From Newsgroup: alt.irc
I tried to respond at length to this David. I'm Aspherger diagnosed
father of three who works in IT. It's a struggle to find time to sit
down write at length.
David Chmelik wrote:
I liked mid-to-late 1990s IRC. Now some (newer networks) seems full of 'Twitterati'--people with little/no attention span. Maybe half the time I discuss science/technology, like computer programming/science or usage,
after some more details, people jump in and ask a detail already said.
When one politely points out there was past discussion they missed it, someone says that's an 'attack'. They want repetition to see everything quick like classic Twitter.com/X.com posts (144 characters, which is sometimes now even called 'wall of text'). I prefer forums--both NNTP/ listservs and world wide web (WWW) forums (web-forums)--but even some
large forums no longer have much activity. So, one goes to an IRC channel that may be large (not as large as a subject's forum/listserv)... people
only read a little before replying. More (than past) are autistic/
Asperger so when one expects people read all relevant discussion before joining in to reply, some even take it personally. It's popular to link
'How to Ask A Question on The Internet' but there should be 'How to Answer
A Question on The Internet' describing don't skip to last part and miss
most but then repeat, like early 1990s AOL 'me toos' on Usenet.
I started using a Tandy 1000 in the early 90s. I had no internet access
until the early 2000s. It had DeskMate as its primary operating system
and also had MS-DOS. Some of the last versions of the Tandy 1000 shipped
with Windows 3.1; I was never able to get my hands on one of those. I
was very envious of kids in the neighborhood who had Windows and the
internet. I spent hours upon hours studying command lines from an old
MS-DOS book and bricking the system, then learning how to fix it.
I used to do 30 KB forum posts, though mostly 'Yahoo! Groups' web-forums
in '0s; people replied that long and longer: they had attention span (intellectual-focused groups). At least kids those days had read a book.
I'd tried Usenet in 1990s but just asked a couple very short questions. I was on Internet in museum before Eternal September but not regularly until after dial-up bulletin board system (BBS) a few years later. The Internet changed a lot since including for the worse. Usenet and IRC seem some
last few places with absolute free speech sometimes even without a couple
USA restrictions... not that one can shout 'FIRE!' in a crowded theatre on Usenet & IRC but all countries have political restriction, and most much
more than USA Constitution such as 'hate speech' fines/prison.
I remember watching a friend use AOL Instant Messenger and I was floored
by it. He could communicate with people all over the world and my Tandy
felt powerless. I would go to his house and watch him use his computer
for hours, chatting and playing video games. He had Windows 3.1 at
first, and then he got a new computer with Windows 95. I was amazed at
how smooth the GUI was for Windows 95 at the time. It beat DeskMate by
miles. We spent hours taking turns playing Doom, Myst, and Warcraft II.
These moments led to my love for modern computers. I can point back to
these moments and say, "This is one of my greatest memories." I would
use my Tandy 1000 at home, walk down the train tracks that went through
a small patch of woods that connected our houses, and join him on these digital adventures. An age to fall in love with technology, yet still be
an outdoor kid. It felt like we were on the frontier of the unknown,
Vikings sailing across the Atlantic on our way to the Americas.
Corporate takeovers of the internet, the advent of data harvesting and
spying, and government restrictions are pushing me to Usenet and IRC.
I've even delved into self-hosting. I'm trying to eliminate as many subscriptions as possible by hosting my own solutions at home. I now
have full control over my photo backups, hosting them locally with a
secure offsite backup.
Tools for the police state are in full swing regarding their inception
and creation, all under the guise of "Protect the Children." I'm going
to stop here about this; this is meant more as an introduction.
One thing autistic IRC technologists seem to hate is average users: even computer programmers/scientists who are only users of some other software that may be undocumented. One crude OS channel operator said I'm 'using channel for "IT support"'... I'm not into 'IT' and I write documentation/ code myself. Is it true some won't document much/anything but then run a chat room (IRC or newer things like 'Matrix') largely to continually blame users for asking questions about what's undocumented? I think I've seen
it, though they may have attention span, some only partly also for running 'GitHub' projects they only want small comments that are 'actionable' (neologistic meaning. Standard dictionaries only give it a legal
definition) and they close issues if not fitting that or after a certain
time or immediately without understanding... poor way to solve bugs.
