A very good point. But (correct me if I’m wrong, I haven’t used IRC natively for ages) isn’t the IRC server sending some message of the day prior to being able to authenticate with nickserv that usually includes the network name?
In any case, an authentication failure with NickServ is a very noticable error mode. Ending up logged in into a zombie network with half of the user base moved to a new location and any mentioning of the new location being banned is IMO a worse failure mode.
I really like the idea of the alias. That way if there is any turmoil in the future, we can switch the network much more seamlessly.
Agreed. Took me a minute to figure out what was going on with irc.gentoo.org. But that was in part caused by the lack of documentation. I think with proper documentation this wouldn’t be that much of an issue. Maybe something like this:
The official RIOT IRC channel #riot-os on irc.libera.chat. We also provide irc.riot-os.org as an alias for irc.libera.chat for your convenience. If you use this alias, you won’t miss future relocations - which we hope is never needed.
On the other hand, e.g. Libera seems to have put a pretty sane and solid legal body with the non-profit organization registered in Sweden. I think chances are good that a similar disaster is not going to happen to it. So maybe we don’t need to over-engineer a fallback for something that is extremely unlikely to happen, if this comes at the cost of potentially confusing users.
I agree that it is probably unlikely that we have to switch networks, at least in the near future.
Last call for additional IRC network suggestion! I plan to just open a poll here with all suggestions from here (currently only two) tomorrow.
I’d like to put some weight to move to libera.chat.
freenode served us well for a long time. The maintainers served us well, for a long time. Now they’ve been messed with by someone trying to take control of the open and free service. They took action, came up with libera.chat, created the non-profit, and are moving their expertise and maintenance power, and heart, there.
I think it is fair to assume that these people know how to run an IRC network, so choosing libera or any other established IRC network should be comparable regarding the amount of unknown unknowns.
IMO though, it would show support to the former freenode and now libera maintainers if we’d stick with them, in a time that they’ve been dealt some bad cards.
The long promised poll is here. It seems, no additional IRC networks made it.
In the first poll, you may tick multiple options. In the second, only what you consider the best option for RIOT should be selected.
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