# When will gbatemp irc be back?



## Shadow#1 (Oct 15, 2021)

When or did the port/address change?


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## linuxares (Oct 15, 2021)

Hopefully never. Serves no purpose imho


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## SG854 (Oct 15, 2021)

I agree with the Human above me


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## Shadow#1 (Oct 15, 2021)

SG854 said:


> I agree with the Human above me


I'm not human?


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## SG854 (Oct 15, 2021)

Shadow#1 said:


> I'm not human?


You are a shadow not a living breathing Human


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## WG481 (Oct 15, 2021)

SG854 said:


> You are a shadow not a living breathing Human


Well if that ain't the darndest thing I ever did see.


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## Costello (Oct 15, 2021)

I visited it a few weeks ago and no one seemed to be active.

I disabled it yesterday. Didn't get any reaction from anyone until now.

If no one uses it I might as well keep it disabled because it costs money.


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## Shadow#1 (Oct 15, 2021)

Costello said:


> I visited it a few weeks ago and no one seemed to be active.
> 
> I disabled it yesterday. Didn't get any reaction from anyone until now.
> 
> If no one uses it I might as well keep it disabled because it costs money.


Ok good answer and good idea


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## CeeDee (Oct 15, 2021)

As much as I miss the era of IRC, with things like Discord and a built-in IRC-esque chat, I can't imagine it serves much use nowadays here.


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## FAST6191 (Oct 15, 2021)

Costello said:


> I visited it a few weeks ago and no one seemed to be active.
> 
> I disabled it yesterday. Didn't get any reaction from anyone until now.
> 
> If no one uses it I might as well keep it disabled because it costs money.


I thought it was a random issue or connection issue my end, not a shutdown.

There is a core group of about 10 people that drift in and out, and a whole bunch more idlers and random visitors in spates.

If it is a separate server then fair enough. If it can be a container then it would be appreciated.
Failing that maybe time to go back to an umbrella server rather than self hosted. Would rather it be one with a nickserv and such but if it has to be efnet again then so it goes.
If it is gone for good my power company probably hates you as my machine will probably get the idle so sleep mode turned back on.


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## Shadow#1 (Oct 15, 2021)

FAST6191 said:


> I thought it was a random issue or connection issue my end, not a shutdown.
> 
> There is a core group of about 10 people that drift in and out, and a whole bunch more idlers and random visitors in spates.
> 
> ...


Well there is discord now so there is that


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## FAST6191 (Oct 15, 2021)

Shadow#1 said:


> Well there is discord now so there is that


I dislike discord and consider it a woefully lacking replacement. No open source client/protocol, and what is there is demanding compared to other things. No scope to make your own server. Services lacking compared to what can be done with IRC servers and scripts/bots in said same. Censorship as they decide what can be talked about (no server of your own after all and on their platform)... all bad news from where I sit and why I like chat protocols that are at least open in protocol, the ability to self host a server ("your server, your rules" and all that).
To that end I await its joining teamspeak, ventrillo, mumble, skype before too terribly long in "what's that?", "yeah I have it to speak to my grandparents" and "oh yeah I remember that".


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## m00k00 (Oct 15, 2021)

FAST6191 said:


> I dislike discord and consider it a woefully lacking replacement. No open source client/protocol, and what is there is demanding compared to other things. No scope to make your own server. Services lacking compared to what can be done with IRC servers and scripts/bots in said same. Censorship as they decide what can be talked about (no server of your own after all and on their platform)... all bad news from where I sit and why I like chat protocols that are at least open in protocol, the ability to self host a server ("your server, your rules" and all that).
> To that end I await its joining teamspeak, ventrillo, mumble, skype before too terribly long in "what's that?", "yeah I have it to speak to my grandparents" and "oh yeah I remember that".


I agree with this person. Discord is all nice and shiny ... until they close your "server" and you realize you can do shit about it, as you cannot host your own Server


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## Smiths (Oct 15, 2021)

Costello said:


> I visited it a few weeks ago and no one seemed to be active.
> 
> I disabled it yesterday. Didn't get any reaction from anyone until now.
> 
> If no one uses it I might as well keep it disabled because it costs money.



i will find you.


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## Smiths (Oct 15, 2021)

FAST6191 said:


> I dislike discord and consider it a woefully lacking replacement. No open source client/protocol, and what is there is demanding compared to other things. No scope to make your own server. Services lacking compared to what can be done with IRC servers and scripts/bots in said same. Censorship as they decide what can be talked about (no server of your own after all and on their platform)... all bad news from where I sit and why I like chat protocols that are at least open in protocol, the ability to self host a server ("your server, your rules" and all that).
> To that end I await its joining teamspeak, ventrillo, mumble, skype before too terribly long in "what's that?", "yeah I have it to speak to my grandparents" and "oh yeah I remember that".


discord is IRC for people who want candy fed to them. i'm gonna boycott you, Costello. You will hear from my imaginary attorneys. Taking away one of my desktop windows like that.  This is worse than that really bad thing in history.


