I like the ephemeral nature of IRC. It's supposed to be for real-time communication, the "chat" in irC, not for keeping bouncers. Bouncers defeat the point of IRC entirely.
I also use slack btw, and discord, and matrix too, so I fully understand the importance of a backlog, and having server caching for files is much more convenient than using an additional sharing site.
IRC is not perfect, but for what it does is pretty nice. Having a customizable backlog per-channel would solve most of the issues you have with reconnects and people's expectation. I'd love this backlog to be short by default though (<10m).
X/DCC is plainly annoying and it just breaks too often nowdays. Server assist, even for 1-on-1 sharing would be very useful. Sharing one image with a group of people while working on something is really, _really_ useful and having a common way of doing it that integrates with the chat is very helpful. Reasonable limits and auto-expiration (matching the backlog length or even shorter) would also be very useful.
We know what introducing file sharing does to a chat though. Instant memes pop up. I love how IRC channels look compared to all modern equivalents: just boring text, and minimal text formatting. If file sharing is added, I wished it would never be with inline formatting to keep it the same.
I don't care for search. Storing info in these chat mediums is a horrible, _HORRIBLE_ way to reference anything. Short backlogs are the only way to enforce people to store valuable content where it belongs. Searching through the backlog would then be no different than what irc clients already implement (simple look-back).
Keep in mind text-only chats are so compact that having a full day worth of backlog and downloading that from a cold-cache is still cheaper than getting a single inline animated gif. Just for reference.
I hate slack threads and how people tend to use them. I wished people would simply create ephemeral chats instead.
I find all matrix clients to be absolutely horrendous for exactly the same reasons. They become cesspools of memes and repository of information that are terrible to use. Honestly, the best way to use matrix seems to be gomux, or weechat via a matrix plugin, simply because these clients _ENFORCE_ a certain kind of usage that keeps the TEXT in the chat in the center. Sadly, both are incredibly limited. Cannot get ephemeral channels to work on weechat (which would be the "modern" equivalent of a query with multiple parties). Channel discovery is horrible.
But the backlog does help a lot for reconnections. So does the built-in file sharing.
It seems that the userbase of matrix has a different concept of what a chat should be, and that's why I still prefer IRC for now.
I like how your comment, which I totally agree with, is right below this one when I read it.
> Frankly, it reminds me a lot of XHTML vs HTML5. I buy all the arguments XHTML had, I like the vision it had for the internet. It also wasn't what actual end-users valued, and something that offered that won out because it provided more value, even if it didn't pursue the same vision.
I also use slack btw, and discord, and matrix too, so I fully understand the importance of a backlog, and having server caching for files is much more convenient than using an additional sharing site.
IRC is not perfect, but for what it does is pretty nice. Having a customizable backlog per-channel would solve most of the issues you have with reconnects and people's expectation. I'd love this backlog to be short by default though (<10m).
X/DCC is plainly annoying and it just breaks too often nowdays. Server assist, even for 1-on-1 sharing would be very useful. Sharing one image with a group of people while working on something is really, _really_ useful and having a common way of doing it that integrates with the chat is very helpful. Reasonable limits and auto-expiration (matching the backlog length or even shorter) would also be very useful.
We know what introducing file sharing does to a chat though. Instant memes pop up. I love how IRC channels look compared to all modern equivalents: just boring text, and minimal text formatting. If file sharing is added, I wished it would never be with inline formatting to keep it the same.
I don't care for search. Storing info in these chat mediums is a horrible, _HORRIBLE_ way to reference anything. Short backlogs are the only way to enforce people to store valuable content where it belongs. Searching through the backlog would then be no different than what irc clients already implement (simple look-back).
Keep in mind text-only chats are so compact that having a full day worth of backlog and downloading that from a cold-cache is still cheaper than getting a single inline animated gif. Just for reference.
I hate slack threads and how people tend to use them. I wished people would simply create ephemeral chats instead.
I find all matrix clients to be absolutely horrendous for exactly the same reasons. They become cesspools of memes and repository of information that are terrible to use. Honestly, the best way to use matrix seems to be gomux, or weechat via a matrix plugin, simply because these clients _ENFORCE_ a certain kind of usage that keeps the TEXT in the chat in the center. Sadly, both are incredibly limited. Cannot get ephemeral channels to work on weechat (which would be the "modern" equivalent of a query with multiple parties). Channel discovery is horrible.
But the backlog does help a lot for reconnections. So does the built-in file sharing.
It seems that the userbase of matrix has a different concept of what a chat should be, and that's why I still prefer IRC for now.