move the ubuntu irc channels to jabber ?

[Samir van de Sand]

On 10/22/06, Cody Somerville <cody.somerville at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm no expert but here is my opinion:
>
>
> > * From the rational point this is a better solution, because you can
> > use your existing IM program like Gaim and Kopete to connect to the
> > chat channels.
>
>
>  Gaim already supports IRC. I think Kopete does as well.

I know that, but in background Gaim / Kopete stills builds up 2
different connections, while in Jabber both is realized with the same
protocol, which makes it more efficient.

>
>
> > * In Jabber the Server communicate among each other, which means that
> > a user which has an account on jabber server a can enter a channel on
> > server b without connecting to server b and identifying on server b.
>
>
>  IRC does the same thing and that is why it is called Internet Relay Chat.
>
>
> > * Ubuntu as a free distribution should support the spreading of open
> > and standardized protocols in the IM world.
>
>
>  IRC is an open, standardized protocol as well.
>
>   Why should we not move to Jabber?
>
>
> Confusion. Old documents, information, websites, memories, etc. would point
> to the IRC channels. People would visit the IRC channels looking for help
> and would be sadly disappointed. Just migrating to anything could be
> potentially damaging.

I don't think the confusion would be too big, because the user can
just fire up his  Gaim / Kopete, which he already is already familiar
with, register an account and connect to the channel. Probably, I
expressed myself wrong in my first mail. Rather than moving to Jabber,
we should as Jabber as an additional communication channel to the
existing communications channels like IRC, mailing lists ...

> Popularity. Though I may be wrong, I perceive IRC to be more popular then
> Jabber. Personally, I idle on several ubuntu related channels just because I
> happen to be on the same network. If channels were distributed over several
> different networks (or protocols for that matter) then I'm sure some of the
> channels wouldn't see me often.

Yeah, I'm aware of this issue, but somewhere back in history IRC
wasn't well known too and at some point the people noticed that IRC
was just better than the existing way to do that and so it became
popular and like this happened to IRC back then now, it's time for
Jabber.

> Consistency. I would imagine some people would refuse to move and there
> really isn't much we can do. To my understanding, all ubuntu channels pretty
> much reside on the freenode network and I can tell you from experience that
> this is beneficial. For example, if I heard about xubuntu then I might poke
> my head into #xubuntu to see if anyone is there - tada, there are people
> there!
> Effort. I think most people would agree with me that it would be a waste of
> effort. Sorry to be so adamant about this but I just don't perceive any
> benefits of moving. Maybe someone else can think of other benefits that
> should be considered?

Yeah, there're still 2 advantages left, which I elaborated in my previous mails:
* Federation
* Improved user friendliness, because you don't need to run any
console commands.