On 20/05/2021 09:03, Bernard Rosset via Dng wrote: > I do hope that change does not hurt IRC use more than it was already, > albeit I somehom know it does/will. > IRC is not popular amongst the masses anymore, as the general > population get more and more individualistic, and does not think nor > care about principles behind the products they seek using, usually > proprietary, free of charge or not.
I don't think it will harm IRC: The people who use IRC will know and carry on and the people who don't use IRC won't know and won't care. It seems to me that IRC is dying out (at least in terms of proportion of Internet users who use it) because there are so many alternatives. It is being out-competed, not because the alternatives are 'better' but simply because it has no single back to make it interesting and exciting. The network effect is at work: The people and content that people want are more and more often on different, newer IM/social environments. Also I don't think that the general population is become more individualistic. It's just that the Internet is a mass market today and so it reflects people in general. The Internet is no longer a minority interest, as it was back when IRC was in its heyday. And people in general are not very interested in principles (certainly not if it takes effort!); they are just consumers. They consume what is most interesting and/or easiest for them. We know that social media of all sorts is massively popular and so clearly people in general can't be all that individualistic: People love to share stuff and socialise on the Internet. But it's not about about principle to most of them; it's just about consumption, entertainment and fun. People even forget principles such as privacy and common sense when consuming social media. Complex principles (such as software freedom, privacy, and so on) will always be of conscious interest only to a minority of the people in general. Regrettably so. -- Mark Rousell
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