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## SIX10 (Oct 15, 2021)

I didn't know the GBATemp IRC ever existed (I don't think it's advertised anywhere on the site), but if I did, I would of joined. Also really anti-discord, and find that it doesn't really fit the GBATemp aesthetic(?). Discord feels so soulless and flat. Then again, I'm one of those freaks who would absolutely kill for a retro GBATemp theme.


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## Deleted member 514389 (Oct 15, 2021)

Smiths said:


> discord is IRC for people who want candy fed to them. i'm gonna boycott you, Costello. You will hear from my imaginary attorneys. Taking away one of my desktop windows like that.  This is worse than that really bad thing in history.


While I don't get the Rage...
I do get that sentiment.

All people that asked me to "get discord" sofar seemed to fit into the "CandyGlutton" category well.

IRC is nice. Even the DS had clients for it (I think Dragonminded DSO had one too).

@Costello:
Maybe ask the 10 ppl who use it to "split the bill" ?
I'm sure Smiths here has spare change laying around to save their beloved IRC.


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## linuxares (Oct 15, 2021)

notrea11y said:


> While I don't get the Rage...
> I do get that sentiment.
> 
> All people that asked me to "get discord" sofar seemed to fit into the "CandyGlutton" category well.
> ...


They can literally go to any other IRC Network out there.


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## AleronIves (Oct 15, 2021)

FAST6191 said:


> I dislike discord and consider it a woefully lacking replacement. No open source client/protocol


While it's hardly a full solution, third party clients do exist. Pidgin can access Discord with a plugin, and there have been some attempts to make Discord usable over IRC, as well. There's also Fosscord, which aims to be an open alternative to Discord that is also cross compatible with it. Fosscord will eventually let you host your own servers that the Discord staff can't control.


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## jurassicplayer (Oct 15, 2021)

The IRC had a couple of people who were relatively active (surkow, FAST, breith, jdbye, inf, fmlatghor, HarmonExtended, idiotkenza, duck, donkeykhan) and maybe a little more than double that of just lurkers including myself. Not every day active, but roughly every two to three days there's a conversation or at least a greeting.

I'm with FAST if it's possible to keep it up as a container or something in another machine or just a channel in another server even though I almost never actively look at it. I just can't bring myself to entirely leave any of my IRC chats.


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## Shadow#1 (Oct 15, 2021)

When or did the port/address change?


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## The Catboy (Oct 15, 2021)

I didn't use the IRC but I can see why a lot of people would like to still have it as a function. Not everyone wants to use Discord and giving another option for them to use a chat system, like IRC, would be nice.


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## Smiths (Oct 16, 2021)

there are other servers that have nickserv and aren't EFNet. You'd have less controls since it's not your own IRC server.

IRCHighway has chanserv and all that. just encourage migration there or something if it costs all that money i love you costello


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## Seriel (Oct 16, 2021)

I understand exactly why someone would prefer IRC over Discord, but if its for this community then whats wrong with the new Chat system on the forum that replaces the shoutbox? (https://gbatemp.net/chat)
Genuine question because I'm genuinely curious, it seems liike a solid replacement but there probably is some reasoning or nostgalgia that I'm missing.


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## linuxares (Oct 16, 2021)

The Catboy said:


> I didn't use the IRC but I can see why a lot of people would like to still have it as a function. Not everyone wants to use Discord and giving another option for them to use a chat system, like IRC, would be nice.


It's impossible for us moderators to mod every place as well. Also it's a bad business to keep something that costs a lot of money that few people use. When the same function would work with a chatroom on this very website.


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## Costello (Oct 16, 2021)

if anyone else is willing to run an IRC server I'm OK to point the DNS at you.

Send me the details via PM and I'll pick the most reasonable one


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## Surkow (Oct 16, 2021)

Costello said:


> I visited it a few weeks ago and no one seemed to be active.
> 
> I disabled it yesterday. Didn't get any reaction from anyone until now.
> 
> If no one uses it I might as well keep it disabled because it costs money.


As a user, whenever an IRC server is down the normal response is to wait it out until it reconnects. Sometimes port or domain/address changes are required. And that is exactly what I've been waiting for - for it to reconnect.

When you are joining iRC for over a decade this is the normal response.



