Why IRC is better than Real Life (2000)

[bsuvc]

I am sure IRC was good for some people, but I can say for me personally it was a net negative and real life was so, so much better. I wish I never used IRC.

I also personally witnessed multiple friends who dropped out of college due to IRC addiction in the early 1990s.

I am curious if anyone else has a similar memory of IRC.

[squidsoup]

I met my wife on IRC and migrated to New Zealand as a result. Worked out pretty well for me/us, well over twenty years later.

[neom]

QuakeNet in the 90s, I don't know what to say, thank you? It was high school for me, like, I got through high school, got into computers in high school, have great memories of that time: because of QuakeNet in the 90s. hackernews community is the closest things I've felt to that since then, but it's pretty hard to beat QuakenNet in the 90s.

[Anonyneko]

Depends a lot on where you were growing up, and what kind of community surrounded you. For me IRC and the internet at large was a salvation, but the 90s in my country of origin were... interesting times. Being on the internet was much healthier and much less hazardous than most of the things real life focused people in my age group were doing back then.

[cykros]

There are people on IRC who I've maintained contact with for longer than anyone I can think of off the top of my head aside from family members. Many now through other channels (thanks to the Discord wrecking ball), though some still on IRC.

Hard to say how many intellectual rabbit holes I've gone down as a result.

I can say for sure life would have looked very, very different without it.

[ASalazarMX]

> I also personally witnessed multiple friends who dropped out of college due to IRC addiction in the early 1990s.

I think there's always a segment of any population that will get addicted to anything, to the point of dropping family, friends, school, or work. Blame it on culture, nurture, genetics, unfulfillment, or simply lack of self control, but it always happens.

Blaming IRC, which is a pretty neutral outlet, is unfair. This is specially true today, as we have things designed and constantly honed to be as addictive as possible.

[corndoge]

Perhaps it was the experience of irc which led you to appreciate real life so much more when you finally did engage in it

[Obscurity4340]

> irc addiction

How quaint

[Guestmodinfo]

Even though I really like irc because I can get answers really quickly from helpful people but it's a net negative I have felt if you linger on and listen to people conversing. IRC is good for short help needs but if you spend lot of time then it's net negative. I feel for the helpful ppl on various irc channels who are there to help out of their own goodness. They must be having a lot of net negative

[lacunary]

can't ride a netsplit to takeover and +m a huge channel IRL

[boca_honey]

This made me feel so nostalgic. I haven’t heard the term "netsplit" in probably 25 years. It’s amazing how things that once seemed so important get relegated not just to history, but sometimes to total oblivion.

Well, almost. Apparently, it has its own wikipedia article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netsplit

[bigfatkitten]

Or CTCP PING users with cheap modems with +++ATH0

[_neil]

damn right

[goshx]

Most of the real life friends that I still have today I met on IRC.

[blondie9x]

This made me really nostalgic about mIRC. I miss Dalnet. The colors of IRC. How fast and reliable it was. The rankings of members and trying to build credibility with the community to move up in the channel.

Fun times.

[ASalazarMX]

What I don't miss is the plain text protocol. These days it would be a gold mine for tracking and surveillance.

[dSebastien]

Good memories endlessly tweaking configs and scripts.

No wonder we're around here now I guess

[brandon272]

I had the same feeling and I had the same experience on DALnet.

[ChrisArchitect]

Related:

Why Real Life is better than IRC (2000)

https://everything2.com/node/e2node/Why%20Real%20Life%20is%2...

(https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46559266)

[ranger_danger]

Missing "(2000)" in the title.

[slater]

And also a (dupe):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46559266

[pidgeon_lover]

I don't get IRC - it seems to be antiquated unencrypted live group chats, with no usable clients. Group chats are useless for finding information and for communicating in between 10 ongoing conversations.

Web forums make sense and are searchable.

[Guestmodinfo]

IRC gives quick reply to whatever your queries are. In my extremely limited time on IRC, I have found very helpful and very prompt people.