WEBVTT - Time for an IRC Chat 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.240 Get in touch with technology with text Stuff from how 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:15.440 stuff dot com. Say everyone, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:18.919 I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren foc Obama. Lauren, I'd 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:24.799 like to have a little chat, a little Internet relay chat. Uh. 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:29.040 That's convenient because our topic today is actually about Internet 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:32.280 relay chats or i r C, which is fantastic because 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:36.760 it's something I've never talked about before. Uh, or so 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:42.960 you thought until about noon thirty today. Yeah, longtime listeners 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:45.440 of tech stuff might be thinking we already did an 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:48.120 episode on I r C, and you are completely correct. 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:50.360 Jonathan and christ did one of those way back on 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:55.120 June called what is i r C? But it was 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:57.640 it was more of a basic overview of what the 0:00:57.680 --> 0:00:59.960 service is and how it came about and how people 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:02.640 use it. We wanted to go a little bit more 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:05.360 into the history of i r C thanks mostly to 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:09.360 an idea from listener Addie um that's at Addie siram 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:12.200 one on Twitter, who said, can you do an episode 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:14.960 on I r C? And we said sure, Yeah. I 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:17.560 just want to make it clear that I listened to 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:20.680 that podcast from and I have no memory of ever 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:24.320 saying those words and I it sounds like I'm making 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:27.600 a joke, but I was, like I, I clearly recognized 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:30.520 my voice, but there is nothing in my brain that 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:32.680 held onto the fact that I did an episode about 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:35.839 I r C already. So we if you did listen 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:38.360 to that episode and you have a better memory than 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:41.520 I do, some of this might sound familiar, but go 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:45.040 with us, all right, So let's start our our journey 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:47.680 down memory lane, and and also open up a few 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:50.400 other doors on the way if I can mix some metaphors. So, 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:54.840 what exactly is I r C. Well, as we have 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:58.080 mentioned even just in the past couple of minutes here, 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:01.800 it stands for Internet Relay check. Wait, I have no memory, Jonathan. 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:03.520 This is becoming a problem. I know that you're off 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:06.000 caffeine today that that might be the issue. Yeah, I 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:08.640 gave up caffeine and now now I'm all sorts of 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:11.760 messed up, y'all. So yeah, it's it's actually a platform 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:15.440 for real time chat on the Internet. And it's text based. 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:18.440 It's not you know, voice or video or anything like that. 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:22.639 This is actually typing in your little type type. It's 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:25.520 a it's a type of instant messenger. Might be a 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:28.120 phrase that people are more familiar with these days, although 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:30.840 I would argue that most messengers are probably based on 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:34.079 I r C. Yeah, I r C is also group based, 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:37.799 as opposed to a one on one discussion. You would 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:40.200 It's almost like if you were to go to a 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:44.040 physical location where the people at a physical location are 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:47.519 all all interested in a particular topic, and you walk 0:02:47.600 --> 0:02:50.440 through the door and you join the conversation. Except in 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:52.520 I r C you can actually be in multiple rooms 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:55.960 at the same time, having multiple conversations about multiple topics, right, 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:59.280 because you're going through a server. Yeah, a server that 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:03.160 has multiple different kind of rooms, virtual rooms, or or 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:06.839 channels exactly. And each channel has its own name. Uh. 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:09.480 Most of the time, the channel name kind of gives 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:12.160 you an idea of what the subject is some of them. 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:14.880 Some of them are general subjects. They're pretty straightforward. It's 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:19.960 uh yeah, like hashtag firefly fans. I guess that would 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:23.400 be people who really enjoy bugs that light up at night. 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:27.600 That clearly must be it um. To connect to these 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:30.960 kind of spaces, you have to use a program, a client, 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:34.760 an app YEP. So you've got this client server relationship. 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:38.040 The servers what houses the connections and the client is 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:40.520 what you use to have your computer connect to the server. 