Chatting like it's 1999
TLDR: I'm self-hosting my own IRC server at irc.gifthorse.dev. Come join the #lounge and say hi!
I feel lucky to have been a child of the 1980s and 90s. The internet was dawning right around my early teen years and I was able to experience the golden era before the impending enshittification.
I've seen social media evolve from BBSes, forums, and ICQ to contemporary platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Discord. I probably don't need to tell you what modern social media is like, but I personally don't think it's all that great. Aside from the fact that modern social media prefers (and rewards) short, vapid content, these centralized platforms are owned and operated by businesses who thrive on surveillance capitalism. Even worse, platforms can be purchased by billionaires who wish to push their own political and social agendas.
I'm a fan of the IndieWeb. The idea is that you control and host your own content, like this blog. No company or algorithm decides if my post shows up in feeds meant to maximize "engagement". Readers can subscribe to my output via RSS and control their own feed of information, direct from authors they choose.
So why not extend the IndieWeb ideals to real-time chat? Discord is currently the most popular platform for "chat rooms", and its ability to create moderated private spaces is nice. But it ultimately suffers from all the same problems as any other centralized platform.
The good news is that we've had an open and easy to host chat platform for decades:
It's in this spirit that I've setup my own self-hosted IRC server at irc.gifthorse.dev[2].
My goals are a bit different than the public IRC networks which tend to host a variety of communities. I'm looking to replicate a more private, moderated approach - something akin to running a small community Discord server.
If you are interested in hanging out in a low-traffic, moderated space for indies, gamedevs, and anyone who wants to experience a different internet, please feel free to join and say hello! My nick is gmb and you'll find me hanging out in #lounge.
Modern IRC
Getting back into IRC after many years, I was pleased to find that a vibrant community still exists and is pushing the technology forward through IRCv3.
IRCv3 specifies many modern features that users might be missing from platforms like Discord. For example, chat history, reactions, replies, and other features.
Of course, not all servers and clients implement all these new features, and some features are still being drafted and are subject to change. However, when self-hosting, you can easily choose to run a server with good IRCv3 support.
Why not something like Matrix instead of IRC? Mostly because other applications are more complicated. IRC is simple and lean - perfect for hosting on a small VPS. IRC has stood the test of time and users are free to choose their own clients.
IRC obviously isn't a full replacement for apps like Discord - there's no voice/video chat, streaming, or built-in image/video hosting. Even so, it's a solid component of a user controlled social landscape.
My Server
For my server, I picked Ergo, a modern IRC server written in Go. Ergo is extremely easy to set up and operate. The default config enables many modern features, and others can be enabled by simply editing a YAML file and reloading.
Much like a moderated Discord server, I've configured my server so that only admins can create new channels. My server isn't meant for users to create their own communities. If that's your interest, you're better off heading to Libera.Chat or hosting your own server.
The server is hosted on a $4/month DigitalOcean[3] Droplet, alongside a few other sites/apps. In the past few weeks and months, I've learned quite a bit about self-hosting public-facing applications on the internet. It's a bit tangential to this post, but I plan to share more info about my self-hosting setup and experiences in the future.
Suggested Clients
I've tried out a few clients and recently settled on Halloy for desktop. Halloy is an open-source, cross-platform client written in Rust, and supports many IRCv3 features mentioned above.
For mobile, I've been using Goguma.
There are a number of other clients with decent support for IRCv3 as well.
More IRC
If you're looking for interesting IRC channels in which to chat or lurk, I suggest the following on the Libera.Chat network:
#ircv3#ergo#halloy#indieweb#gamedev#lobsters
Not sure what IRC is all about? Check out this guide from Libera.Chat. ↩︎
The IRC links in this post will only work if you already have an IRC client installed and capable of handling
irc(s)://protocol links. ↩︎My DigitalOcean referral link ↩︎