When I first started into IRC, I was introduced to some of the people of HFX and invited to join #hfx. There were many people within this channel at the time and many discussions. For the last year, this channel has become VERY idle with not more then 5 people in at a time. I think its time it becomes a real channel again. ideas?
Wilnix
Well, i know mettys always there. I check in at least 2x a week....i think everyones waaay busy...
My point is: Traffic. There is none. Hard to have a *con without exposure.
Wilnix
Yeah, it's pretty idle.. I do talk to some peeps but how often they are there,
uhm.. not very often. Maddy comes, Neek comes, yeah Zero you do too, I come,
some others not related to HFX in any way come.. but really it's more of an idle
bot channel hehe. But all but two of my bots have gone down .... two more will be coming
back up soon. Hope to have the other three come up.. and I used to have four others
but I really need to talk to hex on that one (which is like tallking to a wall sad to say)...
oh well, tis life
Exactly...
Wilnix
Metty knows why i aint in the channel that often. I hate being in a channel where you have no idea who is a bot and who is not.
So, we need to advertise?
The only way to get any HFX Convention to succeed is to spread the word through the underground. It'll be a lot easier to have traffic through our channel before we start advertising. It could be a huge advantage.
Wilnix
NO ! Do NOT even THINK about advertising for the channel !
I hate ads to be honest (well sometimes they are useful). But I don't want #HFX to become
a channel that relies on ads. Thank you kindly but no. I'm happy with how it (#HFX) is now. People
will come when they see it on the site or in X-Zine or what not. But NO and I mean NO !! ADS !
This is of course outside X-Zine or the website (under my discretion of course).
Channels that are really busy can be irritating... trusted eggies on the other hand ehehehe
Seriously, if you have a friend or something sure tell him about it if they'd be interested, but
please don't start advertising. Now if you meant for the convention, well that's not under
my discretion so I won't even get into it..
thank you..
I think he meant advertising for the con... but I don't see how advertising for the channel would be so bad. It would be nice to actually talk to the general public instead of the bots in that channel. The whole point of the #hfx channel is to have people that come to the site and want to know more about HFX or in general to talk to us live, etc... I don't see why a busier channel would be bad... as of right now all I hear is crickets in there...
My $0.025...
I meant for HFXcon. If the public is in our chan, we can advertise for the con. Otherwise, I think we aren't using the chan to its full potential...
Wilnix
Okay, you're right. And like I said, if you have people sure they can come..
I guess what it is is:
A -- I have something against ads. Ads really really piss me off. I guess what it is in this
case is that I don't want the channel to be known to spam others to come. Maybe that's not
how it'd be but it looks like it TO ME. Then again, maybe it's just I don't like the idea of
ads. However, posting a notice of some sort or letting everyone know isn't so bad. But I don't
want some ad saying "HFX has it's own IRC channel. Please join us now." A notice as:
"Note that for 4 years, HFX has had an IRC channel. Feel free to join and chat with the HFX team, ask questions, talk about
the latest in technology, security holes, programming, etc."
is fine. Just don't post it everywhere, ya know ?
That's more appropiate .. see what I'm getting at ?
B -- I don't want it flocking with abusive people or idiots. Newbies ARE FINE though...
I want to maintain peace and not have to deal with bans. I want intelligent or friendly
conversations between the regulars and non-regulars, etc. Not stupid arguments (debates
and opinions or facts don't count) like one might have with some people who have
shown up in #HFX before...
E.g., I don't want it posted on sites that have nothing to do with us (HAH) like HNC, or some
other underground site. I want it to be under a few people's discretion (primarily mine, but Neek,
Maddy, etc. have just as much power in controlling the channel -- kicks, kickbans, etc.. just don't
change the modes from +ntsl 666 to something else and I'm fine with that. And keep topics that
need to stay put.) Does it make sense now ? I hope so, nothing wrong with letting people
know, just dont over kill and maintain peace or so..
thanks,
Metgod
Your Channel, your rules. I didn't mean to advertise for the channel though, I meant for the con...
:D Wilnix
haha I just read what you last said..
It must have been posted while I was posting mine *laugh*...
anyhow, let me think...
Yeah sure the HFX con can be 'advertised' in the chan.. i.e., if a new website for it was
coming up a simple ... /topic #hfx New HFXCon site to be released... stay tuned..
Hell yeah that's alright..
And yeah, Neek I don't mind general public either.. I just don't want idiots (and the media counts
unless they specifically are invited there by me) flocking around.. ya know ?
But bring on the convo's... go for it.. just be careful in HOW it is APPROACHED.. that's all
any other comments or questions ?
**goes and spams "#hfx on Undernet... join now!!!" all over Antionline.com**
Muahahahaha!!!
