Freenode IRC

[Rainer Müller]

On 19/05/2021 15.43, Marius Schamschula wrote:
> It has come to my attention, on Twitter, that freenode.net
> <http://freenode.net>, were MacPorts hosts it’s IRC channels, is having
> some serious issues [1]. The admins have resigned and control may now be
> in questionable hands.

Right, we need to take action and move away from Freenode. This also
opens a few opportunities for us on how to go forward.


a) Move #macports to Libera.Chat
While there are also other IRC networks, the new Libera.Chat appears to
become the direct successor of Freenode. Many projects are moving right now.

b) Declare RocketChat as official chat
We already have a RocketChat instance at chat.macports.org, which has
been running for a while in parallel and we already gathered a few
users. [1]

c) Evaluate further options
IRC is old, lacks modern features. Self-hosted RocketChat requires
regular maintenance. Matrix could be another federated alternative.


Rainer

[1] The RocketChat #general channel is supposed to be bridged to the IRC
    channel, but this is broken at the moment.
    See https://trac.macports.org/ticket/62908