[getfresh]

Originally Posted by complich8

Going back to the topic ...

From what I've seen, most of the people still talking on IRC are regulars who're just keeping in touch with each other. It's a social circle thing. I basically never see people talking about anime on IRC these days, but that's probably a reflection of there being so ridiculously much to choose from. I mean, for someone like me who's lucky to be able to watch maybe an hour or two of the stuff a week these days, there's no way you can make the assumption that I've seen this weeks episode of whatever this season's en-fuego series is. And most of the people I see on IRC on any kind of regular basis are in about the same boat.


In the past, IRC was hands down the best way to get anything. But now with bittorrent in its myriad flavors, ddl sites, youtube and whatnot it's pretty much the worst way for most people to get most things.

When IRC was the best for getting stuff, people went to it to get stuff and there was a big population and usage surge for a couple years, as the whole digisub movement hit and distribution tech struggled to catch up. But now, at least in my perception of it, most of the traffic is social rooms and lingering dcc traffic.

The thing about all that is, in that flood you had a lot of discussion going on as just a side effect of the swells of people rolling in, but in these ebb times you see a lot of different discussion that couldn't withstand the noise of hundreds of people cycling through channels and hitting bots and whatnot. Of the 15 or 20 people I regularly see active on IRC, I know quite a lot about most of them. I'm not talking to a hundred different people, but I'm also not telling a hundred different people that the latest release is pack #15 on SomeBot and please read the topic.


Of course, that's saying nothing of staff rooms. A lot of fansubbers still use IRC as their primary means of collaboration, simply because it's easy, lightweight and exactly as persistent as they want it to be (versus overly-transient chatrooms, overly-direct im's, overly persistent fora, overly-cumbersome collab software).

Then, I wonder how many fansubbers are still using that model, versus others...

The majority still use IRC, for English based groups that is. And you are right, it is the regulars who talk. That is pretty much how it has always been imo. Some ppl just join and leech, or join and idle cause it is a "hip" group to hang out in or to hear about when a new release happens. The fact of the matter imo is that channels will be around until fansubbing ends. IRC makes it very easy for staff to communicate without any lag or refreshing, or searching for a topic(forums). Has logging features, and the ability to set up new project channels with ease. Etc.. etc...