Is IRC still a thing and if so what's a good one to join?

(I always avoided it for... uh... "opsec" but realizing I might be missing out on some things...)

idk about black hat stuff but I owe a huge amount of gratitude to the freenode (now irc.libera.chat) community that helped me learn C++ 12 years ago and to the #linux / #debian / #arch-linux channels to which I go for help even to this day.

I feel like people dichotomize too much... I would never don a black hat, but the world is much grayer than some make it out to be.

I simply wish to explore friend :-)

I understand, but afaik libera.chat does not even offer grey hat channels, it's mostly above board but certainly alive and well

The line between gray and black is so fuzzy it's best to keep such things offline, thanks for the lead on purely technical discussions :3

IRC is still a thing. There's a certain kind of IRC user who will never allow themselves to use Discord or Slack...

2600 is still around, I believe[0]. The PO Box Address at the bottom of that page matches a paper copy of the summer 93 issue I have around here somewhere.

[0]https://2600.com

2600 is alive through I don’t know how well lol. One of my favorite tshirts is the one they made with blue box schematics on the front and various Free Kevin news snippets on the back.

2600 is alive and well. I've been reading it for around 10 years and the quality has remained exceptional. It's very community oriented, welcoming new authors while also maintaining very high-quality regular columns. I find myself consistently surprised with what they get away with publishing. A lot of people arrested for hacking get limited access to the internet, so writing articles for a print zine like 2600 is the only way to get their stories out there. lots of really interesting tales of ingenious hacks, both in and out of jail. It's a great example of why we should fight to preserve the first amendment rights of prisoners which so often are being infringed these days. The classified section is also actually worth reading through, there's always some interesting new gadgets or devices and services.

The hacker perspective, that's what it's all about.