Forum:CT:Retiring IRC

Forums > Consensus track archive > CT:Retiring IRC
This page is an archive of a community-wide discussion. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made in the Senate Hall or new Consensus Track pages rather than here so that this page is preserved as a historic record.
The result of the debate was support. OOM 224 (he/him) 10:45, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

The infamous IRC (Internet Chat Relay) served as the main chatroom for Wookieepedians up until 2020, when it was effectively replaced by our Discord server. Since then, the review boards have started hosting meetings on Discord and the IRC Mofference has been retired. Literally no single Wookieepedian uses the #wookieepedia IRC channel anymore because it no longer exists; the very last time I logged in to it a couple months ago, it had only two or three users, and the channel was managed by former admin Xd1358, who is a Wookieepedian no longer.

Still, many policy pages still refer folks to the defunct and non-Wookieepedia–affiliated IRC, so as a procedural clean up, we should:

  1. Archive Wookieepedia:IRC with a big disclaimer that Wookieepedia no longer maintains any IRC channel. As much as we don't want newcomers trying to log on to IRC, we don't want newcomers going through edit histories/old messages wandering what IRC was about.
  2. Remove all references to IRC from policy and guidance pages (e.g. Template:W, Template:Newcomers2). This doesn't affect historical links or old messages per point 1.

All Wookieepedia:IRC subpages have already been redirected or deleted as they are obsolete (e.g. cloak list, MediaWiki:IRC-wookieepedia).

P.S. also, this was attempted in April 2021 (yes, that April): Forum:CT:Make Discord the official chat, but to no avail. Now that we no longer use IRC (this is a reminder that the time now is January, two-thousand-and-twenty-three), 'tis about time we get on with yeeting it with an official stamp of approval.

Support

  1. ~support OOM 224 (he/him) 10:45, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  2. |<-- Wookieepedia has left IRC (Remote host closed the connection) 01miki10 Open comlink 10:56, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  3. Imperators II(Talk) 11:00, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  4. Vindication! NanoLuukeCloning Facility 11:07, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  5. Long overdue. Ayrehead02 (talk) 11:30, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  6. Death to another form of gatekeeping! Manoof (he/him/his) RainbowRebellion2 11:54, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  7. After Discord's time is through, can we move to Microsoft Teams? NBDani TeamFireballLogo-Collider(they/them)Yeager's Repairs 12:14, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
    • Oh dear no please no I quit OOM 224 (he/him) 12:16, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
    • Dani why would you be so evil (ilu) Dropbearemma LesbianRebellion (she/her) 12:40, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
    • Of course No. :P Samonic Signatureicon (Talk) 15:22, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  8. Enderdrag64 (talk) 12:33, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  9. I was so confused about the mentions of IRC in various policy and help pages since it's not used, so I'm glad we're getting rid of it. Dropbearemma LesbianRebellion (she/her) 12:40, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  10. I was too extremely confused by the mentions of the IRC everywhere. Let's finally get rid of it! HeadSpikesWalls (she/they) RainbowRebellion2 (talk!) 12:45, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  11. *sweeps trash out* —spookywillowwtalk 14:24, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  12. Good riddance. I now need to find another app to replace IRCCloud so I don't have to relearn my phone's app layout. Jedi Sarith LeKit (talk) 14:44, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  13. ThrawnChiss7 ThrawnHS Alliances Assembly Cupola 14:46, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  14. JediMasterMacaroni(Talk) 14:54, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  15. grunny@wookieepedia:~$ 15:10, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  16. Samonic Signatureicon (Talk) 15:22, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  17. As someone who has seen many of those logs... it needs to go. —SnowedLightning (they/them) 17:17, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  18. Never understood why we kept it after starting discord, which is better in every way. VergenceScatter (talk) 18:19, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  19. In the wise words of Boss Nass... "Begone wit him!" - Thannus (DFaceG) (he/him) (talk) 18:56, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  20. literally been almost two years since i was on IRC at all Fan26 (Talk) 19:01, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  21. Master FredceriqueCommerce Guild(talk) (he/him) 19:08, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  22. LucaRoR Sigil of House Serenno (Talk) 19:41, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  23. Immi Thrax RainbowRebellion2 (she/her) 20:28, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  24. After editing for around two years, I can confidently say I have never understood IRC :P Rsand 30 (talk) 20:44, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  25. CT-1742 Clone Army patch (talk) 22:03, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  26. Only ever heard of IRC because of the Wook. Always felt like a bit of a steampunk thing that wasn't worth joining (me having taken up Discord prior to even finding the Wook) and I didn't even bother till shortly before the Discord server was founded. Glad we've moved with the times on this one. Braha'tok enthusiast Hello there 22:29, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  27. Rakhsh (talk) 23:34, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
  28. Support. To steal one of Floyd's old IRC quit notices "|<-- IFYLOFD has left freenode (Quit: This is a public service announcement... WITH GUITARS!)". Supreme Emperor Holocomm 04:04, 31 January 2023 (UTC)
  29. Here to pay my last respects to an old friend. TanDivoInsignia-SenateMurders Anıl Şerifoğlu (talk) 04:38, 31 January 2023 (UTC)
  30. Love me a good snowball. Almost never used it, not sorry to see it go. - JMAS Jolly Trooper Hey, it's me! 04:41, 31 January 2023 (UTC)
  31. Herasoars(comms) 05:18, 31 January 2023 (UTC)
  32. Dentface (talk) 18:48, 31 January 2023 (UTC)
  33. Exiled Jedi (talk) 16:20, 2 February 2023 (UTC)

Oppose

Discuss

  • This is an anecdote meant to put a previously unknown piece of history onto the books for us to keep in mind moving forward. Back in the early days of the Discussions forum, there was a vote to give the lead moderator some limited blocking powers over unruly users on that side, and when Givinname came onto the scene to take his place, he was told that he was to receive those same rights, but never did. He privately explained to the other mods that a certain former admin, ironically a supporter of that original vote, kept IRC as a gate before ever considering handing over those rights, and even then never did. We don't need those powers anymore anyway, but the point remains and has already been mentioned here that IRC was used as a hurdle and overly cited as a metric for engagement with the wiki. As we transition to an official Discord monopoly over our semi-off-site interactions, I just want to stress that it can't become the next hurdle. Jedi Sarith LeKit (talk) 15:17, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
    • That is incredibly important to keep in mind. It is pertinent that all discussions regarding the wiki that start on Discord find their way onto the wiki proper before anything is considered consensus. Not every user is able to use or comfortable with Discord. Master FredceriqueCommerce Guild(talk) (he/him) 19:08, 30 January 2023 (UTC)