Chat · brlcad · Zulip Chat Archive

Stream: brlcad

Topic: Chat

Sean (May 07 2020 at 21:47):

Hey, lets have a chat about how we chat.

starseeker (May 07 2020 at 21:47):

O.o uh, OK...

starseeker (May 07 2020 at 21:49):

You mean here, or elsewhere?

So as many have noticed and some have commented on, our community has become increasingly fragmented ever since we migrated from IRC to Zulip. Some people (myself included) transitioned slowly or not at all, choosing to be only on IRC. Others just don't have the bandwidth to open a 1-off chat client with everything else begging for their attention.

Sean (May 07 2020 at 21:51):

This is meant to just be an open discussion to any and all (likely over several days) that care to chime in. And give me a place to write down some of my thoughts on this issue.

Sean (May 07 2020 at 21:51):

As I see this as a particularly big problem right now.

Sean (May 07 2020 at 21:52):

That was part of the reason for spending so much time setting up the IRC-Zulip bridge, but that has proven incredibly limited and complicated to sustain (it's currently broken due to python issues).

Sean (May 07 2020 at 21:53):

I think we should change, but love to hear any dissent.

Sean (May 07 2020 at 21:54):

on the one hand, I like Zulip in general, like threaded discussions, like rich content for code snippets and images, easy entry from web or app, ...

Sean (May 07 2020 at 21:57):

on the other, it feels like Zulip has made us considerably more isolated, especially compared to IRC. CAx collaboration that was happening all the time on IRC pretty much came to a halt as I transitioned more to Z and less attention to IRC.

Sean (May 07 2020 at 21:59):

so what does everyone else think about Zulip? Love it? Hate it? Don't care?

starseeker (May 07 2020 at 21:59):

In many ways I like the simplicity of IRC, but there is no denying that it's easier to hold topical discussions on Zulip

starseeker (May 07 2020 at 22:11):

The barrier to entry is higher for IRC - that has pros and cons

Daniel Rossberg (May 08 2020 at 06:52):

In my opinion, IRC is no option. To follow the discussions there, you have always to be online. Or, you need a server (besides freenode.net) which is always online for you. Which means, that you have to monitor this server constantly, to make sure, that it is indeed online. Even infobot@rikers.org seems to lose the connection for over a week sometimes.

In addition, there are magnitudes of usability between "ask a question and stay online until somebody answers, which still doesn't mean that you get all answers" and "ask a question and you will get an email or a notification on your phone if somebody answers as long as you keep these notifications activated in your settings".

I don't want to say that Zulip is the best chat system, but IRC is not an option.

Sean (Sep 30 2020 at 15:17):

Interesting news today, may affect us down the road: https://matrix.org/blog/2020/09/30/welcoming-gitter-to-matrix

Sean (Sep 30 2020 at 15:20):

I've been using Element since the summer and have been mostly liking it. The encryption options do get in the way.

Sean (Sep 30 2020 at 15:21):

Gitter is well integrated on GitHub so that was being considered after we transition the main repo (probably bridging to Zulip for a long while). It supposedly hooks into IRC well too.

Sean (Nov 18 2020 at 14:49):

@starseeker We're not currently archiving our Zulip Chat history, but I'd like to. It's been on a to-do to figure out, so if you did -- that's awesome. Known it's possible since we switched to Zulip, just hadn't done anything about it yet.

Sean (Nov 18 2020 at 14:51):

Was planning to at least pull a dump before we switch off of Zulip. I have some things in mind there, but am holding off on those thoughts/distractions until after Github migration.

Thusal Ranawaka (Nov 18 2020 at 16:39):

You are changing the Chat after GitHub Migration? @Sean

Sumagna Das (Nov 18 2020 at 18:11):

I think they are going to switch to gitter

Sumagna Das (Nov 18 2020 at 18:12):

and keep it connected to the irc with an IRC bridge, I guess.

Sean (Nov 20 2020 at 07:34):

that's the general idea, though we may end up on Element or people may have a choice between Element and Gitter since they're both going to be using the Matrix protocol.