IRC (historical)

Last updated on
31 May 2021

Important Update about Freenode vs Libera

In May of 2021, the Freenode IRC server was sold by the former head of Freenode staff. As a result many of the staff members of the Freenode service have resigned, citing the acquisition as a "hostile takeover."

As a result, many communities formerly hosted on Freenode have migrated to Libera.chat.

Usage of IRC had dramatically declined within the Drupal community several years prior to the Freenode sale, however the Drupal Association has reserved the #drupal-* and #drupalassociation-* namespaces within Libera, should some community members choose to continue using IRC.

Introduction

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a real-time text chat system. IRC servers around the world each host multiple channels for chatting. In the past, the Drupal community used to use IRC in a variety of channels on irc.libera.chat:6697 (TLS) . While you can still connect to the Drupal IRC channels, you will not currently find many people chatting in them. This page provides a few details about using IRC with the Drupal community, for historical interest. If you want to communicate with the Drupal community on real-time chat, try Slack or DrupalChat instead. We are working on connecting libera.chat with matrix.org making it possible for users from both sides to chat freely.

Connecting to IRC

The IRC server the Drupal community used irc.freenode.net. You can connect to this server using any IRC client software, or by visiting https://web.libera.chat/

You'll need to register a nickname with the server. Most people use their Drupal.org user name as their IRC nickname.

Once you are connected to the server, you can use IRC commands to join and leave channels, private message other users, and many other operations.

Administrators

ricardoamaro is the Drupal group contact to freenode as matrix.org and this will transition to libera.chat, accordingly.

drupalircowner owns the #drupal-* channels. The password of this user is known to mlhess, nnewton, ricardoamaro, webchick, Dries, Gerhard and DA staff.

To find the operators/owners of a given channel, use this IRC command:

/cs access #drupal-channel-name list

Channels(in transition to libera.chat)

Essential Channels to Join

  • #drupal is a lounge of sorts. Here, we talk about patches we need reviewed, quick how-to questions, and what we've been doing with Drupal lately, among other things. If it's Drupal-related, and isn't in-depth enough to take over the channel with lots of text, and doesn't need a quiet venue, it is fair game in #drupal.
  • #drupal-contribute is the place to go if you want to help with core and contrib coding work, promotion, advocacy, infrastructure, and general Drupal community tasks. The rule of thumb here: if it ends up on the drupal.org infrastructure, and you are working on it or want to work on it, then this is the place to talk about it.
  • #drupal-support is for long or deep support discussions. While quick questions are okay in #drupal, some discussions are just too long for that channel, or need a quieter venue -- that's when they go in #drupal-support.

