I have never been a heavy IRC user.
IRC version 1
There has been times (long ago) when I would chat around on various South-African servers mostly to try and pickup girls (without any success) or to chat in “hacker” and programming channels trying to impress everyone with my “skillz” (you do stupid things when you are young) I even played a game or two.
IRC version 2
My second go at the IRC thing came in March of this year when when I joined the #ubuntu-za and #ubuntu-afr channels on freenode. I even registered my nick:
-Notice- {from NickServ} Registered : Mar 04 09:44:48 2010 (26 weeks, 2 days, 00:56:03 ago)
The only reason I did this was because I was bored between classes and I thought it would be interesting to chat to a few other South-African Linux users.
The first few server and channel combinations did not deliver much. The people mostly want to debate the whole Microsoft vs Linux thing or talk about how bad all the other operating system are. There was also a lot of mine is bigger then yours mostly IRC version 1 stuff
I have not used Ubuntu since the beginning of the year on any of my own systems rather opting for Arch but decided to try the Ubuntu-Za loco channels and I was pleasantly surprised !!! So what makes chatting on the ubuntu-za loco channels so nice ?
- Everyone is friendly
- No mine is bigger then yours talk
- The people
- I have never seen anyone talk down to new users or say things like RTFM
- No basing Microsoft constantly
- Again the people
- I can speak afrikaans in #ubuntu-afr
I don’t say much most of the time and try to help other people when and where I can. The only strange thing about this is that I now spend time in the channels of a distro that I am no longer using, luckily nobody seems to mind and from what I have seen even Windows / Mac user would be more then welcome.
So if you are looking for a few nice South-Africans who also like open-source and Linux drop in and say hello you might just make a few new Ubuntu IRC friends.
ps.
Need help getting started with IRC ? Just ask your question in the comment section or click here
For more info on Ubuntu-Za click here to go to their website