Shadow#1 said:


> Well there is discord now so there is that


Sadly enough Discord is a fad. It has a low barrier of entry and it attracts many people. But due to its closed nature it will never be a replacement for IRC. All I need is a good text based protocol that is accessible via any client under the sun.

I'll wait for the Matrix protocol to gain enough traction and then use a Matrix-IRC bridge to continue my presence on IRC.

IRC isn't the best protocol for chat, but it survived for over 33 years unlike the majority of the other chat systems out there. I primarily visit dozens of servers and over 50 channels to keep in touch with the people who reside there. GBAtemp IRC used to be one of those.


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## jurassicplayer (Oct 16, 2021)

Seriel said:


> I understand exactly why someone would prefer IRC over Discord, but if its for this community then whats wrong with the new Chat system on the forum that replaces the shoutbox? (https://gbatemp.net/chat)
> Genuine question because I'm genuinely curious, it seems liike a solid replacement but there probably is some reasoning or nostgalgia that I'm missing.


The forum chat doesn't have a client and is worse than IRC or discord and can't really integrate with any normal desktop app that someone may already be using to connect.

@linuxares: Honestly if it were a migration of just the current people who frequent the chat, it wouldn't be a problem to have one of the few regulars as just a moderator of the IRC. Most of the people that hang out in the IRC don't need to be moderated for anything. At worst, maybe it's like a rare bot or someone who's ticked off at gbatemp.


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## Surkow (Oct 16, 2021)

I think many of the people who were regulars can operate and moderate their own IRC channels. There is no requirement for outside moderation.

The primary reason to retain the server is to avoid fracturing the existing community. You can always attempt a repeat of the Freenode server drama. The move to a different server (Libera.Chat) was painful and destroyed a large number of communities.


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## Smiths (Oct 16, 2021)

Costello said:


> if anyone else is willing to run an IRC server I'm OK to point the DNS at you.
> 
> Send me the details via PM and I'll pick the most reasonable one



i get the modding aspect of it though. unless you have moderators on this site who enjoyed IRC you're not going to find new ones who want to take up that responsibility.

but as said above, IRC has survived for a long long time and some of us are in channels that are down to 2 other people but that's the "room" we sit in.  It's the original "group DM" that people can pop in and out of.  

it's also available everywhere. Web-based chat is not a replacement for literally SSHing via any device somewhere and loading IRSSI connected to ZNC or whatever your preferred method is. 




linuxares said:


> It's impossible for us moderators to mod every place as well. Also it's a bad business to keep something that costs a lot of money that few people use. When the same function would work with a chatroom on this very website.


Again, it comes down to moderating the channel/network.  I don't know what the $$$ figure is.  Figured it was low-bandwith crap you could run off your existing hosting.


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## FAST6191 (Oct 16, 2021)

Sadly my hosting right now is shared hosting (I only need token websites and files 99.9% of the time) so no real scope to run an IRC container/server and my home internet/power is not really reliable enough to stick a pi on it or something.




Smiths said:


> IRCHighway has chanserv and all that. just encourage migration there or something if it costs all that money i love you costello



Is IRChighway standard in most clients nowadays? It is one of the few other servers I am always on so would be happy enough to set up #gbatemp/#gbatemp.net on that but when loading it up with other clients over the years I have often had to go fetch ports/addresses for it and if we can spare that for those joining I might be inclined to look elsewhere.



SIX10 said:


> I didn't know the GBATemp IRC ever existed (I don't think it's advertised anywhere on the site), but if I did, I would of joined.


Its general existence predates the site but after efnet got annoying to use it went for own servers. It did used to be on the front page but got lost in a reshuffle so was mostly those that dug deep or that already knew at that point. Probably added to why it also appeared more inactive during Costello's sampling as fresh blood as it were is needed to keep conversation flowing.


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## AleronIves (Oct 16, 2021)

Surkow said:


> Sadly enough Discord is a fad.


Yes, and like all fads, it will end eventually. I used Pidgin for AIM, YIM, and MSN, all of which are dead now. Now I use Pidgin for Discord, which will sooner or later go the way of previous closed protocols.

Protocol fads aren't too bad, as long as you find a way to isolate yourself from the ugly interfaces they try to foist on you. I'm happy to use Discord as long as I can continue to use my lightweight client instead of the dreadful, bloated Electron monstrosity that Discord wants me to use. When Discord dies, I will hopefully be able to use the next protocol fad in Pidgin, so the change will make very little difference to me, as my chats will continue to look the same as they have for the last 10+ years.