Topical Channels

  • #drupal-accessibility channel to chat about coding and accessibility issues and extensions in Drupal
  • #drupal-adaptivetheme design and theme development support and discussion for users of Adaptivetheme.
  • #drupal-aether Theme development discussion for users of Aether.
  • #drupal-association Connect and collaborate with the Drupal Association.
  • #drupal-apps for collaboration around the Apps and App Server modules and the Open App Standard, as well as support for building Apps.
  • #drupal-bootstrap Discuss projects, tools and techniques for integrating the Twitter Bootstrap framework with Drupal.
  • #drupalcamp to discuss with other Drupalcamp organizers
  • #drupal-ci to discuss anything related to Drupal and Continuous Integration systems (e.g. Jenkins, Hudson, etc)
  • #drupal-cod to discuss site builder and developer collaboration around the Conference Organizing Distribution, which powers many Drupal camps and other conferences outside of Drupal
  • #drupal-codereview for the Code Review group, discussion of the code review process, collaborating on "New Project Application" code reviews, or to solicit assistance/advice/help while performing a code review.
  • #drupal-commerce for general support and development regarding the Drupal Commerce project
  • #drupal-commons for developer collaboration around the distribution Drupal Commons which is aimed at powering communities; notably (will be) powering Groups.drupal.org
  • #drupal-consultants for Drupal Consultants. You can find paid help here, as well as advice on best practices and general discussions surrounding the business side of Drupal. Ask questions here only if you're willing to pay for the advice.
  • #drupal-coworking for Drupal Coworking. If you're new to coworking or are already a coworking pro, this is the place to ask, learn and share information about collaborative Drupal coworking spaces.
  • #drupal-design for drupal designers. This channel is not for theme related talks, but pure design.
  • #drupal-docs for the Documentation team to discuss and organize working on the drupal.org handbooks.
  • #drupal-dojo for the Drupal Dojo group. This is where dojo lessons are discussed and organized.
  • #drupal-ecommerce for the E-commerce Group
  • #drupal-edu consolidates the various Drupal in Education related channels, including higher education, distance learning, elearning, k-12, training. See "Forming a Drupal in Higher Edu Consortium".
  • #drupal-facebook for the Facebook API Group. All matters related to integrating Drupal & Facebook, whether through contrib modules or directly through the API, can be discussed here.
  • #drupal-features for Features support and discussion.
  • #drupal-fit for those interested in fitness-related activities at Drupal meetups, camps and conferences.
  • #drupal-geo for people interested in mapping, location, and geographic topics.
  • #drupal-gitsupport for help with using Git during and after the CVS to Git migration.
  • #drupal-google for Google Summer of Code and Google Code In students working on Drupal
  • #drupal-groups for group organizers. Receive and give tips on how to organize a local Drupal user group.
  • #drupal-guardr for discussions around the Guardr Drupal security distribution. Guardr is a combination of modules and settings to enhance a Drupal application's security and availability to meet enterprise security requirements.
  • #drupal-highavailability If you are using Drupal to deliver content to 100K plus users, 100MM plus page views, and/or have multiple layers of fault tolerance, disaster recovery, etc.; this is the place for you.
  • #drupal-highcharts for Highcharts JavaScript library module development and feature discussion.
  • #drupal-html5 for discussions on how to implement html5 with Drupal.
  • #drupal-i18n (i18n = internationalization) - discussions about making Drupal and modules internationalized (ready for localization)
  • #drupal-l10n (l10n = localization) - for Drupal translators, group managers and users of localize.drupal.org.
  • #drupal-ladder for discussing and coordinating the efforts of the Drupal Ladder Initiative.
  • #drupal-lsd for the Drupal Large Scale Initiative.
  • #drupal-migrate for collaboration on the migration system. You can start at Getting ready to help out with Migrate in Core!.
  • #drupal-ngo for open discussion on how people are using and can use Drupal most effectively for nonprofits and NGO's.
  • #drupal-omega theme development support and discussion for users of the Omega Drupal 7 Base Theme.
  • #drupal-ostatus for anyone interested in working on bringing Ostatus to Drupal.
  • #drupal-phpunit for coordination of the PHPUnit initiative
  • #drupal-pubmedia for discussions regarding Drupal in public media.
  • #drupal-seo for search engine optimization support and module development
  • #drupal-rdf for Semantic Web and Linked Data related support and module development
  • #drupal-science for discussing how Drupal can meet the needs of the science community, help improve key code and documentation, and coordinate activities of the Science on Drupal group.
  • #drupal-services Development and support related to the Services module
  • #drupal-statemachine Discuss issues, feature requests, and how-tos regarding the State Machine module
  • #drupal-themes for in-depth or lengthy theme support discussions. If your theme work seems to be causing too much screen scroll in #drupal, or needs a quieter place then this is where to go.
  • #drupal-twig for volunteers working on the Twig initiative in Drupal 8.
  • #drupal-ubercart for Ubercart support and development
  • #drupal-usability for the Usability Team to discuss changes to the UI and general usability issues.
  • #drupal-vent is a place to share your frustrations with Drupal, core or contributed. Ever been driven crazy by a module and want to tell everyone about it but don't want to risk hurting the maintainer's feelings? This is the place to do it. Co-miserate with others in the Drupal community and let it all out. Keep the anger out of the main channels, out of the issue queues, and vent about it here. Lurkers are welcome. If you are a contributor and want to see if people are venting about your contribution, you are welcome to hang out here but please understand that the whole point of the channel is to vent and don't take offence. Very important: This channel was created to vent about code, themes, docs, things like that, not people. If you have an issue with a maintainer, you should take it up privately with the maintainer.
  • #drupal-voip for Voice over IP Drupal discussion and support
  • #drupal-watercooler is a gathering place for Drupal folk to discuss non-Drupal things. It's an off-topic area where we can chat without having to worry about being interrupted by wacky "work" stuff. All are welcome!
  • #drupal-wscci is home of the Web Services and Context Core Initiative (WSCCI) for Drupal 8. Mostly it's discussion of that initiative, and a good place to hang out if you want to join in the effort to make Drupal 8 a web services powerhouse.
  • #drupalcon is the channel for people attending a DrupalCon; outside of that time, the channel is pretty quiet, but you might find DrupalCon organizers there.
  • #drupalorg is the channel for Drupal.org content moderators and webmasters. Join if you want to help these teams or require assistance.
  • #drush for discussions about drush, the Drupal shell.
  • #aegir for discussions about the Aegir hosting system for Drupal
  • #open_atrium for discussions about Open Atrium, an install profile for project management that is based on Drupal.
  • #proviso to discuss and help develop Proviso, an SDK+API to provision platform-independent local VMs for Drupal development. The project seeks to develop an extensible framework and ecosystem for developers to achieve parity with multiple production deployment targets, as well as a one-click installer control panel that makes advanced local development accessible.
  • #panopoly for discussions about Panopoly, a base distribution of Drupal powered by Chaos Tools and Panels.
  • #drupal-media for discussions about Media
  • #drupal-search-api for discussions about Drupal Search api

Regional channels

Adding a new channel

If you need to start a new Drupal channel (called "#drupal-foo" in this example):
Before the first step, make sure there is no one on the channel and it's not registered already.

(ricardoamaro is the Drupal group contact to freenode and he can help you with any problems with your channel.)

(drupalircowner owns the #drupal-* channels, the password of this user is known to mlhess, nnewton, ricardoamaro, webchick, Dries, Gerhard and DA staff. Do not bother them with IRC problems, however. This is an absolute last resort.

  1. /join #drupal-foo
  2. /msg chanserv register #drupal-foo password
  3. /msg chanserv flags #drupal-foo ricardoamaro +votriAsf
  4. /msg chanserv set #drupal-foo founder drupalircowner
  5. Please file an infrastructure issue so a member of the infrastructure team can acknowledge the drupalircowner founder transfer.
  6. For "topical" channels, open a request in the Documentation issue queue to ask that your channel be added to the topical channel list (for regional channels, you can add it yourself on the regional channels list page). Include in your issue:
    • Channel name.
    • Description suitable for the channel list page.
    • Indication that you have followed all the instructions on this page.
  7. If you want Drupalbot in your channel, please file an infrastructure issue with the IRC component.

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