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:43.560 And these days there are many much clients yeah, and 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:47.320 lots and lots of servers too, So the clients exist 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:52.000 for all sorts of different operating systems. So you're not 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:54.000 going to be left out, you know, if you're if 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:56.560 you're saying, but I use a Mac, how could I 0:03:56.640 --> 0:03:58.920 participate in this wonderful world that is I r C. 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:02.520 First of all, I'd say, well, you're about a decade 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:04.880 late to this party, more than a decade later, as 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:07.200 it turns out. But also I would say, don't worry, 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:10.200 because every operating system has a host of clients you 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:13.680 can choose from. Many have very different capabilities that are 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:16.320 built in. Some of them are more intuitive than others. 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:18.640 And there are also lots and lots of servers on them. 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:21.520 And uh. The other interesting things is that the servers 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:24.159 can connect to each other to form networks. And in fact, 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:26.640 that's how I r C got started. It started with 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:31.440 an a network originally, UH, and then eventually reached the 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:33.520 world that we're in today where you have all these 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:37.040 different servers UH and networks that some of them are 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:39.320 not connected to each other. So in other words, there 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:42.120 may be channels on one server that you really like 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:44.760 and channels on another server that you really like, but 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:47.160 those two servers aren't connected, so you have to connect 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:50.119 to either one separately in order to access the stuff 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:52.680 that you want exactly. Yeah, it's not like you can 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:55.080 just jump from channel to channel if those servers have 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:58.920 no connection between them. And uh so it's meant for it. 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:01.400 Like we said, group to gussions, you know, having a 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:04.200 big group conversation, there are ways that you can send 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:07.800 private messages back and forth. Um, and to communicate, you 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:10.440 just type your text into a little text field. Think 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:12.719 of a divided window. So the window on the top 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:16.240 is sort of the ongoing conversation within that channel, and 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:19.279 the window below, it's very narrow, is really a text 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:21.560 field for you to type in. And then you can 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:24.000 also enter in commands I r C commands. We talked 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:27.840 a lot about I r C commands in the two 0:05:27.880 --> 0:05:30.480 thousand ten episode, so I highly recommend you go and 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:32.600 check that out if you're really interested. For one thing, 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:36.320 the commands are dependent upon what client you use because 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:40.360 the different systems use slightly different phrasing. Yeah, just imagine that, 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:42.800 you know, think of it as evolution and at one 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:47.040 point all these different client philosophies split and then evolved 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:49.760 on their separate pathways, which is actually exactly what happens, 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:52.960 which we will talk about. Yeah, so that's the basic 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:56.160 way that these things work. So so let's talk about 0:05:56.240 --> 0:06:00.000 how this actually came to happen. It all started way 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:04.680 in eight y'all when when we mentioned that you are 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:06.480 a ten or twenty years too late, we were not 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:08.720 really kidding. Um and and for the record, on all 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:10.560 of this history stuff that we're about to talk about, 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:13.600 there are a bunch of vaguely conflicting reports about all 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:16.200 of it because no one was really documenting it at 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:18.560 the time. No one was expecting this to be something 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:20.920 that someone would be sitting in a podcast room talking about. 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:23.960 It's It's the way a lot of things unfold eventually 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:28.200 is that unless there was someone who was officially a chronicler, uh, 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:34.240 you just get you know, kind of time estimations. So, 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:37.360 for example, the birth of I. R. C Is often 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:41.320 said to be sometime around the end of August nine, 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:45.560 but we don't remember what the day was because the 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:54.320 operative person um one yarco A k A whiz. I'm 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:58.479 gonna go I think it's I I think it's okay. 