How to join #CodeWalrus IRC channel

[xlibman]

UPDATED on January 8th 2016

#CodeWalrus IRC channel is available on the EFnet IRC network. EFnet is where most TI-related IRC channels (most notably, #Cemetech, #Omnimaga and Ticalc.org's channel #TI) are located, and a list of available servers is available at  http://www.efnet.org/?module=servers . The IRC channel is +s (secret) right now, so it won't show up when regular IRC users type /list in their client, but you should be able to join with no problem using your favorite IRC client, IRCCloud or Mibbit. If a server doesn't work for you, try another from the list.

You can also chat from WalrusIRC directly above the forums if you have 5 posts and higher, or from Telegram Messenger. Regardless of where you chat from, your messages will be automatically relayed between the IRC channel and the site shoutbox.

#CodeWalrus shall be a place to hang out for CodeWalrus forum members. We recommend that people who need calculator, programming or other kind of technical help use the forum, though, in case their query gets missed. More people will benefit that way, since it won't get lost in the logs.

In addition to #CodeWalrus, there are other CW IRC channels, also on EFnet:
#cw-anime: While our main channel allows anime discussion, it's recommended to use this smaller channel instead when #CodeWalrus is busy with programming discussion.
#cw-craft: CW Minecraft server IRC channel. You can chat with people in-game there or vice-versa.
#cw-spam: Bot-testing channel. This is *not* a flooding channel.

(click to show/hide)

#CodeWalrus IRC chatroom now available on three networks!

I am pleased to announce that #CodeWalrus IRC channel is now available on three different IRC networks: EFnet, Freenode and now Omninet! All of them are +s (secret) right now, though, so they won't show up when regular IRC users type /list in their client. Only EFnet and Freenode used to be supported, but since Black Sunday is approaching, OmniNet was finally added.

OmniNet is home of #Omnimaga and various sub-channels, which is also reachable via EFnet. EFnet also hosts #Cemetech and Ticalc.org's channel #ti. Freenode, on the other hand, hosts #KnightOS.

You can also use OmnomIRC, available via the link in the box above, but keep in mind it's not properly configured yet and it lags *a lot* (up to 30 seconds to send text and load the page), which is why it is not available yet on every forum page. Regardless of where you chat from, your messages will be automatically relayed to other networks and OmnomIRC!

A post notifier bot is also being setup as I write this, but it will be disabled until January 1st 2015. The Twitter and Facebook pages will go public a bit earlier, though.

#CodeWalrus shall be a place to hang out for CodeWalrus forum members. We recommend that people who need calculator help use the forum, though, in case their query gets missed. More people will benefit that way (at least when this site goes live).

[pimathbrainiac]

The post notifier is almost complete. I'll open source it in a bit.

[xlibman]

Yay! It also seems to work, but make sure it doesn't keep missing posts nor DoS the site by itself. Checking the RSS feed every 5 or 10 seconds shall be fine.


You should also make post notificiations more visible and looking more like posts like this:

(F)<NewWalrii> New Post! Re: #CodeWalrus IRC chatroom now available on three networks! | http://codewalr.us/index.php?topic=78.msg1285#msg1285

Instead of:

(F)<NewWalrii> Re: #CodeWalrus IRC chatroom now available on three networks! | http://codewalr.us/index.php?topic=78.msg1285#msg1285

Of course if we need to edit it on the server make sure to CHMOD it well enough so that all 5 staff can edit it.

[bb010g]

What about a NOTICE?

[xlibman]

Most people have their IRC client set to show notices outside the channel (such as server tab), so they won't notice the new posts.

[xlibman]

Hm it looks like the EFnet channel is no longer synced with the Omninet channel nor OmnomIRC, or there is some intense lag between both networks, so if any activity occured this afternoon on EFnet then it probably never appeared in W/OIRC nor the Freenode/Omninet channels.

Hopefully juju restarts the bot soon.

EDIT It appears that stuff sends from Omninet to EFnet, but with three to four minutes of lag, and stuff won't send at all from EFnet to Omninet.

[xlibman]

Updated first post to reflect the server changes, since that topic is directly reachable from the site navigation.

[xlibman]

Note: In a not so distant future, we will discontinue Omninet support for our chat room, making #Codewalrus IRC channel EFnet-only, just like #Cemetech and #TI. We still need approval from @Duke "Tape" Eiyeron and @Juju for this, since it was only discusses with @Streetwalrus so far, but Only three people use the Omninet channel and the rest of the TI community has used EFnet since 1991. So I would recommend people such as @jamesguessis , @pimathbrainiac and @Sorunome to switch over to EFnet soon, to ensure they are not left behind if they want to continue idling in #Codewalrus.

[Duke "Tape" Eiyeron]

Why splitting from Omninet already?

[xlibman]

Because we don't really get enough traffic from there to justify having to maintain WalrusIRC to support multiple networks and deal with the desyncing that occurs often on Omninet. Also, Omninet was originally not my idea. It came into existence after I stepped down from Omni, when they attempted to ditch EFnet completely (but had to keep both due to protests).

I was against switching Omninet a month ago because we still had some users using it, but now we only have 3 left and 2 of them idle on #Cemetech , which is on EFnet. But of course it requires approval of juju and yourself as well.

[Juju]

I think Omninet was my idea, or at least I was in the founding members. I thought of it so we can have an IRC network for the entire TI community and everyone could have a channel for their project. But, well, as we all know, the community is kinda reticient moving from EFNet, CodeWalrus is among the only projects who bothered even having a channel there besides #omnimaga itself, and, well, you know the Omni admins, the network also attempted to be kinda Omni-centric.

Yeah, that kinda failed, save for #omnimaga who have quite a few people there. So, either let it die or promote the hell out of Omninet.

[xlibman]

Actually, I think a bit of the problem is that people from other sites were probably worried about losing users by moving from long-established channels, and back then, Omni still had the old rules that CW now has to a certain extent, so admins of other sites were probably worried that those rules would partly be applied to other site channels like Cemetech, TI, etc, resulting into partial  loss of control of the channels. It's also hard to convince 3 big channels, especially one where some people considered Omnimaga as arch rivals, to move from a network of 60000 users to your own network of 30 users.

I didn't know back then that the goal was to have a TI community network, though. I was sure the network was meant for Omnimaga IRC discussions.

[Streetwalrus]

That's what it came down to. Eeems even stripped the #omnimaga-* from the channel names on Omninet. :/

[xlibman]

Oh right, I forgot about that. Good thing redirects were implemented.

[Streetwalrus]

Yeah but still. For him Omninet=Omnimaga network. It's a neat network but not enough users and definitely no non Omnimaga users.