> 2023 had been a slow year, so we skipped on our traditional annual update, but it is back this year. here’s a summary of everything that’s been happening since Nov 2022. Most of the progress these last two years have been around making chathistory more suitable for the real world, and reducing bandwidth usage for mobile clients.

> Looking to host your own IRC? Here are the options you can explore.

> The Lounge is a modern web IRC client that packs in useful features like push notifications, file uploads, link previews, and multi-user support. Regarding the user experience, I find it similar to the Rocket.Chat experience, which is an open-source Slack alternative.

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> Convos is a unique chat application with IRC support that lets you make video calls as well. It manages to keep you online even when you have closed the web browser. So you can still get all the messages, and activities logged.

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> Kiwi IRC is a more traditional-looking web IRC client with versatile features, and plugin support to extend functionality. The good thing about it is, you get static files, so it should be a hassle-free and reliable experience to host it. You get it with a default IRC network, but you can always use your own.

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> If you want a feature-rich support, and a traditional experience at the same time, WeeChat can be a nice pick. It is also incredibly small and lightweight to use.

> This is where ircpipe comes in: a simple utility that understands just enough IRC to handle those PINGs, as well as connection setup, authentication, and even joining an initial list of channels. The idea is to set up a pipe between an IRC network and stdin/stdout, which the user can then read from and write to without having to think about details.

git repository: ircpipe

> IRC has historically been one of the most important chat programs in my life. It's how I met my husband, how I found jobs in the early stages of my career, how I get help with weird Linux arcana that nobody else can really fix, and it's where I socialize with the Internet Illuminati. I use it every day and main reason I use tmux is to attach to that one session with my IRC client in it.

> However, there's a problem with this setup: it's tied to one physical computer. If that physical computer dies, I lose easy access to all my IRC logs.

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> Seeing as there's realistically not many other options for this (and I already have a Kubernetes cluster), I decided to move my IRC client into a VM on top of Kubernetes.

Hello. I want to try out irc, but I don't know what server to sign up for, or what clients are good (Android). Any suggestions? Any lists of servers I can look through?

Thanks

> Today we are sorry to announce that we are not able to bring the Libera Chat bridge back online. We have already begun working through clean up tasks, such as clearing ghosts, and expect to be done by December 22. If you see any bridge artifacts left past that point, please let us know.

> We at the Matrix.org Foundation have been working behind the scenes for months with the team at Element who operated the bridge and our peers at Libera Chat. Our hope had been to address the issues that were raised about the bridge to the satisfaction of Libera and to quickly bring it back online, but ultimately the Foundation is only a facilitator in the process and does not have the resources to maintain and operate the bridge itself.

> Long term, the Foundation’s hope is to have the resources to service its core programs as well as provide additional community services like bridge maintenance and operations. However, as an open source foundation that is still early in its journey, we must be realistic about our capacity and make hard choices about where we put our scarce resources.

Highlights:

• New keys to move in cursor mode
• IRC CTCP replies are now evaluated, with the same variables available, so now the syntax is for example ${version} instead of $version
• Two infos to get nick colors have been added: nick_color_ignore_case and nick_color_name_ignore_case.
• A new variable allowed_values has been added in fset options.

> We're pleased to be publishing v2.12.0, a new stable release. This is another bugfix release aimed at improving client compatibility and keeping up with the IRCv3 specification process.

> A new version of Polari, a terrific looking IRC client for Linux desktops, is out.

> Much of the improvement comes by way of the latest libadwaita, with Polari v45 adding support for (among other features) those natty new full-height sidebars featured heavily in GNOME 45 core apps.

> As well as being the only Linux IRC client (that I’m aware of) making use of GTK4/libadwiata Polari has another key distinction: it adapts well for use on mobile/smaller screens.

Highlights

• fix integer overflow when setting integer option with ++N or --N
• remove trailing empty line in display of backlog (logger plugin
• add missing tags on multiline IRC messages

Highlights:

• fix input length and crash after delete of line
• fix memory leak in IRC message parser
• a few fixes to IRC CTCP messages

I've been playing around with Goguma and RevolutionIRC mostly. I'm leaning more towards RevolutionIRC at this point, but I was curious about any suggestions you might have.

A long, but interesting personal reflection on the virtues of IRC in the age of centralized services such as Discord:

> Much as the dreaded Reddit has largely paved a fascist monopoly over the niche once occupied by a bounty of independent Web forums, Discord has done the same with the chat world, replacing the sea of independent and free IRC servers with a single corporate walled garden whose owners each user must avoid offending in any way, lest they be entirely cast out of the public square.

> Anyone who has ever used IRC knows that there is nothing even remotely complicated about using it, but the terminology and the steps required to use one are ostensibly terrifying enough to reliably keep the technically illiterate at bay.

> Yesterday evening our partners at Matrix contacted us stating that a number of security vulnerabilities had been identified in the bridge that have pre-empted work on the deportalling process. Combined with lingering issues with Plumbing (the alternate bridge mode that will be maintained going forward), and an under-resourced team working on the bridge, they have requested an extension to the deadline we have previously agreed.

> Given the nature of the issues, we have agreed to extend the deadline to the 11th of August, 2023, providing an additional 2 weeks to address these high priority issues and improve the plumbing situation. New portal creation will be disabled on the 31st, with all portals being turned off on the 11th.

Summary of various updates to IRC clients, bouncers, and daemons for the first half of 2023.

Does anyone do this ? I've been using irssi for years but it does not support using a SOCKS proxy which makes it unsuitable for this purpose.

I spend most of my time on the Libera/Linux channel but there are times when I just want to go OT.

My guess is that most people use Irssi or Weechat. Would be surprised to hear if anyone uses ircii or mirc, and the only way to find out is to ask.

What's your favorite client?