I am very new into this chat applications and read about IRC and Matrix. Matrix seems its more new and modern. So I just wonder what’s the reason you are still using IRC?

  • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz
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    1 year ago

    IRC is a simple interface that’s been well supported for more than two decades, folks have a huge selection of apps or web interfaces they can choose from. No it doesn’t directly support sharing pictures or anything like that, but for most chats all you need is basic text. It’s easy to build up a quick bot in several different programming languages and I’ve even written up self-running multiplayer games.

    I considered switching to something like discord for the chats I host but it didn’t look like they allow that although there are some open source alternatives. What’s the deal with Matrix? Is there a reason you like it better? Can you easily set up a self-hosted server for it? (And for that matter, are there any connectors to link it to an existing IRC chat to allow for a smooth transition period?)

    • NaN@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 year ago

      IRC is so simple you can connect with a telnet client.

      Matrix does have bridges to other services, including IRC, but I haven’t really gotten into matrix either. IRC has always been good enough.

    • OverfedRaccoon 🦝@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I’ve heard Matrix is closer to Discord, but not quite as feature-rich - with the tradeoff being open source. I joined the Matrix room for Jerboa development just to follow along, and then my home Matrix instance has a chat it threw me in when first logging into Element that I let roll but mostly ignore. I have no idea what I’m doing or even why I really joined, other than to check it out for myself to see what it’s all about.

      • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz
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        1 year ago

        It would certainly be nice to be able to directly share pics or multimedia content. I’m guessing Matrix supports that but I need to do some reading to see how much control I have over that. Like some rooms would want that but a common lounge room I would want to keep text-only. I suppose it’s time to start doing some reading…

    • randomguy2323@lemmy.kevitprojects.comOP
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      1 year ago

      Well Beeper is using Matrix and yes you can self host a Matrix Server. I haven’t tries IRC before might give it a try but I wanted to know what people mainly use for. Thank you for sharing :)

      • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz
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        1 year ago

        I’ve been doing some reading since this topic came up, and am currently working on building a VM with a home server. It certainly has potential for my purposes! I already have several questions so I figured just setting one up so I could play with it from the admin side would be the easiest way to see what I can do with it.