Contents

  1. IRC Is Where People Talk About GNOME. Join us.
  2. Step 1: Choose an IRC Application
  3. Step 2: Add the GNOME IRC Server
  4. Step 3: Join an IRC Channel
    1. Community & Core Experience
    2. Software
    3. Servers & Web
    4. Local Groups
    5. Others
    6. See Also
  5. Other Languages

IRC Is Where People Talk About GNOME. Join us.

IRC is one of the main communication channels of the GNOME community. You can freely join a channel that suits your interests if you are a user looking for help, a developer wanting to contribute, or anybody who wants to help with the GNOME project. This page is just a sample list of the channels that are out there. If you are interested in a particular project, find its wiki page and it most likely will have the information about its IRC channel.

Lurking is perfectly fine on IRC. Don't hesitate to join an IRC channel. The etiquette of IRC is such that you don't even need to say "hi" when you join and you can lurk in the channel for as long as you'd like unless you have a specific question or want to share your view in a discussion. So just joining a channel is pretty non-committal.

Provide all the information when asking a question. You can always ask a question on IRC and you don't need to ask if you can ask a question. Instead, go ahead and provide all the details relevant for your question. For example, if you have a build problem, you can put the error message into an online pastebin and post the link in the IRC channel, asking for help.

It's not you, it's the IRC channel. Don't be put off if no one answers your question. It probably means no one knows the answer and no one feels responsible to say that they don't. It's possible that the one person who would know the answer is not online or is busy. Stick around for a while. Get a sense of the channel's activity. Try asking your question when the channel seems livelier. In the meantime, search Bugzilla and the web an extra time.

Step 1: Choose an IRC Application

To use IRC you need an IRC client. The following GNOME applications provide IRC functionality:

Alternatively, you can connect to IRC from a browser. Users connecting though web proxies like KiwiIRC and Mibbit might be banned in some channels, because these allow joining anonymously, and have enabled channel spammers in the past. If you are getting a message that you are banned from joining, try a different way of joining. Use one of the following options to join from your browser:

  • Chatzilla Firefox Add-on

  • IRCCloud web IRC client

  • KiwiIRC web proxy IRC client

  • Mibbit web proxy IRC chat

  • Or, click on a link to a channel of interest listed below, then select Mibbit. Once you are on the webpage, choose a nick name (you may wish to leave the default nick), and click 'go'. This will immediately connect you to your channel.

Step 2: Add the GNOME IRC Server

GNOME's IRC Server is: irc.gnome.org - also known as GIMPNet, which is the name under which you'll find it in IRC applications' network lists (standard port is 6667 for non-SSL connections, 6697 for SSL connections).

Step 3: Join an IRC Channel

You can choose to join IRC channels that match your interests. You do not need to be approved for these - just join and start chatting with anyone else in the channel.

If not stated otherwise, all channels mentioned here are on irc.gnome.org server. This server is also knows as GIMPNet, which is the name under which you'll find it in IRC applications' network lists.

Community & Core Experience

contributors

Software

Servers & Web

  • #sysadmin - GNOME sysadmin's IRC channel (most users wont need to go here)

  • #webhackers - GNOME webhackers IRC channel

Local Groups

Others

  • #debian-gnome - Official Debian GNOME channel

  • #gnome - Unofficial GNOME support channel on freenode. (irc.freenode.net)

See Also

Other Languages

Community/GettingInTouch/IRC (last edited 2016-10-06 21:38:55 by LaurentPointecouteau)