Well with all the buzz about google buzz competing with the likes of Facebook and Twitter a new thought occurred to me. What the heck ever happened to IRC ? You know good ol Internet Relay Chat ? Let us compare some of the similarities shall we. For instance on most of the social networking sites I can become a member or fan of a group, I can do that exact same thing by joining a channel on a IRC server, which is usually populated with people I want to talk with right ? Must be because I joined the channel.
Next say someone in this channel is a butthead and I really don’t want to listen to them anymore, so I use the /ignore command and they magically go away. Much like blocking someone on a social website. Now they can probably still see what I am saying but I no longer have to deal with them. Pretty nice feature huh. Now lets say I want to only talk to one particular person, I can then institute a dialog with this person, so now it is just me and them talking about whatever we wish to talk about without interruption.
Most IRC servers have a message system or memo service that you can use to leave a note for a friend, Hmm sounds alot like posting a status or something to one of these other social sites to me. You can also register your nickname so no one else on that particular IRC server can use the same nick as you. Is this all starting to sound very familiar ?
Some other points to mention is that some IRC networks allow encryption via ssl, so for those who hold their privacy near and dear to their heart can encrypt their sessions as well. Also if I want to post pics or a good article I read I can merely post the link in the channel and all my new found friends can enjoy. Even most media players have a irc script that will post the song you are listening to in the channel you are in. Wow does this not about cover all of the inglorious spam you wish to spread to the planet ? You can whoa wait for it —- create your very own channel, yep you read that right your very own channel. With its own topic and operators and everything. Wow what a novel idea huh ?
With that said I have been using IRC for years now and it is still my preferred way to communicate even over instant messaging which is basically again just over glorified IRC. So my question persists social networking ? Why yes I do I use IRC everyday all day!