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:00.960 So here's the thing, guys, he's finish. There are a 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:04.040 lot of Finnish people involved in the development of r C, 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:09.039 and we are Americans who have a vast ignorance on 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:11.600 the way to pronounce Finnish names. Lauren has done her 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:16.920 best to to decipher this. I have not, and hilarity 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:19.960 shall ensue. Now. I want to extend all my apologies 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:23.119 to my Finnish friends who are going to cringe every 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:25.600 time I mangle a name. But just no, it's not 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:32.120 out of malice, it's just from ignorance. Yea um. But 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:34.920 so at any rate, he was working at the University 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:38.840 of Aulu in Finland, and he was working specifically in 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:42.840 the Department of Information Processing Science, and he thought, you know, 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:46.840 I want to include some sort of chat functionality in 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:52.560 this BBS service software that I am installing BBS bulletin 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:56.040 board system. So this is sort of the predecessor to 0:07:56.520 --> 0:07:58.640 you know, these were like those those local networks that 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:01.560 you could log into. It wasn't an Internet. It was 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:04.280 something that you could dial directly into a BBS and 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:09.240 get Internet like uh services, including things like messaging and email. 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:14.680 But it was usually restricted just to that BBS. So 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:17.760 in other words, again it was there like little islands 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:21.840 as opposed to a global internet. Yeah, that there was usenet, 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:25.440 which was a little bit more expansive and had more 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:28.880 group discussion kind of functions. But but one of the 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:31.720 ideas that Yorko had was that he really wanted to 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:36.120 to integrate that into a real time chat capacity, right, 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:39.440 and he started looking around for inspiration U and one 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:42.520 of them was a bit chat client that was developed 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:45.440 by a friend of his. He actually started borrowing parts 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:48.480 of multi user chat programs that were written by other people, 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:51.160 including and tell me if I get this one wrong, 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:57.880 or key yes, or I don't know, I know I 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:01.440 got that one wrong and Yoka Peel and uh. So 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:06.679 his friends had been working on similar ideas for other implementations, 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:10.480 and at the end of August, I r C was 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:14.320 switched on and it lived on a single computer, so 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:18.640 just one computer in the world running the server software 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:24.760 for I r C. So then you had this group 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:29.960 of friends campaigned the university to eventually allow them to 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:33.240 release this code to a wider audience because technically the 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:37.360 code belonged to the university itself. And I love the 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:41.439 way that the that Yarko talks about the the development. 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:44.679 He says, once it got up to ten users, I 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:47.360 knew that I wanted to let other people have a 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:51.760 crack at this, and I thought ten the Internet was 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:54.760 very I mean, it wasn't really Internet yet. The Internet 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:57.600 was a yeah, the Internet was was just the realm 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:01.679 of research organizations and universe these no one outside of 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:04.240 that really had much access to it. Besides it was 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:09.200 some government agencies as well, but you know, we plebeians 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:11.760 out in the real world didn't have any access to it. 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:15.240 The Worldwide Web was more than a decade away, so 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:18.120 this was you know, this was early early days. So 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:20.760 ten was actually a significant number. And just I just 0:10:20.840 --> 0:10:22.880 joke about it because I think of our discussion about 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:25.200 Twitter from a few weeks ago about how the five 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:28.640 thousand number was so small. But yeah, ten people. So 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:31.400 he just he convinces the university to allow them to 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:36.000 release this code to some other people, and they started 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:39.800 getting it installed in other universities in Finland first and 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:44.280 they joined on and then looked at other countries as well. 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:48.280 But there were some issues there right there. There were 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:53.520 a few like inter country connectivity issues apparently U. Yeah, 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:56.079 because I mean at this point, again, internet is not 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:59.640 a real thing, right right, Yeah yeah, yrk will remembers 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:04.120 there being specific problems connecting his his networks in Finland 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:08.360 with US networks, but this wouldn't go on for very long. Yeah. Yeah, 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:10.920 there were improvements in the infrastructure going on at the 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:13.760 same time as I r C starting to catch on 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:17.280 in popularity. In fact, by November of that year, of 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:22.800 universities in Colorado and Oregon