[bluefox]

IRC is one of the few Internet venues I still frequent. Been using it since 1998. Some years ago an important (but small, private) channel moved from EFnet to Freenode, so that is the network I now use. Seeing Freenode IRCops looking to fix what ain't broken ("but it's opt-in" they'll say..) makes me have doubts about the move. If this sounds "get off my lawn" to you, you're getting it.

[abstractbeliefs]

You're welcome to come chat to me in ###kline over there, there's some useful upstream discussion on it here as well: https://cmpwn.com/@kline/102333166678467931

Make no mistake, we don't want to change IRC, but we do want to take some of the sharp edges off. I'll never move away from hexchat, the client I use now, and maintaining that backwards compatibility and character for all users is a red line for us.

[buzzert]

What are some good channels to visit in 2019? I feel like most of the ones I used to frequent are dead silent now. And my small friend channels have since moved to Discord.

[bluefox]

I guess the programming language related ones are a good start. In my experience they have a high signal-to-noise ratio. Otherwise, it depends on your interests... you can always start your own, making sure it's good... There is/was a /list command, but I never really used it as all the good channels were at least +s ;) It's all word of mouth, really.