Freenode IRC logging archive Echelog is shutting down
I just wanted to take a moment and share with the HN community that IRC is definitely very alive and kicking!  There are great channels for thousands of amazing projects, communities and teams spread across so many great IRC Networks, from Freenode [1] to OFTC [2], to Rizon [3], to DALnet [4], to tildeverse [5], Snoonet [6], Quakenet [7], EFnet [8], IRCnet [9] among other networks [10].<p>IRC is no longer difficult to use; there are great software applications across nearly every device that can be named which can work with and present the RFC1459 protocol splendidly, including weechat [11], KiwiIRC [12], Textual [13], Palaver [14], to mIRC [15], and AdiIRC [16], among others!<p>IRC has bots hosted by the community that can hook into github like bitbot [17] and supybot [18] among others.<p>You can also stay connected to IRC using an IRC bouncer like KiwiBNC [19], znc [20], IRCCloud [21], Quassel [22], Bitlbee [23] or shamlessplug jbnc [24].<p>[1] <a href="https://freenode.net" rel="nofollow">https://freenode.net</a><p>[2] <a href="https://oftc.net" rel="nofollow">https://oftc.net</a><p>[3] <a href="https://rizon.net" rel="nofollow">https://rizon.net</a><p>[4] <a href="https://www.dal.net" rel="nofollow">https://www.dal.net</a><p>[5] <a href="https://tildeverse.org" rel="nofollow">https://tildeverse.org</a><p>[6] <a href="https://snoonet.org/" rel="nofollow">https://snoonet.org/</a><p>[7] <a href="https://quakenet.org/" rel="nofollow">https://quakenet.org/</a><p>[8] <a href="https://efnet.org" rel="nofollow">https://efnet.org</a><p>[9] <a href="https://ircnet.com" rel="nofollow">https://ircnet.com</a><p>[10] <a href="https://netsplit.de/networks/top100.php" rel="nofollow">https://netsplit.de/networks/top100.php</a><p>[11] <a href="https://weechat.org/" rel="nofollow">https://weechat.org/</a><p>[12] <a href="https://kiwiirc.com" rel="nofollow">https://kiwiirc.com</a><p>[13] <a href="https://codeux.com/textual" rel="nofollow">https://codeux.com/textual</a><p>[14] <a href="https://palaverapp.com/" rel="nofollow">https://palaverapp.com/</a><p>[15] <a href="https://mirc.com/" rel="nofollow">https://mirc.com/</a><p>[16] <a href="https://adiirc.com/" rel="nofollow">https://adiirc.com/</a><p>[17] <a href="https://github.com/jesopo/bitbot" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/jesopo/bitbot</a><p>[18] <a href="https://github.com/Supybot/Supybot" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/Supybot/Supybot</a><p>[19] <a href="https://kiwiirc.com/" rel="nofollow">https://kiwiirc.com/</a><p>[20] <a href="https://znc.in" rel="nofollow">https://znc.in</a><p>[21] <a href="https://irccloud.com/" rel="nofollow">https://irccloud.com/</a><p>[22] <a href="https://quassel-irc.org/" rel="nofollow">https://quassel-irc.org/</a><p>[23] <a href="https://www.bitlbee.org/" rel="nofollow">https://www.bitlbee.org/</a><p>[24] <a href="https://github.com/realrasengan/jbnc" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/realrasengan/jbnc</a><p>Edit: Added a few that I accidentally left out.  Thank you all!  If I left anyone else out I apologize - IRC is so decentralized, spread out, and... alive... that it's hard to name all of the amazing projects, networks and implementations out there!