Why is IRC distributed across multiple servers?

Re:Why is IRC distributed across multiple servers? by jchw on Sunday September 12, 2021 @12:08PM (#28502361)

Well, from my historical reading of it, initially, IRC was a federated network of servers that were essentially one network, the way email is one network: there was no shared administration or anything. Anyone could run a server and jump into the network. Due to abuse, servers began restricting who they peered with, and it fractured into multiple networks.

So really, I suspect it was designed to be distributed and federated, and it just became what it is by accident.

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Re:Why is IRC distributed across multiple servers? by Ekaros on Sunday September 12, 2021 @01:38PM (#28503129)

Many other services also used to be like this. Think of Usenet aka. news. It is effective model when you think of Internet as network of networks. When there was real difference between connecting to your local area network, metropolitan area network or even wide area network.

Actually we have come quite far from those days and full speed point-to-point links between most points is somewhat realistic.

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Re:Why is IRC distributed across multiple servers? by unilynx on Sunday September 12, 2021 @01:43PM (#28503172)

It was never open to attach your server to a network, unlike email. A server connection was way too powerful for that. You needed an existing server admin to allow your server to connect.

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Re:Why is IRC distributed across multiple servers? by ghancock on Sunday September 12, 2021 @02:09PM (#28503397)

I wasn’t there but I have seen multiple histories say that there were servers that accepted connections from anyone (most famously eris.berkeley.edu but not only that one). For example, https://about.psyc.eu/IRC

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Re:Why is IRC distributed across multiple servers? by albertgoeswoof on Sunday September 12, 2021 @03:33PM (#28504125)

What would be the abuse issues from open peering? How were we able to solve them for email, but not IRC?

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Re:Why is IRC distributed across multiple servers? by nickelpro on Sunday September 12, 2021 @03:44PM (#28504226)

We didn't, email spam exists to this day. The solution has been to ban entire swaths of domains and even IP ranges by chucking all mail from them into spam folders

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Re:Why is IRC distributed across multiple servers? by Doxin on Monday September 13, 2021 @03:03AM (#28508621)

The problem is mainly that on IRC messages coming from a server connection are assumed to never be lies. A server can do anything from disconnecting people to spoofing messages.

Which is in fact how services such as nickserv operate. If I don't log in to nickserv, nickserv will spoof a nickname change, blocking me from using the registered nickname.

Having server connections be freely available to everyone is worse than giving everyone OPER powers.

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