Connecting users to LoCo's via IRC

[Myriam Schweingruber]

Hi all,

On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 18:30, Jan Claeys<lists at janc.be> wrote:
> Op maandag 03-08-2009 om 10:51 uur [tijdzone +0100], schreef Jorge O.
> Castro:
>> Right now in our IRC clients when you launch them we autojoin them to
>> #ubuntu. This makes the channel unwieldy, see
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-community/+bug/392799
>>
>> I was wondering how people felt about having the users join
>> #ubuntu-COUNTRYCODE instead, so depending on your locale it would join
>> you to that channel instead of #ubuntu. How do you feel about this,
>> would it be useful for LoCo's or do you feel like you would get
>> "spammed" by random users?
>
> Ubuntu Belgium refers to #ubuntu-nl, #ubuntu-fr, #ubuntu-de & #ubuntu
> for support (and we have some members who follow those channels to help
> with support).

The same is valid for Switzerland: we refer people for support to
either #ubuntu-de, #kubuntu-de, #ubuntu-fr or #ubuntu-it. The
#ubuntu-ch is in English only to make sure we can understand each
other. With 4 official languages in Switzerland you can't expect
everybody to know all the other three ones, so a multilingual channel
is not possible. #ubuntu-ch is a coordination channel for events in
Switzerland, the only support issue I could imagine would be something
related to the Swiss keyboard layout which is a bit particular.

I strongly advise against splitting off #ubuntu (or #kubuntu, for
those having installed that version), as it would take away many
useful helpers to language specific channels. What would be much more
advisable would be to teach people how to behave in IRC and force them
to read the IRC guidelines and the Code of Conduct before joining any
*ubuntu related channel on IRC. This would drastically diminish the
workload for all the operators, regardless what channel they
administrate. And it would make these channels even more friendly
places :)

Also, #ubuntu and #kubuntu have become very useful support channels
over the years with a lot of knowledge bundled in one place, it would
certainly be counterproductive to take this away. Also, for people who
do not master English, there is always a helping hand to show them the
way to their specific language channel. For now those language
specific channels are mostly not very helpful, some of those being
either half dead or do not really offer support. I have very often
heard form people that their language specific channel has nobody who
could help.

So please, think twice before changing the status quo, include a
mandatory read of the IRC guidelines and the Code of Conduct before
letting people join a channel for the first time would be much more
helpful to all of us.


Regards, Myriam aka Mamarok on #kubuntu
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