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1. Development channel on IRC
2. I believe there is/was something like #zephyr-bluetooth on IRC
too. I never understood why, but I heard there was.
3. Slack channel.

4. Reddit subreddit

... more

Not sure if I get this, but I think you are suggesting we combine both
IRC and Slack. While I don't think that's the greatest of situations
to find ourselves in, I would have no problem using both (I already do
in fact). But then we'd need the devs to also frequent the Slack
channel, otherwise it'd be a bit pointless.

Right, and besides that "potentially pointless" situation (or more specifically, depending on the goodwill of developers), there 2 other
choices: don't change anything, let it work like it worked for decades, people who need will find their way on IRC. Or, forcibly move everyone elsewhere.

Isn't there a 3rd option which does require some more work than the other two other options and that is to have both slack and IRC while mirroring the channels from IRC to slack with an IRC-slack bridge[0](sort of like this but you could make it more advanced)? At least that's what we did when we migrated to slack on another project I worked on. That way devs don't have to frequent slack as it's optional but a nice addition.

One of the big pain points I've had with these bridges is however if the slack-IRC bot disconnects for some reason you'll lose history synchronisation between the sides, also there is maintenance and upkeep. So someone has to be responsible for making sure it's alive and kicking at least. Another problem I've faced is that the bridge does not support threading so if people start a discussion in a thread on slack, this will be lost on IRC. Maybe some newer bridges have support for this.

At least the problems I see with IRC at this point is that if you are not connected continuously (paying for web-based clients) or running on your own server, you'll lose history. This can be mitigated with an IRC bot where you could /msg history or public logs, but I don't see either in the project at the moment. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place [1]?

I'm curious which route will be taken. But I'm sure that whichever will, it will be for the greater good of the project.

Anyway, while that was the more controversial point in Anas' email, I guess the most *important* is upcoming PR/patch process changes. So, I guess I'll wait for more info on that part from now on. (But I do hope that more people will cast their "votes" of IRC vs non-IRC matter yet.)

So I'll cast my "vote" right in the middle and ask for the consideration of having both with an integration in between them where you mirror the channels to slack(this way you could also see which channels are being used). I also think these kinds of bridges exists for gitter. This will also give new developers/users from a younger age group or those who are inexperienced with IRC a lower barrier of entry and maybe they'll eventually migrate over to IRC or visa versa.

[0] https://github.com/ekmartin/slack-irc
[1] https://freenode.irclog.whitequark.org/