I am personally very tired of the 140 characters or less used to
communicate with people. I get it when you have to do it at times
because you're in a hurry, or you're in a long-form chat saying multiple things in small pieces, treating it like an in-person conversation. But
the way "content," "knowledge," and "data" are shared with few words,
followed up by "Join this for a free PDF," is driving me crazy. I much
prefer a long-form article that takes time to read.
Everyone has an app to sell; they have a course to sell. The internet
has become a culture of snake-oil salesmen trying to make a quick buck.
Car salesmen and insurance salesmen have found a second life on the
internet.
I've seen some of Usenet improve after the Google Groups halt... sad about that: don't know if/what archives Usenet anymore other than paid providers (trying but some have PAN formatting issues). I also saw some IRC improve after 'Matrix' crash (popularity loss)... some projects such as Mozilla/ FireFox moved there but just lost popularity (some places below 1% WWW usage)--shot themselves in the foot.
favourite NNTP newsgroups
* alt.comics*
* alt.math*
* alt.os.linux.slackware
* alt.spiritual*
* comp.unix.bsd*
* gmane.os.illumos
* rec.arts.comics*
* rec.games.abstract
* rec.drugs.smart (I only use tea/coffee, legal herbs)
* rec.games.frp.dnd*
* rec.games.roguelike.*
* sci.math*
Are you a current Slackware user? I've never used it yet, but I'm always testing different distros on my laptop. I would join a Linux community,
but I've never really had a need to; I've always been able to solve my
Linux issues, and I'd rather not sit and watch the poor Linux souls get bothered and angered by the "normies." I also feel that when I first
started using Linux back in the late 2000s, I was pushed away from the community because I didn't understand how Linux worked; I was asking too
many questions back then.
favourite IRC channels
* #art
* #coders
* #demoscene
* #d&d
* #math & #not-math
* #philosophy
* #pixel
* #science
* #spiritual
* #trax
* #vegetarian & #vegan
* #yoga
I just started my IRC journey a couple of days ago. I joined some of the
most popular channels on EFnet and Libera, but I'm not sure where "home"
will be for me.
The current channels I am subscribed to:
eternal-september.talk (I've had fun talking in here) eternal-september.newusers (I want to make more of an effort to be
welcoming to new users)
eternal-september.test (I'm still testing different Usenet clients and settings, so I make a few posts in here for testing)
alt.irc (For obvious reasons why I'm here.)
I've never been a fan of talking to people who like a specific thing
that I like; I find fans to be gatekeepers who decide who's a "real" fan
or not. For example, Star Wars and Star Trek: I've watched both since I
was a small child (as many of us have), I love them, and I cherish them
both. I cannot stand talking to fans of things I love. Like, tell me
what your childhood was like watching those; how it shaped you as a
person. Apparently, if you're not an expert trivia master, you're not a
real fan. I just don't get it with the gatekeepers. I've had great conversations with fans, but it's always outside of "fan clubs" and in a
more natural environment. It just feels weird stepping into a physical
or digital area designated as a "fan club." Maybe it's me?
What are your favourite desktop NNTP newsreader and IRC clients? I like
PAN, ThunderBird, HexChat, irssi, though would also like KVIRC if one
could put network/channel tabs in one's own order. I sometimes use mIRC
in WINE to view ANSI art channels better, though in principle prefer Free/ Libre/Opensource Software (FLS, OSS, FOSS, FLOSS). I don't like portable
PCs such as laptops, pads/tablets, cellular telephones (none which have mobility of their own) but occasionally use AndChat or 'IRC For Android' which were free/gratis but now hard to find (save copies).
I just started using SeaMonkey and it's certainly my favorite client so
far. I'm not a fan of using a terminal for Usenet and IRC. Maybe I'll
make it a challenge in the future to go 30 days of using Usenet and IRC
in a terminal. Doing so fits into my broader goal of sticking to
open-source software, especially with the code I've been writing lately.
Oh, I've just started getting into ANSI art lately. I'll definitely need
to see if I can find channels for those.
I've been trying to be more aware of being Open Source-based with
software, especially with the code I've been writing lately.
I currently use an iPhone, and I hate that new laws are put in place
every day to control us through our electronic devices. I've been trying
to plan my escape from the smartphone life; I just haven't figured out
how to break the news to my wife yet.
I mostly just read aforementioned newsgroups, so in case I forget this but you'd like a reply, feel free to ping me an email or seek me on IRC.
Hopefully the past four months have treated you well!
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