As a result of this meeting and our review, the FSF and GNU have decided to relocate our IRC channels to Libera.Chat. Effective immediately, Libera is the official home of our channels, which include but are not limited to all those in the #fsf, #gnu, and #libreplanet namespaces.
On June 25th, at 10:00 AM EDT (UTC 14:00), we plan to forward any channels remaining in the #fsf, #gnu, and #libreplanet namespaces on the Freenode network to their corresponding ##fsf, ##gnu, and ##libreplanet counterparts. As per Freenode policy, channels with the ## prefix are unofficial “topical” channels, and accordingly, they will not be moderated by GNU or FSF staff.
Please note that the irc.gnu.org address, which has historically pointed to the Freenode network, will be disabled on June 25th, to give any users still connecting with this address sufficient notice.
It would be nice if they reforwarded irc.gnu.org to libera chat, in the future.
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Yeah… especially since GNU or the FSF isn’t some small 1-person hobby project, but basically one of the biggest free software projects in the world. They have their own code hosting service, why not a simple IRC server?
No regrets on monopolies, and no this time libera staff took measures to can’t be bought
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Well… https://status.fsf.org/notice/4214348
That was quick.
Is there a suitable bridge between Libera.chat and Matrix? Would be cool if everything was accessible through Matrix clients.
Indeed there is! Just join a channel like
from your Matrix client.This bridge is not officially released yet, but it is very usable already.
See: https://matrix.org/blog/posts#liberachat-irc-bridge-work-continues
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If you refer to matrix.org when you say “their servers”, the entire point of Matrix being decentralized, E2EE, and open is the fact that does not need to happen. Use an alternative homeserver, or host one yourself. Plus, not to mention one of Matrix’s main selling points is unifying communication platforms, which is exactly what is happening here.
Unless there’s something I’m missing of course, which I won’t dismiss as a possibility, but the fact you moderate the community for XMPP/Jabber doesn’t exactly save me from thinking there might be somewhat of a bias at play here.
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Doesn’t libera use their own homeserver (e.g
instead of#example-libera:matrix.org)? I haven’t heard anything about libera’s Matrix homeserver being a forwarder from matrix.org, TIL I suppose.Oh, I see what you’re talking about now.
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In mind with what other people here are saying. Pushing matrix/element for stuff like this would be much better for the community. GNU and FSF still using IRC just sets up so only like hardcore oldschool enthusiasts that can get engaged in the movement which is a group that will die off pretty soon.
and the bridge stuff is not a viable option either. Or if so I’d like to see matrix bridged with IRC with matrix being main-
(I love XMPP but I don’t really see it happening and pushing XMPP is like pushing IRC at this point)
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Not really. People expect this and that from software and you have to play into that. IRC is antiquated and dying
If you want libre software to be a part of mainstream society you have to work for a group grander than just programmers. Continuing to use IRC is killing the community in the longrun in my opinion.
Edit: IRC is for most people 15-20 years older than me something they used when they were kids and never want to go back to. Pople younger than that aren’t nostalgic enough of accept how it works to use
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yeah, if they made a discord copy or something that is opensource and decentralised it would be much better.
I’m not old enough to have used IRC for years. I’ve used every once in a while and thought it was cool to try a old technology like that. But when I found out people are happy with the current state of IRC it quickly soured, the same as when I got to talk with people in XMPP world.
I’ve used KiwiIRC, but it is terrible branding, terrible most things that got to do with drawing people in.
IRC isn’t made for anyone but people but people like yourself. And insisting to use such a technology is excluding more people than it is including. Like how many non-programmers use IRC? none, none at all.
this is not acceptable to push for a organization if you want the organization to be gathering more than pure enthusiast people from the 80s and 90s, which is a very small demographic.
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It’s not nice, it’s not convinient. No one but old school enthusiasts use IRC and they get thrown off using kiwi. It’s not enough having a nice graphical assety in a chat. It has to build on the communication strategy and branding strategy. It has to have an experience where you feel welcome.
I consider the whole IRC netwo0rk very bad in this regard and don’t have much of a future
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All respect to the GNU project but please lest’s replace IRC once and for all with Matrix.
blasphemy
With XMPP
I mean, XMPP is not a bad idea, having that said, there’s a thriving community of matrix users.
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I don’t think i have seen a real problem with the Matrix protocol, it works nicely for me, many open source projects are opting to use Matrix instead of XMPP, in that sense, it’s not about which community is more vocal, Matrix is just being seen as an ideal replacement for Discord and IRC at the same time.
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Honestly, i wouldn’t say that people are switching away from XMPP in favor of Matrix… because i think most FLOSS projects never switched from IRC to XMPP to begin with, i don’t have proofs, but i don’t have any doubts, i assume that most projects switched from IRC to Matrix because XMPP was never an option to begin with.
No
I see no reasons to keep using IRC, it’s not as safe or private as Matrix or XMPP is.
