irc chat / channels

[Fishrock123]

Currently, io.js (or at least myself, since I admin the #io.js channel) has suggested to use #node.js for general node / ecosystem questions, and use #io.js for more dev/project related things.

So far, it's fit nicely into that spot and often hosts good discussions about the project.

@Havvy asked me what might become of it in the future, and I soft proposed we have it redirect to a sort of node-dev channel.

I have registered #node-dev and #nodejs-dev on freenode, but I'm not in a terrible rush to redirect #io.js, it's more of an 'eventually' thing.

@jasnell, @mhdawson, @orangemocha, @robertkowalski, @misterdjules, @geek, @srl295 (did I miss anyone?) if you folks use irc, would you mind participating in #io.js (for now?) for dev things?
I know #libuv used to be used for that a lot, but it's not really a place for it.

[jasnell]

I've no objection. (I just need to train myself to monitor irc more often)

[Qard]

👍 for keeping a separate channel for core dev and hard questions like
memory leak or security debugging.

[silverwind]

+1 on keeping a dev channel. The regular #node.js can get noisy at times.

[jbergstroem]

I guess we should mention gitter as well since it seems to grow in usage.

[Fishrock123]

Gitter is great for those who find it easy for help, but for lots of us it is simply too much extra noise. :/

[jbergstroem]

@Fishrock123 I agree, but for instance the build team seems to have members that only uses gitter. I'd be happy to only stick with IRC as long as it's fine with everyone else.

[Qard]

Gitter is a nice place to discuss fringe topics (like working group subjects) but I think if we used it for core discussion, we'd have to make a separate repo from the main project repo to attach it to, as there would likely be a flood of community discussion and questions in any gitter room attached to the main project repo.

[Fishrock123]

See discussion regarding nodejs/iojs.org#106 -- I don't think moving from irc is a suitable solution.

[orangemocha]

Sure, no objections from me. Just tell me where to go :)

I think it makes sense to keep separate channels for the internal dev discussions vs the extended community/customer discussions.

And if we could use Slack, I would personally be even happier. What was the final argument against it in nodejs/iojs.org#106? That it's hosted by a third-party? Can we still use it for the working groups?

[cjihrig]

Can we still use it for the working groups?

They are autonomous, so I would assume the answer is yes.

[Fishrock123]

Can we still use it for the working groups?
They are autonomous, so I would assume the answer is yes.

Absolutely, if the WG prefers. However, it may be suggested to use something publicly accessible, so either have slack-auto-invite (from like a button) set up, or something like gitter / irc, falling back to email if something needs to be private.

I think it makes sense to keep separate channels for the internal dev discussions vs the extended community/customer discussions.

Right, but I don't think those channels should be in any way private.

And if we could use Slack, I would personally be even happier. What was the final argument against it in nodejs/iojs.org#106? That it's hosted by a third-party? Can we still use it for the working groups?

tl;dr: irc won't just go away

There's also more discussion at nodejs/iojs.org#65

IRC is kinda of general to everyone, the protocol is open, there are lots of clients, and the most people end up being there. Attempting to everyone would be painful to say the least.

It is pretty nitty-gritty though, so having a better web client may be good at some point. iojs.org currently point to https://scrollback.io/iojs/all/all-messages, which isn't perfect, but is better than freenode web chat.

[mikeal]

Slack is still a very poor tool for public discussion. I'm in like 5 different organizations "public" slack and they basically don't work, I only pull them up when I get an email where someone is trying to get ahold of me. I'm in my company's Slack constantly though, it's a great tool for that.

[Fishrock123]

Ah looks like I pinged the wrong person originally; that should be @mhdawson.