move the ubuntu irc channels to jabber ?

[Sami Haahtinen]

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Jerry Haltom wrote:
> I will be for this position, like most positions, when the benefits
> outweigh the downsides.  Right now I see too many downsides.
> 
> 1) You don't have to DO ANYTHING to get on IRC, just open a client. On
> Jabber you need to setup or find a server and register with it.

Ok, there is the registering part. Although, it's possible to use
anonymous connections to connect to jabber servers too. But in general,
the only part that is different from irc (if you don't register your
nickname) is that you need to register an account on a Jabber server.
Other than that there is no difference.

With IRC, most of the clients are just preconfigured to connect to the
proper server. Without a preconfigured client you would still have to
look for the right server (yes, reading it from a webpage is basically
searching)

> 2) Most of the existing Jabber clients... suck. Sorry. Maybe they work
> okay on the user's side, but for managing a channel, kicking people,
> RUNNING BOTS, there is just too much missing.

With MUC rooms you have the ability to kick people, ban people and
manage the room in a more extensive way than what you can in IRC. The
difference is that the tools are usually just shown to the people that
are able to use these tools.

This is a usability benefit for Jabber.

As for Infobots, there are infobots written for Jabber too. And i doubt
that migrating the infobots to jabber would be a huge issue.

> At the same time, I do see us moving there in the future, WHEN it
> becomes a de-facto standard. When everybody has a Jabber client, and
> when you open up Ubuntu and it's accessible by default.

Doesn't Ubuntu ship with Gaim? It has Jabber support as well as IRC support.

If i start looking for real ideas for using Jabber as a part of the
support network i wouldn't just replace IRC with it. I would bring
jabber in as part of launchpad. Think about it, per team chatrooms, live
bug notifications. How about passing crash reports via Jabber if
available with Telepathy? Service similar to qunu within launchpad?

Stretching further would be to chat within a bug if more than one party
is online, chat log would be stored within the bug report.

Yes, i'm just throwing out ideas here.

- - S
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