As you may or may not know, I am a very frequent member of the IRC community.  IRC, or Internet Relay Chat, is a early internet technology that allows users to chat from all over the world in a simple and easy environment.   IRC has seen a new life come out recently from some social media events such as Online streaming.  UStream uses IRC to allow users to communicate within a community and show, Justin.TV uses a hacked form of IRC to communicate as well.

Depending on the network that you chat on, you can find users that chat about anything. From software development, fighting malware, talking about technology, or even discussing the latest movies and video games. IRC is a place that you can find many people to pass time and even find good bits of help and friends.

There are two networks that I frequent are GeekShed, and DevilsFreek.  GeekShed is ranked as one of the top 100 IRC networks that are rated by users and channels by SearchIRC.  DevilsFreek is more of a quiet and small community that is more of a test bed for my workings.

IRC has had a few bad bursts of publicity in the past, media often covers IRC as a place that hackers hack, and steal credit card numbers and botnets are from.  While there are a few places that this is true, the majority of IRC networks are safe and have active network administrators that keep the trouble makers away.

If you want to connect to GeekShed to take a peak at what IRC is, and what not, feel free to click the More button and a flash chat should appear below.

Tags: irc, Raves, Social Media

This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 5:16 PM and is filed under Random, Raves. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.