Switch IRC urls from irc2go.com / irc.openstreetmap.org -> webchat.oftc.net

[harry-wood]

We have some links to irc2go.com. D'you think we should link irc.openstreetmap.org instead?

There's a URL trick for doing this. The chan parameter sets that form value. So for example instead of http://en.irc2go.com/webchat/?net=OFTC&room=osm-gb we'd link https://irc.openstreetmap.org/?chan=osm-gb

I think it would be better for a couple of reasons. 1) I suppose being on a "openstreetmap.org" domain looks more professional/reassuring. 2) irc2go (links like this http://en.irc2go.com/webchat/?net=OFTC&room=osm-gb ) tries to launch a java applet, and who uses java applets these days? (I seem to have managed to browse the web for four months on a new laptop without ever needing to, so this link basically doesn't work for me unless I do some horrible set-up process)

[bhousel]

Sure, switching to irc.openstreetmap.org seems ok.

[harry-wood]

I was noticing today that the chan parameter doesn't actually work. It looks like it's working (so much so that we didn't notice the problem) bit it goes on to connect you to the default #osm channel.

Seems like a bug in cgiirc which I've reported here: dgl/cgiirc#12

[bhousel]

Thanks @harry-wood, I'll reopen until the issue is fixed upstream..

[ghost]

Can't you just use https://webchat.oftc.net/?channels=osm-gb instead? Works fine

[harry-wood]

Lack of response upstream from the cgiirc developers, so that's annoying. I think we should fork the landing page form and make it more OpenStreetMap-styled anyway, so that could be the ultimate solution.

In the meantime @FredrikLindseth 's suggestion seems good. There's something nice and "native" about linking to the people that actually host the IRC channels, and they have a webchat interface with working channel links! That's cool. Didn't know about it.

[bhousel]

Tagged this is a good first issue for anyone who wants to contribute. Task here would be to replace any current irc2go.com or irc.openstreetmap.org links with webchat.oftc.net links.

[techac]

can I work on this issue. As I am new to this project can you please specifically tell exactly what part of codebase should I work on?
Thanks..

[harry-wood]

Welcome! Look at the JSON data files under 'resources'. It's going to look quite similar to this commit: 366f9a6 but changing the URLs again.

[techac]

OK you want me to replace irc2.go.com or irc.openstreetmap.org links with webchat.oftc.net links?
And no need to disturb other links (facebook, twitter) and also what about links.openstreetmap.org

[bhousel]

Yes @techac - You'll need to search all the code under /resources/* to find the links.. No need to touch anything other than irc2.go.com and irc.openstreetmap.org.

The task here is to upgrade those existing IRC urls to look like this:
https://webchat.oftc.net/?channels=osm

(note the channels= param replaces whatever those other services use to open their irc channel)