No more IRC
IRC is ancient and not going to get any better.
There are too many communities spread across to many platforms, it makes it hard to mingle and eventually may cause the death of the community. We need to agree on a consistent communications platform driven by the PA team and obtain buy-in on that from all the alliance HC's. I'm not overly worried whether it's Slack or any of the other alternatives, but we do need a single platform that isn't stuck in the 90's. |
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Pigeon?
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To be honest I don't see the messaging element of PA a problem too much. Yes there's discord, irc, slack, telegram, whatsapp but all of that is down to preference of a particular person or alliance. Trying to put these communities into a single box wont happen (people left irc for a reason?). However I think things like the forum need a good upgrade. They just feel ancient and really you get 0 feedback coming through from this place to make your audience sticky to the site and wanting to keep coming back to check up on whats happening.
Even switching forum software would help in my opinion. Make it look more modern, engaging and welcoming. https://www.discourse.org/ seems to be quite popular with most companies at the moment. |
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I agree there's a problem with fragmentation. I've even seen a few people exile because a galaxy used the 'wrong' medium of communication. I expect that to be more common in places more decicated to actually playing the game than most of the ones I'm in. A royal decree from PA Team about which platform is the Correct one seems pointless to me. You'll never get enough people to join in on it, we're all too committed to our favourite one.
If you want to unify the community, I think a better approach would be to ensure communication on one platform is available on others as well. Ascendancy uses a bot to relay information back and forth between Slack and IRC, which works very well. If that existed for other platforms as well, it wouldn't matter which one you personally used. |
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I think irc is still a good middle ground, it's the lack of good irc app that let's it down. If it was an 'always on' chat app that would bring people back |
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I've tried Slack, WhatsApp and Telegram and I always come back to IRC (using mIRC). Well, to be fair, I've never actually left IRC - just used the others as well (because of alliance or galaxy preferences).
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I think getting rid of IRC would cause the death quicker then keeping IRC. You have a choice, IRC brings the community together and is easy to use, what I do see with WA, Telegram and so on is people no longer talk to others not in there ally.
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That's why we should at least aim to get everyone on the same platform, or at least all the alliances. I know there are alot of older folk who are resistant to change as well, which makes it challenging. ND has a relay between IRC and Slack, which is fine for most of the time but it is far from a direct or perfect replacement for one strong solution. |
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And this is not the first time it's happened. Back in the dark ages, alliances routinely felt the need to maintain their own IRC networks, isolating their communities from the shared space of NetGamers, but eventually alliances recognized the ease of just using a network that was just... there*. Until Slack/WhatsApp/Telegram/pigeons came around, anyway. ______ * That ended a bit before my time here, My impression is that 1up's use of #public and #private (awesome in both its arrogance and its simplicity) was the turning point. Fully expecting multi-paragraph posts about how I'm wrong and therefore a terrible person. |
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I agree with Lukey.
I returned to PA two rounds ago. mIRC brings back memories but is old and still a bit of a hassle. ND uses Slack, personally I'm very happy with that since I can use it on my phone and computer. Extra bonus is I allready use it for work. I'm not saying it has to be Slack but IRC had it's best time. There are many games/ communities we can learn from. Personally I have good experience with Discord, Jabber (Pidgin) and Slack. |
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Discord has worked best for my own experience.
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Most tags, if not all tags, use IRC and/or TG.
The only issues i have trying to reach people is if their alliance uses slack. So for me its no reason what-so-ever to even consider moving away from IRC, as all tags out their got a relay bot avaible to connect their desired communication tool to irc. All of our players can get their own IRC-Telegram relay bot from us for their gal if they wish to aswell. |
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Anything bar Slack...
