Talk:IRC

Differentiation
LRN 16:03, 17 April 2008 (PDT): It would be good to give ChanOp status to all developers (people with write CVS access, i think) and voices to all active supporters (wiki/documentation/website/faq/etc maintainers), and mention that on this page (Irc). This way a new user will see right away if there's some developer/expert in the channel.
 * Gale 18:00, 17 April 2008 (PDT): Sounds a good idea, but does all IRC software support displaying differentiation between the users in the room? I am no IRC expert whatsoever but from what I can see in Pidgin the colours of users don't mean anything about their status (Donfede appears in a green colour but all that seems to mean according to such help that I can find is that he is "typing"). I looked in Pidgin support for "chanop" and "channel operator" and got zero and one irrelevant  result only.
 * LRN 03:30, 18 April 2008 (PDT): All native IRC clients support this. Miranda does. And i found a bug report (#5138: IRC operator icon disappears) for Pidgin that mentions op status icon in the list. AFAIK, at the moment there is NO ops or voiced people on the #audacity channel, so you won't see the difference. Try some other channel, you'll probably see it.
 * Galeandrews 11:38, 18 April 2008 (PDT): Well I looked at some other channels in Pidgin and seems the ops have the same yellow symbol that we see now in #audacity only for ChanServ. I'm sure Federico will see this and consider it. PS: Yes I guess we "should" all sign ourselves so the comment is datestamped and linked to our user page, but not everyone likes the space it takes and that it uses standard font (might be tweakable), and often people's usernames are not their first names, which are nicer to use. If you type the signature out longhand as you have done to get round that, then it forces the time to a zone the user may not be in. Anyway, thanks for mentioning it :-) PPS: Well, actually the Date/Time Preferences don't affect the display of the datestamp in signatures at all, definitely a bug, as I don't want to see US PDT time when I'm in the UK, which is probably another (forgotten) reason I don't normally sign .... - Gale
 * LRN: We could use shorter signatures, like the one on this comment (three tildas). About usernames/firstnames - name should be written in user's info page if it matters. And you can always change the displayed name (username), if i am not mistaken, it is independant from login name. Can't comment on timezone issue at the moment.
 * James: With so many new people, giving a name/link to your own comments (and before rather than after) looks good to me. Possibly another tip for the tip page?
 * Gale: (That signature done just with ). Well everyone should attach a name to a comment as James and I always do, the issue is more whether we recommend people to use the automatic signing, given that most users have no active user page (or it's just a scratch pad), and given the datestamp issues. In principle, datestamp is a valuable feature because even the last modified date is no guide to when the comments were made. It should be possible to make the date display as UTC, if nothing else, I'm looking into it. LRN is correct that you can change the text that appears as your signature - thanks. Click "User profile" in preferences, and edit the "Nickname" field. There is also an option to use "Raw signatures (without automatic link)", which means  that your nickname will appear without a link to your user page). Yes, I'll add some "help" on this. I assume you mean the GSoC News and Tips, if so I don't think it justifies a tip on its own, but I'll add it to the existing "Wiki Editing" tip.
 * LRN:So, how about my proposal about chanop/voice statuses for developers/members?
 * James 08:41, 23 April 2008 (PDT): Escalated to audacity-devel list.
 * Gale 23Apr08, 17:46 UTC: Buanzo reports: "Back in mid-March I filled-in the form at freenode.net, but I never got any response, regarding registering #audacity* to us, thus being able to provide OP status on the channel via IRC Services." Do we also need to register to add voices?
 * Gale 25Apr08, 07:40 UTC: Federico confirms the Audacity chanserv / chanop is foobar (registered years back by someone who later moved on).

Scheduled IRC meetings during GSoC?

 * James From GSoC Actions list: IRC Fridays for during GSoC? Or just encourage mentors and students to open IRC whilst coding?
 * LRN: I'm hanging there on a regular basis. If i'm not idle/away - ping me by name, and i'll answer. Also, i had an idea of creating a schedule, that shows the time periods when (in UTC) particular developer is working on Audacity or is ready to talk about it. This isn't obvious, since we're all living in different timezones. And even if you know the timezone, you'll never guess when someone is busy (work, education, some other regular activities) and when he is not. Myself, i'm available from 12:00 UTC, and i can stay up until 21:00 UTC. On the 3:00-7:00 UTC i'm not available at all.
 * Gale 24Apr08, 08:28 UTC: Well on the IRC section of GSoC News and Tips we're already suggesting Monday to Friday day time (East Coast USA time) as a time when you can normally get someone (based on Federico's availability). For anyone who can generally make themselves available to some approximate schedule, and able to offer help to users including after GSoC, I'd be happy if they added themselves to a new section of the Irc page. I've seen a few pages like that on the web that list people who hang around, their name, status in the project, out of hours interests etc. Even if you yourself only meant doing this in context of GSoC, it might get it going more to mention this on GSoC News and Tips. Either this or an announcement of an IRC meeting for GSoC would make an item for that page.