would become connected to the 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:25.240 I r C network. Um they would set up their 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:28.400 own servers and and hook everything up together, so it 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:31.200 was no longer solely finished and what it was just 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:38.560 getting started. I couldn't help myself. UM and uh Jorco 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:40.760 had connected with some people through m I T S 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:43.199 network and distributed a couple of copies and it basically 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:44.960 just went wild. I mean like he didn't he didn't 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:47.679 distribute it physically to all of these people that ended 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:50.520 up setting up their their their own versions. But yeah, 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:52.760 it's actually kind of funny, like the story about the 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:57.160 Colorado coming online. As I understand it, one of the 0:11:57.200 --> 0:12:01.080 other UH universities and finn Land, there was a user 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:03.080 who was very interested in it, who then passed it 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:06.120 on to someone who was at in Colorado who then uh, 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:08.679 you know, so it was it was growing organically. It 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:11.240 wasn't like a planned out this is how we're rolling 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:13.959 this out. It was it was a viral. Yeah. He 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:16.160 was just like, hey, check out the school thing that 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:18.280 I made, and and all of a sudden he would 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:21.480 see it pop up in other places. So that was 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:24.280 August to November. It took very little time at all. 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:29.160 By midine, there were forty servers worldwide. Uh and by 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:33.319 nineteen ninety the average number of active servers so forty 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:36.640 servers worldwide that not all of them are necessarily active 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:40.280 all the time. So by the number of active servers 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:43.240 and the number of active users at any particular given 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:46.280 time was still pretty modest. We're talking twelve users and 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:49.439 thirty eight servers. Granted, the original code for I r 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:52.360 C really only accounted for some hundred users to be 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:55.760 connected all at the same time. And uh. Furthermore, according 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:58.480 to some numbers around that same time, there were only 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:01.600 three million people worldwide who even had access to the 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:04.240 Internet right and and doing something like if you've ever 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:06.960 connected to a BBS in the old days, a lot 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:10.200 of those original BBS has only had capacity for a 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:12.720 couple of people to connect at a time, So for 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:15.520 something to have the capacity to allow a hundred people 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:18.760 to communicate simultaneously was a huge deal. It was it 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:21.559 would turn out to not be scalable really at all, 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:24.559 which created many problems down the line. Yes. In fact, 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:28.960 so in August that's when one of these problems starts 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:31.400 to rear its head, and that the ir C community 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:36.679 suffers its first schism, but not the last one, certainly not. 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:43.560 So in this corner you have the traditional lass community 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:45.640 and on the other corner you had a group that 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:48.640 just they you know, they didn't want people to tell 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:51.880 him what to do. They wanted they wanted freedom from rules, 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:56.760 rules for squares. Man, I don't know if they actually 0:13:56.840 --> 0:14:00.559 used that voices. That's exactly the how people talk to 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:05.120 I'm old enough to remember, I see. Um. So, so 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:08.640 these two groups split, and the the kind of anarchists, 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:12.000 the anarchists sort of side uh founded a net which 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:14.320 stood in fact for anarchist net. Yes, and the rest 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:17.000 of it became known as e f net, which stands 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:20.720 for arist Free Network e r I s Aris Free Network. 0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:24.080 And why because the server that a net was founded 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:28.360 on was named Aris dot Berkeley dot E d U. So, 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:30.880 in other words, you had one group of people who 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:32.920 are like, we kind of want the freedom to do 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:35.040 whatever we like because we don't like these rules where 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:37.720 you say we can't do things like take over someone's 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:41.160 channel just because they weren't smart enough to block us 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:44.200 from and since they're not smart enough, they should not 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:46.480 be allowed to run that channel. I should be allowed 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:48.520 to run it and do whatever I want. I'm being 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:50.960 I'm certainly adding a little more motivation here than it 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:54.240 was probably in the literature. But that's kind of how 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:56.640 I do things. Well, I mean, you are you are 0:14:56.720 --> 0:14:58.720 being snarky, but first of all, snark is what you do. 