Well, I used to go into the chat room quite often. Now, I go into it occasionally hoping to talk to someone. That really doesn’t happen. As I type this, I see 13 people online, and not one of them is chatting.
I just think that if you’re not going to chat, you shouldn’t be there. New people may go into the chat looking for help, and seeing a few people online. It kinda sucks for them when nobody is going to help.
I mean, I can see for the mods idling, but for regulars, just log in every time. If you say the whole, “Well, it saves me from logging in every time” excuse, stop being lazy. It takes all of 5-10 seconds to log in.
I understand that a client may leave you logged in, but what’s the point of a chat room if everyone idles and doesn’t talk? You can set a client to log you in every time it is opened. If you go into multiple rooms, simply leave one if you’re not going to talk.
I’m just trying to think of what would be best for the people who ACTUALLY talk, and those beginners who are looking for real-time help, but don’t receive it.
If you actually want to answer questions on IRC, you idle. If you want your questions answered, you idle. It is the only way to actually get the message. IRC is very asynchronous, get used to it and take advantage of it (both are easy to do).
But what’s the point if getting instant help if “they may not respond right away. They may respond next week”. That kind of defeats the purpose of the chat room. They’d be better off posting a thread on the forum. The chat room is meant for talking, and for helping. Idling tends to make people feel as if they’re ignored. If people are short on time, or impatient, then the chat room serves them no purpose. I know, as I used to be in all the time helping people. Now, I rarely use it.
The chat room now is basically just a spot for certain people it seems. There’s constantly 12 people who rarely talk.
Then again, I guess it’s pointless to talk to one of the main idlers as well…
I ain’t going to change how IRC has been working for darn near 25+ years, and neither is anyone else.
With my ISP being as crappy as it is, I use the IRC channel to also log short disruptions to the service as a quick double check to my syslogs on my router and mail server.
Yeah, I agree, it sucks when nobody is talking. Then, talk.
In my case, I may be in the middle of a conversation and my kids might start fighting each other, screaming, yelling or otherwise causing havoc and I gotta split. Or, I may get a call from a client and I’ve moved onto a other window and/or bank of computers. Yes, I will not “excuse” or “brb” to the IRC channel, however, life and/or work pulls me away like a barbed hook into the jaw of a fish and I gotta deal with what’s ben thrown in front of me.
IRC is one of my lowest priorities. Right now it’s not even on my main computer. I’ll install it next week.