As a result of an assignment for computing and the problems associated with that, like the submission server going down, I’ve started to have a look at IRC. From talking to some mates while doing the assignment, I found out that there is an IRC server for the uni, with the particular focus on this subject.

Having missed the chance to use this, I spent the next day setting up an IRC client. I decided Quassel as my client, as it has a core and client approach, meaning I don’t need to set up a bouncer if I want to receive a history when I decide to join. It also has a pretty decent android app, which helps if I want to chat from my phone. I set up the core from a server and was quickly able to connect to it remotely. It took me a while to sign in to freenode again as its been a while since I’ve used IRC.

I also looked at using a matrix client as it also has history functionality. However I found it more difficult to connect to the servers I wanted and to identify my nickname. Because of this I decided to go with a more traditional client. Maybe in a few years, if I try it again it’ll work better for me.

While its good to be able to see the relevant chat from uni, I thought it’d be good to join a few other rooms as well, especially as I’ve gone through the work (albeit minimal) of setting up a client and bouncer. I started looking online for good suggestions and joined a few rooms. I’m still not too sure how the interactions work over IRC, especially as it seems fairly chaotic with so many people talking at the same time.

I also need to figure out how the different roles work in rooms and what the various letters associated with nicknames mean. It’s all a bit obscure but should make more sense eventually. It seems like a pretty decent alternative to traditional chat applications, more like a forum than a direct chat with friends. I think I’ll keep an eye on it as it seems like an interesting alternative to everything else at the moment, even if its a bit more archaic, but that hasn’t stopped me before.