Bring back the IRC Channel

[ShinGamix]

#RPGMaker

I notice how dead the old IRC "Official Chat" has been for a long time. I would like to see it come back to the mainstream. Since the community is now so large it would be great to be back n the main things around here.

 

[Nathanial]

It's not going to ever happen, sorry. We had people being uncontrollable while staff weren't around. It's much harder to moderate, and people were quick to get upset when staff weren't glued to IRC 24/7 to keep the channel clean from trolling, people being rude, topics being discussed that might upset you (because using /ignore was too hard, I guess?), or what have you. It's been years I don't remember all of it. Last, apparently some people thought it was live support or something.

Mostly, we had too many people complain about other people in it, which honestly goes against what the IRC channel was supposed to be in the first place. A place to chill out, be yourself and not be worried about going "off topic". It wasn't supposed to be super strict a la the forums (which are strict for good reason). Basically, I expected people to not be jerks, but allow open topics/conversation that might not normally be appropriate on the forums for various reasons (such as IRC being instant/no need to make posts back and fourth). Some people took it too far though, and for the most part, many weren't really fit for the intended environment (to those people I say good riddance, anyway).

TL;DR: I wanted it to be a place to chill with members of the community without it being super controlled/needing high order... not something heavily moderated (of course obvious extremities were dealt with, but if you wanted to rant, swear, or simply talk about some new video game, nobody judged you for it). I wanted to be able to chill there after hours with members of the community, and get to know them beyond being "that guy with Degica", without it being a moderation job all the time, where people could talk about a vast range of topics. Some people were jerks, and a lot of people couldn't handle an environment like that.

At least not with it being branded "official" and tied to the site.

I've only kept it open because enough people enjoy it and use it... but I'm never dealing with that headache of people whining and people being jerks ever again as an "official" channel. There's still a decent amount of people that visit it that totally fit the mellow off topic environment. So by all means, use it and enjoy it/discussion with each other. Some people that I used to not get along with on other forums have since become friends of mine through the IRC... Have at it. But I won't ever sacrifice what the channel is supposed to be so that it "vibes" well with the forums and becomes super restricted/just another moderation job.

 

[crimcrim]

 many weren't really fit for the intended environment (to those people I say good riddance, anyway).

owo

 

[felsenstern]

At least not with it being branded "official" and tied to the site.

That's probably the only real problem. I also must say, that I am a bit sorry for the old community, because most of the things I like here are remains from that time. I can't tell over how many abandoned RPG-Maker sites I surfed last year, even when they are just a small fraction of all the new approaches that arose (especially since MV release), it feels a bit as something was lost. It's nice however to read some insight... I had no idea an official English RPG-Maker IRC-Channel existed. ;-)

 

[ShinGamix]

@Nathaniel 

I appreciate your honest answer. It sad that so few people can spoil such a great tool for the community. I also like that you pointed out the hassle of trying to moderate it also. Even though its not an official chat anymore I still pop in and see what's going on every now and then. 

 

[Ellie Jane]

Keep it unofficial IMO. There's nothing worse than a corporate IRC channel.


#rpgmaker.net still exists too, but #hbr (rrr/hbgames) is officially dead now. I just send everyone to #rpgmaker.


And then there's #rmrk on another network. Think that's about it. There used to be dozens of much more active RPG Maker channels.