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Of course they do since IRC is still that 'original' platform and it's kept alive. But that doesn't mean it's not outdated and such. If PA wants to attract more players the game and/or the community has to move forward. |
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It was a big problem for me trying to reach my gal mates last round as they were using WA, and i didnt have WA. Trying to mass mail my gal for ships was impossibole on a mobile phone. And the community has "moved forward", nobody is using only IRC for communication now days, but we didnt "only use IRC" 15 years back either. Msn messenger, ICQ, Teamspeak, etc etc was pretty popular back then. |
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No it wasn't .... MSN was never a thing for PA. Teamspeak/ventrilo primarily used for other games - CS/HoN/Dota/League etc It was always IRC and Now it's something else. Something that is easily compatible with phones is required. WA is perfect because you can call off it. |
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You calling people from WA is the reason why half the game has deleted it by now :salute: WA didnt allow bots in the past, thats why i personaly moved to telegram, as it allows you to do what you want with it. |
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Big fan of telegram and slack to be honest however for gaming discord is the way for a gaming "community": https://discord.gg/4uc6MFh
I've created a pa server there. All are welcome if we want to try and create something more neutral and give this a go. Note: Discord is a lot like IRC from my perspective however the Apps make it way more approachable and the missing features we see the messaging apps (TG, WA, Slack) in comparison to IRC are all available. - @mentions - Push notifications - Uploads - Voice support - etc Also anyone wanting to admin etc let me know I have no fudging clue. |
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Major burn from Pit ill get back in my box!! Keep the community closed!
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I'm an IRC user like you, Pit. I'm a programmer like you. Consider the possibility that the particular abnormalities that make us like and enjoy IRC may not be shared by everyone. The key word in Munkee's post is 'approachable'.
I still remember that when I first tried to connect to an IRC server, it didn't work for a while, and then suddenly it did. Maybe that's on me, but I had been familiar with computers for well over a decade by that point and I never figured out what I did wrong, or even what I changed to do it right. Coincidentally, the other day I spent some time guiding someone through their very first IRC setup, and few things expose the... I don't want to say 'problems', but imperfections, surely, of our medium than getting someone brand new to it settled in. IRC is an invention from long enough ago that modern humans no longer know what key words to look for, even if they are tech-savvy enough to click through the options to look for likely candidates. Getting to where you want to go is non-obvious (servers, networks, channels). Doing anything other than just typing lines of text is non-obvious (textual commands!?). When the technology fails in some way, making sure you get back to where you were is non-obvious (perform). And what the hell is an 'identd' anyway'? Technically speaking, you're not wrong when you say the things Munkee mentions are mostly possible with IRC. Just, you know, way out of reach of your average user: set up a bouncer on your server, write a detailed perform for the various networks you're connected to, write a quick script for file uploads right there from the client, and no one ever calls anyone. Easy peasy. This post is not a rant against IRC and it certainly isn't a love letter to shiny, but limited, closed and proprietary facsimiles of the last couple of years. But IRC is not perfect, and anyone who's done any amount of tech support for less-savvy friends should be able to identify its major flaws. |
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I realy fail to see why the Telegram + IRC combination arnt covering everyones need atm.
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I was using IRC last week and a colleague came up behind me and said 'OH ARE YOU PROGRAMMING? WOW THAT LOOKS IMPRESSIVE'
It evidently isn't user friendly and is only used by PA as a ghost of a long and historic legacy. It's easy looking from our own perspectives of years of using this comms platform to say it's fine and most of the functionality is available through IRC, but it isn't convenient and it isn't welcoming. A transition to a different platform would be easy enough, it would just require buy-in from all the alliances and the PA team. Change is very possible and healthy, it just requires buy-in from the top and some clear benefits to the user. If we are serious about keeping this community going into the future, it should be a consideration. |
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You DONT have to use IRC now days, very few(if any) alliance uses it as their only communication channel. Ultores and Faceless use whatsapp(wich sadly dont allow bots/scripting). Black-Flag, NewDawn, Apprime use slack. CT, BowS, p3ng, KittyCatz(?) use telegram. I think p3nguins provides IRC/telegram relay for their members galaxies, atleast BowS did. A lot of gals use WA for gal communication now days aswell. |
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If I see a better candidate, I have no problems jumping ship. |
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What are your criteria? What are everyone else's? Edit: Also transitioning tools, recreating channels (or a replacement), re-establishing control/permissions... |
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I've played pa & used irc without a break since r2. For me IRC is the reason I still play pa and I doubt I would ever play pa without it. My trusty Mirc v5.61 (1999 version) still works fine for me and my pa nick has never changed since r2. For me and a few others I know, no irc means the death of pa
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IRC can stay - whatever - it's like Doom (the original) or cs.1.6 or even PA in general as it is today!!! - People still have a need for it.
