Lets all use the IRC channel for once

[Jamon Camisso]

Evan Leibovitch wrote:

<snip>
> 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.

That's a matter of opinion I'd say. #ubuntu and #gentoo are two channels 
I can think of off hand to which this statement might find itself some 
opposition. Personal preference more than anything I'd say -- some like 
it, some don't.

<snip>
> 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.

Pursue that question too far and you end up in a nihilistic division by 
zero loop. I think I was clear in my original post that when I wrote 
that the purpose, though not explicitly stated or implied as such, 
should be to "perhaps foster an open atmosphere for new people to come 
and chat" and "IRC is a great thing, both for wasting time *and* for 
doing and learning linux related stuff. With talk of house/lan parties, 
a gtalugradio podcast of some sort, Linuxworld coming up, and all manner 
of other related stuff going on, surely we could at least have more than 
the current 12 users, perhaps with more than 1 line of text per day?"

> 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?

See above. Additionally, what more purpose need there be in relation to 
the above? I can imagine that many people who subscribe to this list 
don't/didn't even know that #toronto-lug exists. Someone was on the 
channel the other day who had never used it before -- if you want a 
purpose/reason, then that's it -- community, profile, and ideas. Linux 
related discussion *can* be a social thing too -- irc is just another 
medium of exchange, suitable for some and not for others. I don't think 
I'm asking anyone to change at all.

While the medium may well be the message, what pray tell is wrong with 
the message? People using technology is what keeps many of in employed. 
If people didn't use irc for something (and those that do must find some 
meaning and purpose in it else they wouldn't I should think) how far is 
it to go and simply say don't use techonology for anything at all, for 
any social or even technical purposes? It's a slippery slope to just 
dismiss it out of hand.

I do however recognize your opinion and thoughts on the subject and by 
no means do I wish to sway you, only to make it known to others that the 
channel exists and that there is utility in it. I don't use the channel 
just as much as the next person, but I'd like to and am making an 
attempt, regardless of how trivial such a purpose may be construed.

Jamon
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