Why I left IRC

I know it's been about a month before I've posted, but that's because I moved to rural Florida. I'll talk about that later, but let me just say: four acres of land, ftw.

But that aside, I have decided to leave IRC. No, it's not because I've been (as they probably would say) "butthurt" by some idiot's insult, but something I've been thinking about quietly for a long time. See, IRC is full of idiots who don't have a clue and people looking for an ego boost. Most of the people who use IRC have less of a life than I do (at least I can boast a few IRL friends, unlike most of them). To quote something I read:

IRC seems to be the net's equivalent of East Palo Alto, a grimy evil place of belligerent drug lords in the middle of a land of gold. They like the idea of more people becoming addicted to their own private heroin, but like Bob Dole they're a bit upset at these masses who "never worked, never fought, and never did anything real," like compiling an IRC server on an old 486.

I've determined that IRC has done little to help me in any way. I haven't been able to find help for the more difficult problems I encounter with Unix, coding, or other things, since I'm not a "noobie" anymore and can figure out the easy stuff on my own (and in most channels, like real life, only the easy questions get answered unless money is involved). I haven't learned a damn thing from IRC in far too long either. Every channel I hang out in has no interesting discussions or content. It's all just boring answers to stupid questions.

IRC definitely stopped being fun a while ago. Most of the smart people left long ago, creating a "brain drain." What's left is a pile of drooling snobs who don't know a 486 from their monthly wage. The few intelligent people who are left are generally obnoxious assholes who think that if you don't know everything they know, you're instantly retarded. IRC's population continues to shrink every year (it is predicted IRC will stop being a lively medium by 2020), and I see why.

I'm also tired of the people pretending to be girls and all the paedophiles. People on IRC don't like to talk about it, but it really is a huge breeding ground for e-transvesties and child molesters. Most channel and IRC ops try to hide it and cover it up. Despite the makeup and cheap perfume, it's no better than a stereotypical AOL chatroom. Seriously. If I would have been asked for cybersex on IRC one more time, my head would have exploded (yes, I was frequently solicited for cybersex. I am even a recovering cyberrape victim, having been raped by Olene).

IRC is increasingly irrelevant also. The only network growing is FreeNode, and it is being overrun by the same dumbasses who come from MySpace and Facebook. It's also run by the most retarded morons known to mankind. Many channels (even the big ones) just sit idle all day, with the only activity being join, part and quit messages, or are filled with boring conversations as I pointed out earlier. Many channels are being trolled to the point where it is pointless to be in them anymore (and of course, the ops just want you to "ignore" them. Pretty hard when you have 1000 bots joining the channel).

ESR used to say that you wouldn't find any real hackers on IRC, although he claims this has changed. It hasn't. I haven't seen a "real" hacker on IRC in ages, or at least one that wasn't a prick. Well, I lied. There are a few I can think of. But they generally don't hang out on IRC anymore, or their IRC activity is highly limited to the few extremely small pockets of intelligent-yet-not-obnoxious life left.

Maybe you disagree with me on these points. Maybe you just don't care. Maybe you think I'm actually "butthurt" and going "waaaaah waaah". I don't honestly care what you think either, as you probably don't do it very often. All I can say is, if you're listening, and you give a damn about me, then you can find me on MSN, Gtalk, AIM, or other places or such (just see my homepage). For everyone else, and to all the morons, shitheads, and idiots on IRC: go fuck yourself. Hope that helps.