But what we need is a PA in an APP and a Messaging system like TG/WA/Slack within that application. Alternatively, We need a #support room and a #planetarion and a few friendly channels - maybe big allies have Open channels on another platform - Something phone friendly, like Discord/tg/Slack for new players (if we ever hope to gain new players) For an example KittenZ have a load of players that have never used IRC, and will never use it....... They use Discord which relays between IRC/Discord/TG etc. But they also use discord for their other games and their mobile phone as well as main PC (if they even have one) Munkee is on the right lines here but it needs to be adopted by PA Admin/Team |
Re: No more IRC
upvote on discord. Would allow several rooms, each with restrictable access (alliance rooms).
Available on browser, desktop and handheld devices. Supports rooms, PM's, audio notes, voice conversations/rooms.. |
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Big downvote on discord.
By far the worst program ive used in ages by quite some margin. I use it daily. |
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Up-vote on discord. Using it daily now for not just PA but other games and communities too.
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personally i use it daily too, after using slack, whatsapp and telegram it seems like discord is definitely tailored more towards what your average PA player needs from a communication platform and here are my reasons. Discord cons: 1) current userbase uses irc pros: 1) nice and easy to integrate with external tools 2) the payed option doesn't inhibit usability 3) desktop app, browser app and phone app all seem pretty good 4) only a username required to invite 5) no missed messages Slack: cons: 1) requires peoples emails to invite (sorry but i'd rather not give this to everyone willy nilly) 2) in a high traffic channel you are restricted with history 3) slack app on desktop uses more resources than chrome... WP and congrats on that achievement i guess 4) voice chat with groups requires a paying account 5) payed accounts are bloody expensive 6) current userbase uses irc pros: 1) nice and easy to integrate with external tools 2) no missed messages Telegram/Whatsapp: (not much difference in these really) cons: 1) requires peoples phone numbers to invite (negated by usernames on telegram not sure about whatsapp) 2) desktop apps suck (tailored more towards phone zombies) 3) current userbase uses irc pros: 1) most people already use this as a means to communicate 2) no missed messages IRC: cons: 1) requiring new players to use this is archaic and obscene in today's world (barrier of entry requires research) 2) without scripts/plugins it's pretty basic 3) mirc the grand daddy of irc apps requires a license (sorry but this is beyond obsolete) 4) without a bouncer you're gonna miss messages (aint nobody got time fo that) pros: 1) mature protocol that doesn't look like it's going anywhere soon 2) current user base uses it |
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Scrollback can be a pain, but that's a problem with most systems. irssi (with a script, admittedly) handles this well for me, but I'll also accept that I'm in the minority. Honestly, most people don't seem to care about most scrollback. But for some messages they do. Quote:
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2) I don't actually know what you're trying to say here. 3) Don't use mirc? 4) This is more like it. A Planetarion bouncer has been suggested, but has a lot of complications. I've been wondering whether a Netgamers bouncer would help (some other networks run them) but that's a pretty big step. And a pretty big ask. And I'm still not sure it would help... I'll also add that lots of users have trouble with mobile clients (again, for various reasons). |
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WhatsApp has two further disadvantages (to dinosaurs like me who only play PA on a PC) - it has no desktop app (so an Android emulator is needed) and it requires a valid mobile phone number to activate the app *.
