We are attempting to make the Fedora chat experience as good as possible whether connecting via IRC or Matrix. IRC users may miss out on some Matrix features, but all official :fedoraproject.org rooms (with a few documented exceptions) will be bridged to corresponding channels on libera.chat.
We want popular Fedora channels to be available to users on IRC, and so we provide a bridge in many rooms, but some :fedoraproject.org rooms may not have an IRC bridge, and we’ll ask if it’s wanted or not as part of setting up new rooms.
We’re aiming to transition to a Matrix-first world, and eventually retire the IRC bridge. Therefore, we bridge existing rooms which correspond to IRC channels, but will remove the bridge in those rooms if room consensus is to do so, and will not set up new bridges except as documented exceptions.
I’m in favor of something like a blend between 2 and 3. We bridge existing rooms which correspond to IRC channels, but will remove the bridge in those rooms if room¹ consensus is to do so. We will set up new bridges upon request from the room¹, but some :fedoraproject.org rooms may not have an IRC bridge.
¹ “room” here is the room “owners”, where such a group can reasonably be considered to exist.
The reason I kept bridge by default is that it seems like that’s a lot less work for the folks setting up the bridges than asking each room, waiting a sufficient time for the answer, and then acting on it. Bridges can always be taken down later.
I don’t think we should actively make the IRC experience bad, but we should make it clear that we’re going Matrix-first. Of course, teams can always choose to have IRC be their primary chat option, in the same way that we don’t prevent them from using Telegram, etc. as the primary.
For now, I think we should do #1. Bridge all of the things. At least for rooms currently having an IRC channel. I could see possibly not creating a IRC channel for “new” matrix rooms, but I think we should not have rooms arbitrarily decide they don’t want to be on IRC and abandon their IRC channel. We should still try to support those contributors who prefer to use IRC.
At this point I think 1. We should get everything up and both IRC and Matrix happy and only down the road look at dropping IRC bridges when it makes sense to do so. Ideally, we would see a shift of people over time.
Some examples of exceptions I’m thinking of, by the way:
The “Information” room. This is meant to be short text and links about the Fedora Chat platform itself to give new users a quick start. The whole point of this is persistent text in that room, without discussion. That’s kind of pointless in IRC without a persistent history
Same with the Announcements room – this is meant to be a feed, not an interactive channel. I guess we could bridge this one without any particular harm, but it’s also not likely to be super useful to people.
I think 3. My understanding is a want to move off irc completely. You don’t want to make it feel negative toward IRC but you want to give people a reason to move to matrix on their own.
As people move over, bridges can be periodically reviewed and removed as the IRC rooms attendance fall off. The remaining IRC rooms can be consolidated and more bridges can be removed.
Regardless of the choice, I think the intention to review regularly is key. This is a process, not a one-time event.
We are doing (3) as well, but in practive we end up with (1) because everyone still feels we need IRC. That may change as we go forward - at least I hope so
