I noticed we didn’t have an IRC channel up. Since IRC is a well-established, open standard I figured it would be a good idea to have one, so I’ve taken the liberty of setting one up on the OFTC network (as best I know how, if someone who is more familiar with the technology can confirm I’ve set it up right that’d be fantastic).
I for one think we should depend more on open, standardized technologies/protocols over proprietary/semi-closed platforms. It seems wise for longevity. IRC is old, true; but it does exactly what it is designed to do, which is relay Internet chat messages, and it does it well and in a federated, open way.
But the most important difference, I think, between it and say, Discord or Telegram, is that it’s not owned by a company or a conglomerate; and while I’ll acknowledge that it’s not as feature-rich, those features can be supplemented by other protocols (SFTP, SIP, BTP, the list goes on) that we can very easily build into our web3 systems since these protocols are already standardized and well-defined rather than us being forced to depend on an API.
We’re all about protocols on web3; let’s incorporate and extend some of the existing ones to create a more robust infrastructure for ourselves. I’d love to have more discussion on this topic, and I think the investment in time will be worthwhile. I’m even working up a full proposal for such an infrastructure.
EDIT: Personally, I recommend connecting to OFTC via Tor to protect your identity, but I leave that to your discretion.