Forum:Revisit closing down the IRC channel

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I think this community should revisit closing down the IRC channel. I have seen on Discord that it is a much more popular and lively server which has attracted more people than IRC has meaning it is a much better option and is also the only promoted option for people to use as a chatroom. The relay to the IRC on Discord is always silent and the "bot" that is meant to link the two platforms together does not work most of the time and its owner is never online.

By closing down the IRC channel this would mean that the administrators won't need to monitor another platform and by simplyfying the chat room platforms we have on this website, this will make it easier for everybody to find where they need to go to chat and this will reduce the burden on the staff here as they won't need to monitor a dying platform. I hope everybody considers my proposal.MarketingSimmer (talk) 19:44, 25 April 2021 (UTC)

Discussion[edit source]

The relay to the IRC on Discord is always silent. Completely false. You only need to look at the relay and the IRC channel for a few days to know that it is not silent

the "bot" that is meant to link the two platforms together does not work most of the time. Also completely false. It is working right now as I speak.

its owner is never online. Also completely false. He was last online a month ago.

By closing down the IRC channel this would mean that the administrators won't need to monitor another platform. Completely misinformed. You can see on TSW:IRC that virtually none of the active channel operators are wiki admins and that the wiki admin team is not responsible for running the IRC channel. Therefore, the "burden" you speak of is completely non-existent.

this will make it easier for everybody to find where they need to go to chat. You obviously ignored my response to your previous proposal, where I wrote We have had no issues with people being confused about what they should use; nearly everyone we've encountered have been able to find the Discord server..

Speaking of which, you've also completely ignored everybody else's comments on your previous proposal as well, which is that the IRC channel is still being used and still has its own community of long-time members. Why should they listen to your bogus, disconnected proposal?

Finally, at the end of the day, the wiki has absolutely nothing to gain from shutting the IRC channel down. It costs nothing to operate or maintain—except maybe my patience for ill-informed forum threads like this one. The wiki's efforts have indeed shifted to focus more on Discord, but there is nothing for us to gain by shutting down IRC, and we still have some long-time community members that still use IRC. Are you going to consider them in your proposal, or do they simply not matter to you? —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 20:26, 25 April 2021 (UTC)

Completely false. You only need to look at the relay and the IRC channel for a few days to know that it is not silent But it is silent more often than not. It is not a widely used feature in our community.
Also completely false. It is working right now as I speak. But it is offline more than it is online. The uptime of the "bot" is what I would estimate at 25%. In a real world IT environment that is abysmal and unacceptable. Businesses I have worked with have changed suppliers for less than that.
Also completely false. He was last online a month ago. That means there is nobody to run the relay if they only show up once per month. Are they having trouble paying the bills? They must be if they cannot run a service to a high standard.
The wiki's efforts have indeed shifted to focus more on Discord This is just one of the reasons the IRC should be closed down. The IRC channel is dead weight.
Are you going to consider them in your proposal, or do they simply not matter to you? Adapt with the times. If they cannot adapt then they will not swim. There is nothing to prevent them from joining the Discord. The people who used Wiki Chat moved to the Discord without complaining so why can't the people on the IRC do the same? There are no negatives from closing down the IRC permanently.MarketingSimmer (talk) 20:54, 25 April 2021 (UTC)
But it is offline more than it is online. The uptime of the "bot" is what I would estimate at 25%. In a real world IT environment that is abysmal and unacceptable. Businesses I have worked with have changed suppliers for less than that. Are you on Discord or IRC? Where did your "25% uptime" come from? The uptime would be more akin to 90%; it has only been down a handful of times over the past few years. Additionally, the bot is being run by a volunteer, not by a professional business solution. What more do you expect from them? Why don't you pay for the bot, then, if you're so concerned for it?
That means there is nobody to run the relay if they only show up once per month. Are they having trouble paying the bills? They must be if they cannot run a service to a high standard. Why are you acting as if the Discord-to-IRC relay is absolutely essential? Explain.
This is just one of the reasons the IRC should be closed down. The IRC channel is dead weight. And you have again completely ignored my responses: there is nothing for us to gain by shutting down IRC, and It costs nothing to operate or maintain. Your imagined "burden" is just that: a figment of your imagination.
Stop wasting our time with this pointless proposal. You're utterly concerned for what is essentially nothing. Your time is better spent improving an article, not rallying to get a niche feature shut down. —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 21:03, 25 April 2021 (UTC)
The relative cost of keeping the IRC channel open is basically nil. Keeping it up is not an administrative burden as MarketingSimmer claims. It doesn't cost us anything financially to keep it open. And its continued existence hasn't led to any noticeable confusion from the community so far as I'm aware. On the other hand, consider the relative cost of shutting it down. There are several users who use the IRC channel regularly, who do not use Discord; by shutting the channel down, they are forced out. The relative cost could be justified, but MarketingSimmer has given no concrete justification for incurring the cost. Oppose. -- LostInRiverview talk · blog · contribs 04:12, 26 April 2021 (UTC)
Oppose - Sorry, but no. This is literally a repeat of the previous proposal that you started nearly 2 years prior. No circumstances have changed since that time, and I would strongly recommend that you don't try and make any further proposals to shut down IRC. LiR and k6ka have voiced their opinions on this forum, and given that I agree with pretty much everything that they've said, I don't really have anything further to add. Other than that I don't think you should try and make any further proposals relating to shutting down IRC. ― C.Syde (talk | contribs) 01:49, 27 April 2021 (UTC)