Joking aside, I meant advertise wisely... I hate spam myself with a passion! I do think some sort of promotion is in order however in some form. I'm just a little tired of joining and seeing 60 users on, only to find out 55 of them are bots... heh... I guess I'm kinda looking to bring back the old #hfx, when we did get a lot more traffic, and were still able to regulate the channel efficiently. I want to see the lectures and discussions happen. IRC is a great way to communicate in real time, and it's a shame if the channel stayed idle all the time, that's all I meant...
hahaha
Well it depends on how you advertise.. to me, adverstisement is just about the same as
spam.. really annoying. But erm, to be honest with you, I think I know why we don't
get as much traffic. It's really quite simple:
Excite:
We had a forum there as you all might remember. All someone had to do is
search for a community on hacking and HFX would show up. Voila.. instant gateway
to hackers (some true, some fake). Then they saw I had an IRC chan and decided to
join. We had tons of people (Rat, Implementor [props to him], etc.). Cobby found HFX
and joined the forum.. he then came on over to IRC. Then I talked to you (Neek for those
who don't follow) and got you back on irc after leaving because of so many idiots.. and
you came to #HFX ... then I got you part of HFX, and Cobby joined too.)
Now we don't have us on a search engine in THAT form.. sure we are in search engines
(hell, check yahoo.com and type 'Metgod' hehehe.). But really, some things that might help:
- have a communications section on this forum and include a 'folder' on IRC
- I could publicize it in X-Zine (I might have in the first issue)
Those are two REASONABLE ways.. actually, just run it by me before you do it, and
I'll be fine.. seriously, no biggie.. I sort of understand what you're after. Although
the more bots, the better hehe. even I don't chat there as much (though I do) cause
I MUD more..
I guess that's it.. any more comments, suggestions .. ?
Hey HEY!! Now, i came into digital being during the Excite dayz...CHILL (hehe) but yer right. I dont think we can keep all the riff-raff out in either cases (con advertising or the irc channel), but regulations should be set and enforced, there were some really stooopid pple in the excite forum.
"IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME!"
(Including the brainless)
Any suggestions?
Wilnix
How about we just start a seperate channel like #hfxcon or something that will be ok to advertise atleast for the con or whatever. Then we can still chat in #hfx and not have to scroll up 5 screens to see what was said while we were afk for 3 minutes.
I like that idea. I think keeping a channel like #hfxstaff on invite only and then having another for advertisment purposes would be great. Advertising in this industry seems to be a must...
Wilnix
I actually used to hold #hfxstaff heh
Maybe I can do it again.. just that 5/7 of bots I'm an OWNER (+n) went down.. I can
get two back up soon...
let me know...
Can we get somebody to reg it? like Taz or Cobra? The reg process is pretty painless...
Wilnix
Haha. Doubtful. Taz never uses IRC.. well once in a blue moon...
Cobra isn't on IRC enough, and not even sure if he has a X user name, or
if he really wants one. No need to register it once I get all my bots up. Seriously,
it's pointless. Besides, i'm already in 10 channels.. And I can't guarantee I'm on a
server that allows more channels than 10... Also, once I get the IRCd up we really
don't need to have #hfxstaff .
works for me...
wilnix
I think ads for the channel and con should also include the forum. This thing is turning into a good resource and more people participating in it would only improve upon it. I mean when you think about it, how many other large groups are running a forum? HNC does now I think after we've had ours running for a while, but theirs you have to be a member. At least on ours we give the option of anonymously reading and if you want to post then you have to register.
People knock forums like this saying it brings nothing but trouble, but if its run right like we have been running it, it brings about positive things.
Im not a big fan of chat, only because its difficult to stay on topic in a chat room and you get easily sidetracked. Im not fond of that. I like forum discussion better as its a bit harder to deviate from the topic at hand.
Just my opinion of course...
Taz:
I agree with you, but I also think there is much more traffic going through the chat servers then there is our forum and I think we are just hurting ourselves by not abusing the chance to spread the word that we exist.
Wilnix
well..
Let's look back a little. When Cobby decided to start the DC cup, I immediately
put a topic up for him. That's fine. If HFX con work continues, we can have that their,
but. Other urls can be posted.. humor, whatever.. quotes... it doesn't matter.
It's just what I described above. I'd have to look at them again, but what I just said is fine.
Just bear in mind that... after a netsplit, the topic can get out of synch and thus be lost on
some servers. Also, the topic is bound to be changed for different reasons.
IRC topics aren't exactly a good way to advertise unless it's always reset which isn't gonna
happen. And I don't want timers going that message the channel every 10 minutes (or whatever) about
something. Especially with color (in fact I kickbanned [for five minutes] on color now.. heh.. I have to add some people
so they don't get kicked for it, but I really do not like colors. Don't like timers either (especially
when it's about what someone is doing that really has no interest for the channel..) Ask anyone
Whatever works. Im still waiting for an actually meeting to take place...
Wilnix