[SCHiM]

I'm very technical, I've written hacks for online games, boot loaders, my own micro-operating system, accounting software, http servers. I've written patches for snort (the ids, not public) and a ton of other stuff.

Yet I'm not on irc, I'd be a hire you'd miss if you used irc as a screening filter.

> "and I have actually decided not to work with specific developers before in a professional setting because they literally could not figure out how connect to freenode and join a keyed channel"

How about you just talk to people in the way they're used too? Instead of deriding them for not using <insert favorite means of communication here>. I know how to use irc, so this scenario does not completely apply to me, but it's very possible that a very technical person has never seen it before and has trouble with the irc commands or w/e. Especially since irc is really becoming a relic of the past, and newer hackers/programmers might never have used or seen it.

[Mithaldu]

There's a difference between "not knowing" and "not being able to figure out".

Further, he never mentions exactly how long they gave those developers to figure it out.

The post is a bit unclear about this, but if you give them the benefit of the doubt, then they're testing exactly for the key ability any IT worker needs: The ability to research a new technology. You make the assumption that they did not give them much time, but consider for yourself the following please.

You send a senior developer an email that says the following:

    use IRC to connect to freenode,
    join the channel #blah
    using the password sekrit

A day goes by and you receive an email indicating they were not able to do that.

Assuming their network does not actively hinder IRC use, what does that tell you about their ability to do basic research?

[Domenic_S]

> The ability to research a new technology.

Importantly, an old technology that's new to them. This isn't researching node.js in 2012 -- there are reams upon reams of how-tos and so forth about IRC.

(in case it wasn't clear, I'm agreeing with you)

[SCHiM]

Yes, that's exactly right. But then you're not using _irc_ as a screening filter, but your applicants ability to research new things.

Which is not what the article says you should use this screening tactic for, since there is a large group of technical people out there that is irc-literate. Which implies that irc was not chosen, as you suggest to figure-out a persons autodidactic abilities, but rather because the author (kind-of-correctly) assumes that most technical people have at least a passing-relation with irc.

[astrobe_]

I believe that the author is actually looking for geeks. I mean that kind of geek that is curious about everything including the obscure, old, or unpopular stuff. You are more likely to find them on IRC than on the latest, over-hyped social network or instant messaging service.

[mariusz79]

" very technical person has never seen it before and has trouble with the irc commands "

technical person having trouble with the irc commands - isn't that oxymoron?

[GeneralMayhem]

No. If you don't use it regularly, there's a lot of commands to learn. It's not hard per se, but I wouldn't want to be judged on it within a few minutes of being introduced to it.

[blfr]

Two. /connect and /join. Maybe /quit afterwards.

Irssi will lift your nickname from the username. It may even come with freenode pre-configured.

[ikawe]

And a third:

/ignore #room-name JOINS PARTS QUITS

[mariusz79]

First of all there are just few command that you need to learn. and they are so easy and obvious that it's crazy. Second, it is an oxymoron, because if you claim that you are technical person, you should have no problem doing /help and reading the documentation. if you can't do that - you're not technical . Oxymoron.

[SCHiM]

Of course not, the breath of technology these days is huge. Knowledge of irc, a chat protocol that's been in decline since 2003 and perhaps used by about 400k people daily, is by no means indicative of technical skill.

Can you imagine that it'd be kind of hard to join to join a channel for your interview if you've never been told how or were granted the time to find out?

Sure it's popular in opensource/hackers/etc, but I'm sure that 'people who use irc' is a true subset of 'people who are technical' and not the other way around.

[mariusz79]

Irc is easy. It does not require huge knowledge. If you can't login to irc channel, even by simply typing "web irc client" in google and clicking on the first link, you are not a technical person.

[mariusz79]

@SCHIM the permise here is that if you are technical person you should be able to find all that information out. If you can't then .. oh well...

[SCHiM]

@mariusz79 (I see what you did there ;-))

That makes little sense to me, if the point was to use the applicants ability lean how to use a new technology as a screening filter then I don't see how using irc fits that requirement.

Although I'm opposed to the idea of using irc as a screen, since I know that there are people who don't use it but are technical, I'm not suggesting that most technical people don't know what irc is. Just that it's kind of useless to use a known technology to test the ability to learn new technology, especially amongst developers.

[huu]

If it's easy, why use it as a filter?

[mariusz79]

Because apparently some people can't get pass that filter.. FizzBuzz is also easy, yet it's being used as a filter.

[SCHiM]

You and I know there are web clients.

But what if you're, as the article says, used to skype?

would it occur to you that there might be web based irc? Skype doesn't support that, and certainly the only things you see when you google 'irc' are clients you'd have to install, or worse: compile. Tough freenode does seem to have the webclient high in the list of results...

But then looking at their client is another example of why irc might not be straight-forward enough to use. This is what happened when I tried to use it with a random, but obviously too short, user name:

--- [19:43] Licensed under the GNU General Public License, Version 2.

[19:43] == * (qwebirc) Looking up your hostname...

[19:43] == * (qwebirc) Found your hostname.

[19:43] == Connected to server.

[19:43] -herbert.freenode.net- * Looking up your hostname...

[19:43] -herbert.freenode.net- * Checking Ident

[19:43] -herbert.freenode.net- * No Ident response

[19:43] -herbert.freenode.net- * Couldn't look up your hostname

[19:43] == CGI:IRC host/IP set to gateway/web/freenode/session ...

[19:43] == bob Nick/channel is temporarily unavailable

[19:43] == bob's Erroneous Nickname

[19:44] == ERROR: Closing Link: gateway/web/freenode/session (Connection timed out)

[19:44] == Disconnected from server: Connection to IRC server lost. ---

Riiigiht, very usefull, I can't use the nick bob. What now? How do I change it? where's my change button? etc. etc. I think my point stands, irc might not be 'hard' but for a first time user it's not easy either.