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:00.520 Snark is what both of us do. Yeah, it's not 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:03.240 guess what tech stuff does? We embrace it? We do. Um, 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:07.040 but uh, the folks who are on that that a 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:11.960 net did really enjoy exploiting um what was called nick 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:15.960 colliding and this is um. Yeah, So here's the thing, Like, 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:18.880 you would choose a nickname when you log into a 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:21.920 channel or or a server to to chat with other people, 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:24.520 and this nickname represents who you are. You can choose 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:28.040 any nickname you want given the character limit of that 0:15:28.040 --> 0:15:31.600 that's supported by that particular client and server. So one 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:34.560 thing that could happen is that if you try to choose, 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:38.080 what you know, another person's nickname, the system would generally 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:39.960 prevent you from doing that, saying that that name is 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:44.400 already taken. But if you were able to orchestrate an 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:46.840 event or take advantage of an event where everyone is 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:49.280 kicked out of a room and then you rejoin that 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:51.120 room or channel I should say, everyone's kicked out of 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:53.720 a channel, you rejoin that channel before the operator or 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:57.040 OP can join that channel, and you name yourself the 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:00.840 OPS name. You could end up giving yourself OP powers 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:05.000 for that channel, and you prevent the rightful OP from 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:08.240 being able to take hold. And so that's nick colliding. 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:10.880 It's when these nicknames collide. In One way that would 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:13.160 happen is you would have what what's called a net split. 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:17.320 A net split is when, uh, you have two servers 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:20.400 that are connected to a network that are running the 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:23.720 same sort of channel, and some people are on one server, 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:25.680 some people are on the other server, but they're all 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:28.320 in the same chat room. But then somehow a connection 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:32.280 between those servers breaks and then you end up having 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:35.760 two instances of that same channel, so you've got half 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:38.160 the people in one and half the people in the other. 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:41.280 So let's say that I'm a jerk. I mean, it's 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:44.400 easy to say, right, So I'm a jerk. I've logged 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:47.240 into the hold on. It's gonna take me a second. Yeah, 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:49.800 I know, it's okay. There's you're in a forest. There's 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:52.320 a tree, all right. So Lauren, you're an OP and 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:55.320 I'm a jerk, and I've logged into the channel, and 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:57.720 right now I'm not being too jerky, So you haven't 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:00.320 booted me or anything like that. But there's a net 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:03.240 split and you and your group are in one server. 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:05.800 I'm on another server, so we're on separate ones. I say, 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:08.800 ah ha, there's been a net split. I shall change 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:12.200 my name, yes exactly, I'll change my name to Lauren's name. 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:15.359 And so I change my nickname. And then when the 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:19.160 servers are reunited and it tries to reconcile these two 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:22.040 worlds into one. Because you have two people with the 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:26.239 same nickname, the nicknames collide, thus nick colliding, and it 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:29.160 boots both people out of the channel. Now, because I'm 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:31.600 a jerk, and because I've planned for this, I've already 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:33.960 got another window open, so i can log right back 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:37.000 in using Lauren's nickname again. And Lauren, because she wasn't 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:40.680 expecting this because she was being decent, is locked out 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:43.159 of her own channel. That's kind of nick colliding in 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:46.080 a you know, in a nutshell, and that's the sort 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:49.080 of stuff these guys like to do. So they started 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:50.800 up their own party. They say, well, you know, the 0:17:50.800 --> 0:17:53.040 e f net people for some reason don't find this 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:55.880 nearly as entertaining as we do, so we're gonna make 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:59.439 our own party. Um. However, a net would not last 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:03.080 very long, and in fact, most users chose to go 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:08.639 with e f net instead, saying this anarchy thing doesn't 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:11.080 sound like it's a lot of fun or very you 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:14.200 know productive. Everyone being nice seems to make a lot 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:19.320 