I’m almost embarrassed to say it took more than a day to get two IRC daemons to talk to each other and stay in sync. I mean, it wasn’t writing custom software, solving a major problem, doing complex data analysis, or anything of the sort. It was just installing and configuring software on two different machines, and these services are meant to talk to one another! What’s the problem?

If I was a client, or if I was a manager waiting on a junior admin to check-in, I’d have been pissed – or at least suspicious. IRC’s about the oldest, most mature, simple chat system there is. It’s all text – no voice or video, no crazy protocols, no complex network requirements, nothing – just text. How hard can it be?

IRC has been on the decline – has been forever. Kind of like HF for radio transmissions, Morse code for communications, COBOL or FORTRAN for programing, … There’d be plenty of folks who would declare each of them “dead,” but each of them persists, and there is always a following who appreciate them for their low-complexity, minimal requirements, and throw-back, retro feel.

That said, if you are standing up IRC services these days, you’re probably in that later category. You’re likely just setting up a single service for a couple of like-minded friends – probably not family :-p And in that case, figure just about every regular linux or similar distribution includes some IRC server package and a collection of clients in the repository. You can be up and running with the basics in minutes.

If you’re bitten by curiosity, though, and you visit any of the larger IRC networks, you’ll see they’re on another level: There are active channels everywhere, descriptions and rules for those channels, registered users, different levels of IRC “operators,” different modes on channels and users, bots and services, … and lots and lots of users, and those users are connected to different servers around the world, and you’re seeing each of their posts from wherever you are as they happen.

And if that’s interesting to you, you’re next steps are probably (1) to install IRC services such as altheme or anope, and then (2) to create a second server to connect with the first. From there, you have the basics to explore what the larger systems do.

That case for the curious? That’s atypical these days. Your package installers aren’t necessarily going to set you up for that. I mean, the software is likely capable, but the installation is targeted for the ordinary. It’s up to you to take the next steps.

That’s where things become interesting with these “retro” technologies: The experts already know and the new explorers are not asking. What does that mean? If you’re googling for answers, it’s likely you’re not going to find them. You’ll find yourself beyond the bounds of what anyone’s talking about in the last 20-30 years of indexing.

So, my IRC weekend? More details in the next post :-)