IRC

Much OSGeo related communication happens in IRC (Internet Relay Chat), an instant messaging protocol. Lots of general information on IRC is available in Wikipedia.

Clients

IRC requires IRC client software. There are a wide variety of clients available:

Desktop IRC clients

A nice IRC client is for example https://hexchat.github.io/
Thunderbird (email client) has a great IRC client that is included in the default installation: see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/instant-messaging-and-chat

Browser IRC plugins

Chrome has several IRC apps/extensions, including CIRC
~~The ChatZilla client is available for Firefox users on all platforms.~~ (not supported as of Firefox Quantum version in 2017)

Web based IRC

IRC uses a TCP/IP port which is often blocked in environments with strictly managed internet access. In these environments it is still possible to use http based clients such as:

Matrix bridges

Many IRC channels are also bridged to Matrix rooms

IRC ops may find the following document useful to make life easier for Matrix users: https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-irc/wiki/End-user-FAQ#i-am-a-chanop-and-have-a-spam-problem-how-can-i-fix-it-without-affecting-matrix-users

Channels

The primary OSGeo IRC channel is #osgeo on the Libera.Chat network.

Other channels of interest:

Initiatives

#osgeo-gci Google Code-In (GCI) discussions (connect through Webchat)
#osgeo-gsoc Summer of Code (GSoC) discussions (connect through Webchat)

Events

#foss4g - FOSS4G conference organization & discussions
#tosprint OSGeo Code Sprint

Other

Networks

Libera

The IRC network of choice for most projects is the libera.chat network. Due to the presence of spammers some channels require users to be registered to the network in order to join. Registration of a nickname can be done following this guide:

https://libera.chat/guides/registration

OSGeo is registered as a group in the Libera network, with group contacts (nicknames) being:

Freenode (legacy)

Some channels *may* be still in freenode (but it will be a matter of time before they migrate to Libera). If you don't find your project channel in Libera please consider looking in Freenode and propose migration.

NOTE that OSGeo doesn't own a group registration and many (all?) registered nicknames were deleted by the network so don't trust people in there to be who they claim to be (unless you have other means to check)

Etiquette

Don't ask to ask, just go ahead and ask your question.
Don't paste large chunks of text into IRC channels. If you want to present a code or configuration file snippet to others to look at use a "pasting service" like http://codepad.org/ or http://osgeo.pastebin.com/ to host the snippet, and then paste the url to it into the IRC channel.
If you want the attention of a particular person, include their nick in the message and they will generally be alerted (flashed, bell rung, etc).
Give folks a while to respond. They are usually multi-tasking and might not look at IRC for a while.
If an active conversation is going on, wait for a lull to raise a different topic (a minute of inactivity for instance)

Logs

Many popular OSGeo related channels used to be logged independently by GeoApt. The service is now interrupted but historical logs may still be found there:

 http://irclogs.geoapt.com/
 http://irclogs.geoapt.com/osgeo

Nowadays most channels rely on other logging facilities. Refer to the topic (/topic) of each channel to find out.

IRC

Contents