Does anyone here in Australia still use IRC? If so, which server/s do you use?

I noticed AustNet seems to still be around, or at least have a website up (https://www.austnet.org/index.php), but it doesn't seem particularly active?

#IRC #MIRC #Australia
AustNet Chat Network

Welcome to AustNet - Australia's premier Chat Network. Connect with thousands of users across multiple channels and communities.

@aj I didn't know AustNet was still around!

I am on OFTC and Libera.chat for open source stuff, but some projects are using bridged Matrix servers.

@voltagex It's still around in the sense that it has a website and I just successfully logged into it.

But if you look at the channels list, it doesn't seem particularly live, in the sense of active, anymore: https://www.austnet.org/channels.php
Channels - AustNet

Discover popular IRC channels on AustNet. Find communities discussing technology, gaming, local topics, and more.

@voltagex I stand corrected.

A few IRC channels on Austnet.org, like #Sydney #Melbourne and #Australia, do seem to be reasonably active.
@voltagex Turns out there's some drama going down in the old IRC mines.

The main channel on Austnet these days is #Melbourne. Most of the others are empty.

For the past few weeks, someone's been sporadically flooding that main channel with hundreds of bots that all post the same quote by one of the mods, out of context.

They've also periodically been spamming random users with hundreds of DMs from hundreds of bots in the space of a few minutes.

Because IRC, or at least the version AustNet runs, is '90s tech, there's very little in the way of spam protection.

The mod who's the main target of the attacks is convinced this is the CIA coming to get him for being critical about America's war effort.

Because /clearly/ American intelligence is going to expend resources on one mod in on an obscure platform with maybe a couple of dozen users.

Anyways.

Some of the other mods either think this mod is behind the floods, or at provoking them to happen, or at the very least unwilling to stop them.