more sense, right, So then we have a unified network 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:22.240 e f net again. So it started off as a 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:25.199 unified network, had that one schism. A net did not 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:28.439 last very long. We're back to unified. However, then you 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:31.920 have a second splintering, which is when some users left 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:35.520 e f net to form tub net, which was mostly 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:39.800 kind of a The tub net folks were saying, look, 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:42.720 you need to fix things so that net splits happen 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:48.280 less frequently. They are, they're disruptive, you it's it's ruining 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:51.000 the experience. Right. The way that people react to net 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:53.000 splits is not the problem. The fact that we are 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:55.480 having net splits at all is something that really needs 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:58.760 to be worked on more exactly. And so it wasn't 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:01.280 so much a disagreement with policy as it was we 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:04.960 need to improve this platform. So they left and uh 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:07.800 toughnet had about five servers and around a hundred users, 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:11.040 But it didn't stay around very long either. People kind 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:14.920 of might um and and again, basically all of these 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:19.439 were really scalability issues um which which Arco himself actually 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:21.080 listed as being just about the only thing that he 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:22.919 would go back and change if he had it to 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:25.880 all do over again. Right. But you know, again, hindsight 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:28.040 being twenty, it was a lot harder to imagine this 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:30.080 back when you were doing something where you had ten 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:35.879 people on. So an event, a world event happens that 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:40.200 ends up making I r C a very useful utility 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:43.520 for a certain population. That was when the Gulf War 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:47.240 broke out and you started seeing lots of people using 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:50.920 I r C to communicate about the war, sharing news stories, 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:53.359 sharing information as they got it, because different parts of 0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:56.679 the world we're getting reports earlier than other parts, and 0:19:56.760 --> 0:19:59.800 everyone wanted to know what was going on, and this 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:02.240 when they were seeing the height of their popularity in 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:05.000 their early days. And keep in mind, again we're talking 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:07.600 modest numbers, so when we tell you how many users 0:20:07.600 --> 0:20:11.080 at the high their popularity, don't snicker, right, because for 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:13.480 the first time in history, it was it was about 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:17.000 three concurrent users at any given moment, and that that 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:19.600 was a big deal. Uh, you know, kind of similar 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:21.800 to how we were saying in the Twitter episode about 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:26.159 how how people were so impressed by the ability that 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:28.960 this that this software gave them to tune into live 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:32.840 reporting about an issue, same same thing. Yeah, yeah, exactly. 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:36.639 So it was, you know, really, to me, what this 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:41.280 says is it's it's it's a premonition about what the 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:43.600 Internet will be and how it will be important and 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:47.040 how people will use it to communicate these important ideas 0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:51.240 in real time across the entire globe. And even though 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:55.120 it was very tiny, particularly compared to something as enormous 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:57.119 as the Internet, it was kind of a proof of 0:20:57.200 --> 0:21:00.720 concept in many ways. So then another blit happens, but 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:03.199 this one was not. It was an amicable split. It 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:05.760 wasn't something where a bunch of people were really upset. 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:10.520 A user who used the nickname wild Thang and yes, 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:13.840 that is how it's spelled, created a test network to 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:18.520 develop bots. So these are automated accounts. Often they will 0:21:18.560 --> 0:21:22.720 create admins that are bots, and the admin bots really 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:25.080 are just there to scan for anything that would be 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:28.359 objectionable and react to it so that if someone's typing 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:31.080 in all caps, the bot can step in and say, please, 0:21:31.080 --> 0:21:33.520 don't type in all caps. People were much more sensitive 0:21:33.520 --> 0:21:36.280 about that in these early days of internet. Yeah, you know, 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:38.600 because it was considered shouting. And no, no, I mean 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:41.320 it's still considered shouting. But it's kind of funny these days. 0:21:41.359 --> 0:21:43.639 I think back back then, if you're if your handle 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:48.600 is drunk hulk, it's hilarious. Well but at any rate, yes, okay, 0:21:48.680 --> 0:21:53.280 that's fair. It's not not always hilarious, but frequently so 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:59.080 the this this approach, this uh, this split to create 0:21:59.160 --> 0:22:01.960