I find TG the most "useful" (and PC-friendly) of these "new" com systems and I have used it, WA and Slack over the last few rounds. (I still prefer the IRC options. Slack allows an IRC server to be set up and TG allows bots to relay to netgamers channels (as does Slack)). WA is my least preferred option. * I do now have a mobile phone but it lives in my car and is used in emergencies only (needing a mobile broadband signal counts as an emergency). :) Only my close family members are allowed to know my mobile number. |
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about the closed system, we literally lose nothing we didn't already give away to netgamers so im guessing this is not an issue atal and why i didn't include it initially. i don't believe it's right for people to be giving away personal info on the internet such as phone numbers to an unknown entity such as your new GC in a game, this could potentially dissuades new players too as this is not the norm in anything i've ever seen. and as for not using mirc, you leave yourself open to self research on how to configure and use your client of choice. Most people will use what others will use just because if they have an issue somebody else may also have had it and can help rectify it. a planetarion bouncer seems like it coulda worked 5 years ago but the technology and ease of use for instant messaging apps has come far, people dont want to configure messaging apps, they just want to use them. (i guess if this was integrated into the ingame chat it would work though) |
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A lot of those sorts of issues could be handled by a tutorial, though most clients have a basic one and some have Netgamers in the default list. Quote:
The main issue I see with a PA bouncer is the data. Amongst other things, they don't want to be responsible for it. The way I've seen a network-integrated bouncer work it's probably as easy or easier as setting up a perform. That wouldn't work out of the box for NG though. |
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Even suggesting it as a good alternative to the IRC and telegram is for me silly, as it dosnt offer anything new. Now that most of the community is using TG, i find it very easy to get in contact with other alliances outside my own. I dont play PA from a phone, so for me its ideal. |
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Out of all the options Telegram wins by a mile.
It has the decent interface of a WhatsApp/Line Chat. It does NOT require a phone number. Everyone has a user name (most annoying feature of whatsapp is seeing loads of numbers and no nicks) It can relay a bot back to iRC so we can keep in touch with Pit ;) If you are desperate to speak to Munkee or vulgAr you can do that. Though why the hell anyone wants to physically talk about PA is beyond me. I did this once about 4 years ago and realised I had been saying agar3s' name wrong in my head. I have used Discord for games like FFXIV for raiding and it holds up OK but is no way perfect. It's text element is by far the weakest part of it so how it can be recommended on here as a viable alternative to iRC or TG in that way is madness |
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I think to keep the connection between irc and whatever messenger the admins would need to allow us to use a relay bot between the two. I expect right now the likes of MarkB would ban that as soon as it entered #planetarion.
I suggested discord in this thread for 3 main reasons: - The functionality is on par with everyone else give or take. - It is a neutral ground where there isn't any 1 alliance heavily using it so there isn't a huge bias towards it - It is built on top of other gaming communities, we may be able to bring in other gamers easily. p3ng has used telegram for years now. It has its quirks as does every other platform. I would put whatsapp last, it only wins on "real world" popularity but every feature it gains has been on telegram for some time now. Slack was nice when I've used it but also quite heavy as mentioned by vulgar. |
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Why do we realy need #planetarion on multiple platform?
If you want to "mingle" the comunit works fine enough? I thought the whole issue was that people wanted a common platform for their galaxy mates etc, that saves messages when ur not connected? |
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"There are too many communities spread across to many platforms, it makes it hard to mingle and eventually may cause the death of the community." |
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Quite honestly ive never seen Luckey talk in a irc channel, ever actualy. The biggest problem is playing the game with allie/gal mates using the comunit surely? |
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Who knows..
In the spirit of open communication https://t.me/p3nguins this is p3nguins public telegram group. Idle in it just like you would IRC :salute: |
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