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## Smiths (Oct 16, 2021)

FAST6191 said:


> Is IRChighway standard in most clients nowadays? It is one of the few other servers I am always on so would be happy enough to set up #gbatemp/#gbatemp.net on that but when loading it up with other clients over the years I have often had to go fetch ports/addresses for it and if we can spare that for those joining I might be inclined to look elsewhere.



it can be joined from a lot of clients.  I quickly registered #gbatemp.net/#gbatemp with chanserv there.  it has a lot less shit than EFNet and has felt more stable.

i'm in no mood to be an IRC moderator but if a lot of the GBATemp stuff can be ported easily then y'know... may not be horrible.  People did a good job banning/etc. on the old network.


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## Deleted member 549260 (Oct 17, 2021)

Costello said:


> I visited it a few weeks ago and no one seemed to be active.
> 
> I disabled it yesterday. Didn't get any reaction from anyone until now.
> 
> If no one uses it I might as well keep it disabled because it costs money.


This is unfortunate. Although I haven't been that active in #gbatemp.net, I was using it often to message mlc about gt, my Ghost Trick RE project. If I need to run my own ircd or use XMPP instead, so be it. But it least I know what happened. I agree with FAST's points. Why didn't I react 'till recently? Because I have a life and first assumed it was a temporary downtime.

This is disheartening.


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## VinsCool (Oct 17, 2021)

This thread is the best representation of taking something for granted, then complain as soon as a change happened.

The gbatemp admins don't owe the users the services, the services are offered based on the demand and actual use, and if the IRC was taken down because the user base was summarised to 3 users idle for months, it's simply not worth keeping, in my honest opinion.

IRC lived for 3 decades, and so what? If you only claim this for bragging rights, good for you, if no one used a car for 50 years and bragged owning it in their garage in perfect condition, I'm sure it would be just as impressive, but for what purpose really?

Imagine a restaurant at the end of your street, if it has customers for decades, then someday less and less people except the handful of very old customers still came, things would eventually become unsustainable for the very few people who still came, so what happens usually? Not too unrealistic to make 2+2 and know 4 means it's going out of business, no matter how upset the regular customers may be, that's just how life works, and I admit I hate it too.


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## Costello (Oct 17, 2021)

I can still turn the server back on guys.
The number of reactions here seems to prove that the server was still in use. 

Again I made the assumption that no one was using it anymore because :
- I logged in and I didn’t see anyone there
- I asked around and I was told it was barely used anymore
- everyone is on discord, telegram, etc. 

But this thread seems to confirm that there is still demand. I’ll do what it takes to reactivate the server soon then.


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## Smiths (Oct 17, 2021)

VinsCool said:


> This thread is the best representation of taking something for granted, then complain as soon as a change happened.
> 
> The gbatemp admins don't owe the users the services, the services are offered based on the demand and actual use, and if the IRC was taken down because the user base was summarised to 3 users idle for months, it's simply not worth keeping, in my honest opinion.
> 
> ...



how old are you?


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## Smiths (Oct 17, 2021)

Costello said:


> I can still turn the server back on guys.
> The number of reactions here seems to prove that the server was still in use.
> 
> Again I made the assumption that no one was using it anymore because :
> ...



how much does it cost to run Costello? send me a DM.


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## VinsCool (Oct 17, 2021)

Smiths said:


> how old are you?


Old enough to get tired of people in general, and just old enough to also be passively watching the world burn with a lovely grin, but that's hardly relevant to this thread, or the fact my reply was mostly composed of real world observations, is it?

Plus, it looks like the situation goes into favourable hands once again, so in the end, everyone dies happy, like they should be  

That reminds me I have not actually used IRC in a really long time... If remember correctly, I just stopped logging in because there was literally nothing happening for long periods, sometime for several days in a row, lol

I probably have lost all my Hexchat setup since, anyway.


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## rmorris003 (Oct 17, 2021)

oh how i miss the irc days of grabbing stuff before torrents


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## Costello (Oct 17, 2021)

Smiths said:


> how much does it cost to run Costello? send me a DM.


about $5 per month or something.

I've turned it back on, is it working now?


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## Shadow#1 (Oct 15, 2021)

When or did the port/address change?


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## Shadow#1 (Oct 17, 2021)

It's not back on?


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## Costello (Oct 17, 2021)

Shadow#1 said:


> It's not back on?


what port should it be running on?


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## Shadow#1 (Oct 17, 2021)

Costello said:


> what port should it be running on?


6697


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## enarky (Oct 17, 2021)

My irssi has been sitting there more or less idle for the past couple of years, but there was always someone talking every couple of days when I scrolled up.



