From Newsgroup: alt.irc

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 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.

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'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*

favourite IRC channels
* #art
* #coders
* #demoscene
* #d&d
* #math & #not-math
* #philosophy
* #pixel
* #science
* #spiritual
* #trax
* #vegetarian & #vegan
* #yoga

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 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.
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.irc

On 2/27/26 9:39 AM, David Chmelik wrote:

I used to do 30 KB forum posts

Yep. Checks out.

Now I'll be frank, and I hope I'm not offensive: I hard hard time to
make sense of your essay. Sorry to say that.

I'm quite sure it does not depend on my attention span. Just, sometimes
being short and to the point helps.f

What are your favourite desktop NNTP newsreader and IRC clients?

I'm currently using Thunderbird. I'm not completely fond of it, but
it is quick to set up, and I don't have too much free time in my hands.

slrn if I'm on a terminal.

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.

--
High Crew
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.irc

On Fri, 27 Feb 2026 21:32:51 +0100, highcrew wrote:

On 2/27/26 9:39 AM, David Chmelik wrote:
I'm quite sure it does not depend on my attention span. Just, sometimes
being short and to the point helps.f

different way of saying same thing?
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.irc

On 02/27/2026 02:39 AM, David Chmelik wrote:

What are your favourite desktop NNTP newsreader and IRC clients?

A thunderbird fork called FossaMail and xchat. The classics work fine.

IRC is the text chat layer of the internet which is the platform.
Including all that multimedia stuff directly in IRC and hosting state
and user content on the server is a terrible idea for many social,
legal, and resource usage reasons. IRC should just be a bunch of inet
sockets with subscribed IPs if it is to survive. That is the reason it
*has* survived all these years. And indeed I'm part of many vibrant communities on many networks. Though I admit less than in 2004.

IRCv3 extensions aim to do this kind of state and content and
handholding for clients on smartphones that can't hold open a tcp
connection. And many IRCv3 features are being adopted by networks of consequence like Libera. So your wish for a more non-geek accessible IRC
may come true.
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.irc

On 3/5/26 5:31 AM, superkuh wrote:

IRCv3 extensions aim to do this kind of state and content and
handholding for clients on smartphones that can't hold open a tcp connection. And many IRCv3 features are being adopted by networks of consequence like Libera. So your wish for a more non-geek accessible IRC
may come true.

Hard to strike a balance, don't you agree?

I'm not sure I want to see more "non-geeks" on IRC, as experience shows
that good wine is found in small barrels.

On the other hand it seems like younger geeks are not so prone to IRC
these days.

Old story.
--
High Crew
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.irc

On 2026-02-27, highcrew <high.crew3868@fastmail.com> wrote:

On 2/27/26 9:39 AM, David Chmelik wrote:

I used to do 30 KB forum posts

Yep. Checks out.

Now I'll be frank, and I hope I'm not offensive: I hard hard time to
make sense of your essay. Sorry to say that.

I'm quite sure it does not depend on my attention span. Just, sometimes being short and to the point helps.f

What are your favourite desktop NNTP newsreader and IRC clients?

I'm currently using Thunderbird. I'm not completely fond of it, but
it is quick to set up, and I don't have too much free time in my hands.

slrn if I'm on a terminal.

Slrn even if I am in a gui

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.

Ahh IRC, the good old days. Haven't been on IRC since who knows. I hear
it is mostly dead now.
--
Tom Mix
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.irc

On 3/22/26 1:28 AM, Tom Mix wrote:

Ahh IRC, the good old days. Haven't been on IRC since who knows. I hear
it is mostly dead now.

For sure it is not as populated as it used to, but far from being
dead, IMO. :)
--
High Crew
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.irc

highcrew <high.crew3868@fastmail.com> wrote:

On 3/22/26 1:28 AM, Tom Mix wrote:

Ahh IRC, the good old days. Haven't been on IRC since who knows. I hear
it is mostly dead now.

For sure it is not as populated as it used to, but far from being
dead, IMO. :)

I am using IRC to get fast support for linux applications.
--
Luc
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.irc

LucLan <address@is.invalid> wrote:

I am using IRC to get fast support for linux applications.

Whereas normies simply ask ChatGPT or DeepSeek, which shows how
AI disunites people by making communication between humans less
valuable It forces everybody into their own bubble and feeding
them LLM slop.

(De)generative AI has even infected software:

<https://codeberg.org/small-hack/open-slopware>
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.irc

superkuh <superkuh@superkuh.com> wrote:

On 02/27/2026 02:39 AM, David Chmelik wrote:

What are your favourite desktop NNTP newsreader and IRC
clients?

A thunderbird fork called FossaMail and xchat. The classics
work fine.

For NNTP:

1. Sylpheed (mail and news client),
2. tin,
3. XNews.

For IRC:

1. HexChat,
2. ZoiteChat,
3. WeeChat.

IRCv3 extensions aim to do this kind of state and content and
handholding for clients on smartphones that can't hold open a
tcp connection. And many IRCv3 features are being adopted by
networks of consequence like Libera. So your wish for a more
non-geek accessible IRC may come true.

Do you mean some bouncer-like features? Anyway, IRC is best
experienced on a real PC, with a real monitor and keyboard.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.irc

ant <ant@tilde.club> wrote:

LucLan <address@is.invalid> wrote:

I am using IRC to get fast support for linux applications.

Whereas normies simply ask ChatGPT or DeepSeek, which shows how
AI disunites people by making communication between humans less
valuable It forces everybody into their own bubble and feeding
them LLM slop.

(De)generative AI has even infected software:

<https://codeberg.org/small-hack/open-slopware>

and you said what?!
--
Luc
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2