC. However, 
> it seems like IRC's place is rather lacking in presence at the moment 
> -- that's essentially my entire point.

IMO just asking for participation is pointless unless there's a purpose 
to the conversations. In the absence of such purpose, IRC is nothing 
more than the digital equipment of a bunch of people hanging around a 
lamp-post, each saying "I dunno -- what do _you_ want to do?" and hoping 
someone else with offer something to talk about. The purpose can be 
trivial but needs to be there.

The useful IRC channels in which I participate -- CLUE, OSW, Drupal 
Ecommerce -- have purpose to their conversations. To be sure there is 
some spontaneous chit-chat, but those things are at their most useful 
when  a small group has a task to tackle collectively and is there at 
the same time.

When you ask people to go to IRC, have you answered the question "why 
change"? Outside of social banter -- which hasn't really succeeded 
amongst the existing IRC participants -- what is the compelling reason 
to go to IRC, learn new software and protocols and aliases, etc?

- Evan

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