Costello said:


> about $5 per month or something.
> 
> I've turned it back on, is it working now?



Right now the IRC server is down for me.


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## FAST6191 (Oct 17, 2021)

Costello said:


> about $5 per month or something.
> 
> I've turned it back on, is it working now?



* Looking up irc.gbatemp.net
* Connecting to irc.gbatemp.net (163.172.134.144:6667)
* Connection failed (Connection refused)


Edit also refused on 6697


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## Costello (Oct 17, 2021)

all good now


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## Shadow#1 (Oct 17, 2021)

Costello said:


> all good now


Nice but no 6697 ssl?


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## KimKong (Oct 17, 2021)

Costello said:


> I visited it a few weeks ago and no one seemed to be active.
> 
> I disabled it yesterday. Didn't get any reaction from anyone until now.
> 
> If no one uses it I might as well keep it disabled because it costs money.


I just got to say - that's a damn shame!


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## jurassicplayer (Oct 17, 2021)

VinsCool said:


> This thread is the best representation of taking something for granted, then complain as soon as a change happened.
> 
> The gbatemp admins don't owe the users the services, the services are offered based on the demand and actual use, and if the IRC was taken down because the user base was summarised to 3 users idle for months, it's simply not worth keeping, in my honest opinion.


The IRC is just a different set of people. We see the value of the IRC and we hang out there, in fact pretty much everyone in this thread is from the IRC. Taking it for granted would be if we just bailed IRC to another platform and only now talk about it when IRC is missing, but aside from myself and like....|Shadow| a long time ago (iunno if he made an alt, because I think he got banned a long time ago lol), I honestly don't think I've ever seen FAST, Surkow, etc. on the discord.

Just going through the thread, you can even see that most of us understand the issue of the IRC costing money and passing through the solutions rather than just saying "reinstate the IRC, we want it back nao". None of us want to push on Costello's wallet if he doesn't see a need to fund it. I'm honestly on-board even if it's just a channel on efnet, I'd still join it.

In terms of activity, yeah it's slower than the Discord, there's a lot less people. Even the Discord has a couple of slow days here and there. In terms of actually active regular users that chat though, it's a higher percentage than the Discord. The discord's activity primarily revolves around transient new users that just have a problem they want solved and the occasional Discord bot making the rounds. In the IRC, everyone there is generally mature, able, and willing to solve their own problems, so most of the banter is usually just asking how everyone's day is, greetings, farewells, and just straight casual conversation.


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## FAST6191 (Oct 17, 2021)

Loaded up this time, 36 people in compared to the usual 50 or so.

Probably best to advertise it again. Is mibbit still the web browser IRC client of choice?


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## Deleted member 514389 (Oct 17, 2021)

FAST6191 said:


> Sadly my hosting right now is shared hosting (I only need token websites and files 99.9% of the time) so no real scope to run an IRC container/server and my home internet/power is not really reliable enough to stick a pi on it or something.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


What's a "token website" ? 

I use a domain name to link elsewhere, but I doubt you're talkong about that...


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## FAST6191 (Oct 17, 2021)

notrea11y said:


> What's a "token website" ?
> 
> I use a domain name to link elsewhere, but I doubt you're talkong about that...


Whether I have a website or not ultimately matters little to my business. However the ability to throw on a fully ?SQL/PHP website and send that around to clients wanting me to build them one, chuck random small files/pictures/whatever on to send as a link in emails or forums, have a basic email setup and more, sometimes (though not right now) even having unlimited domains on a shared host for those more local or small businesses wanting "here I am, this is what I do, here are some pictures of my work/menus/..." type sites is mightily convenient even if there are alternatives that work for all those.


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## Smiths (Oct 17, 2021)

Costello said:


> about $5 per month or something.
> 
> I've turned it back on, is it working now?


yep. ZNC popped up the top window on my desktop.


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## Surkow (Oct 17, 2021)

Thank you for turning it back on Costello. Very much appreciated.


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## SIX10 (Oct 18, 2021)

Costello said:


> if anyone else is willing to run an IRC server I'm OK to point the DNS at you.
> 
> Send me the details via PM and I'll pick the most reasonable one


I saw later in the thread that you turned it back on, but I'm still more than willing to host if needed. I got a Vultr server hosted in Atlanta that I only host my super bare-bones website and email server on.


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## Costello (Oct 18, 2021)

SIX10 said:


> I saw later in the thread that you turned it back on, but I'm still more than willing to host if needed. I got a Vultr server hosted in Atlanta that I only host my super bare-bones website and email server on.


hello, yes that'd be nice actually.
Feel free to private-message me for details if you're ok with this?


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