Has it ever been considered here @6502.org to host an IRC channel?

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65Org16:https://github.com/ElEctric-EyE/verilog-6502

I had to ask what that was, and the answer that came back was that it's some kind of chat thing. Can you tell us more about it. I had not heard of it until now. I would hope that it does not have the side effect of not archiving info that would be valuable years later. Some forums make it very difficult to find and reference things that were explained years ago. The MoHPC calculator forum is one, but there are non-technical forums that are far worse. I hope a good intention here would not come with that penalty. You could ask Mike.

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http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

IRC == Internet Relay Chat. It's effectively a real time chat room. There are several large networks of servers that support IRC chat rooms, freenode is a very popular one.

You need an IRC client to connect and once connected to the server, you can connect to any of many different channels.

Channels CAN be logged, but it typically takes a Bot to do so. A Bot is simply an automated IRC client. There are several different kinds. Some will randomly interject in to the conversation, some can catch keywords and provide information or links for common questions, others can simply record conversations and post them to a web form.

There's other aspects (administration rights, passwords to connect, etc.) that I don't deal much with as I'm more a user than a creator of channels. But anyone can create a channel.

OMG

It's not some kind of chat thing it's, like, the original chat thing.
That's kinda like saying you never heard of usenet or email

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRC

Could set up a chat server for the purpose.

It's possible to archive what appears in a channel but I'd guess it's
more trouble than it's worth (it's usually mostly rubbish that no one
would want to archive in my experience) but people do.

There's also forum software that includes chat.

I'd suggest that if you saw something worth preserving it should
just be mentioned in a post here.

Just to be clear, there is NO reason to set up your own server. Freenode will happily host one. In fact, many ISPs do not allow IRC servers.

True it's not necessary, but it would give you complete control.

You don't even need a chat client there are web interfaces.
Mibbit is one:
http://mibbit.com/?channel=%236502org&s ... newnet.net

(choose a nick and click go)

Opera has a simple IRC client built in.

As to archiving, it's a bit like PMs on the forum (or indeed, emails between members) - if things get interesting, it's nice to move into a forum thread, so it's archived, searchable and visible.

Or, if not move the conversation, summarise and post updates on progress.

Cheers
E

Just use Freenode, it's easy and there are lots of other tech channels there. It's the most used one anyway. For archiving, use a bot to log it somewhere - that's common practice too and the bot is often just a Perl script.

-Tor

Is that to say it's private then, and not like a chat room where everyone logged in is in on it? If it's private, there would be no reason to make it searchable and visible to all.

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http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

It's public, normally, but ephemeral. Only by logging and then publishing the logs do you get a record which might be searchable.

IRC transcripts are often somewhat incoherent and interleaved because of the informal and realtime nature. So a writeup would be better than an transcript!

If you've never used one, I would rec downloading an IRCclient and trying it out. I used to use mIRC...

I just thought it would be cool to have a 6502.Org channel with all the sub-channels reflect the main Topics here on the site, maybe in bold+cap's. As Whartung mentioned, anyone can create a channel.

I'm surprised noone has ever brought this up before!

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65Org16:https://github.com/ElEctric-EyE/verilog-6502

More places to check for stuff isn't necessarily an advantage. If two or three people are in the middle of a cooperative project, then some kind of chat system can be a bonus. But a record in a central place is good for future passers by. It's better to let the forum conversations stand as their own record than to hope that someone will write up a good story later.

Cheers
Ed

IRC isn't a place to check stuff, it's a place to interact in real time. A 6502 channel would just be one channel, there's no reason to have more. IRC is particularly appropriate for burning technical questions, like when you really would rather not wait for a forum post. But a 6502 channel would likely have such low traffic as to not be really a viable place for on the spot technical help.

The IRC can foster a separate community from something like a forum or mailing list, but it also can make a community tighter, but even still the IRC tends to have a flavor all its own. Folks that talk on the phone are almost always a little tighter than those interacting on a forum or mailing list -- but it really depends on the people, and their openness.

Finally, of course, IRC requires folks to be on at the same time, unlike a forum. But it's not untoward for folks in Europe to be sharing rooms with folks in the US.

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

I guess no one is interested (at least no one's tried the mibbit link)



Freenode has it's own web interface:

http://webchat.freenode.net/