Re:Please don't use Slack for FOSS projects
by hueving on Sunday November 01, 2015 @03:09PM
(#10487969)
No, the point was that your description was entirely inaccurate. It's not brutally real because I also use IRC extensively every day on freenode and have almost never encountered the issues you are referring to. I think I've seen one netsplit in the last 2 years.
Re:Please don't use Slack for FOSS projects
by KirinDave on Sunday November 01, 2015 @03:47PM
(#10488174)
Okay, well I am sorry your experience and mine differ. Fortunately you can continue to use your solution without regard to my criticism.
But I think if we asked your IRC network how ma you nets plots they experienced in the last 2 years the number would be >1.
Re:Please don't use Slack for FOSS projects
by vacri on Sunday November 01, 2015 @04:44PM
(#10488475)
Ah, yes, IRC has netsplits. Slack, on the other hand, has "reconnecting...", which I encounter a dozen times a day on it.
I guess it's down to personal preference whether you prefer being able to talk with a partial group knowing that some people are absent, and not being able to communicate at all.
Re:Please don't use Slack for FOSS projects
by kbenson on Sunday November 01, 2015 @06:12PM
(#10488901)
Reconnecting in slack then shows you the missed messages. What's the common case for making sure participants have access to all past messages in IRC? An external log, which doesn't really solve the netsplit problem, because it necessarily is part of the split?
I would much prefer clear indication that there is a problem communicating with others so I can fall back to an alternative method of communication.
I'm being brutally real. IRC is a brittle, aged, poorly designed protocol even by the standards of 1988 academia. You could design a more robust centralized service just by using off the shelf components today.
Seriously. Use off the shelf Google Container Engine stuff along with some modest websocket work and even relative neophyte will end up with a more robust service with better scaling characteristics.
Really, that's why stuff like Slack and Hipchat exist. Becuase it's not really all that hard to do a much better implementation than what IRC can feasibly do.