Hello, all!
This is a new topic created to keep the focus on @mark.johnson’s Membership Proposal on Membership instead of IRC. Please use this topic to discuss your thoughts, concerns, and ideas on all things IRC - making it easier for newcomers, bridging it to other platforms, etc. Thanks!
Monica
Personally, I believe that using IRC for board meetings isn’t such a good idea, since not many people are familiar (Telegram and Matrix would be better for this purpose). Also, as @madhens has mentioned, most people are not aware of how to set up a GPG key.
Would something like a bridge help with people who might not use IRC?
Yeah, that could help. Matrix already has a bridge for freenode channels. For Telegram, teleirc can be set up to bridge the ubuntu-meeting channel. Also, there are many bots for Telegram which can
(at least partially) replicate the functionality of meetingology. Or, like @ogra said, we can just point to webchat.freenode.net (kiwi).
There is already a link to an IRC web client on the Membership Board wiki page that connects you to the #ubuntu-meeting channel, if you know where to look. I’m going to make sure I call this out clearly when I update the documentation.
There are 2 conversations here: moving away from synchronous membership meetings, and moving away from IRC as a technology.
I think the response has been fairly unequivocal that as long as the board continues to be able to make the meetings or vote by proxy, the syncronous meetings should stay.
The question of whether we keep IRC as a technology is something I purposefully avoided in this thread, since I wanted to focus on easy wins. I’d personally be in favour of moving to something else, but if someone wants to start that discussion, lets split it into a different thread.
I have now written up some instructions on how to use IRC and register your nickname ahead of your meeting: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Membership/NewMember#IRC
If anyone would like to make any improvements to what I’ve written, please go ahead!
@rs2009, As a Board Member I do like the idea of telegram, all but one of the Board Members I believe already uses telegram it is linked to our irc channel so we can discuss issues among ourselves, there has been discussion about bridging telegram to the meeting channel so the board members can attend the meeting through telegram however this has not happened yet, the only thing that I know that I can not do is chair the meeting from my cell but as for applicants it may work just fine or they can use telegram on their tablets, I believe telegram has an app for tablets if I am remembering correctly, but I am just one board member and we need a consensuses in all matters, but these all are good ideas, I personally do not think an applicant using irc is to big of an issue but technology and times are always changing and I see the need to keep up and adapt.
While i personally like telegram, i dont like the fact to force someone into using a specific app to apply for membership here, IRC webclients have the simple advantage that you do not need an account or any specifc app beyond a browser …
I usually use telegram-desktop (in universe).
@ogra There is a Telegram web client as well (web.telegram.org).
sure, i use the telegram-desktop snap over here on all machines … but you still need to specifically create a telegram account, give your phone number away, it requires the use of a phone to receive the sms with initial login code, etc etc … it creates an extra artificial hurdle to overcome that we should not put in place …
Maybe a bit OT, but…
I set up Telegram recently. Tried the telegram-desktop snap first, but no SMS with the code showed up. Uninstalled the snap and installed the .deb from universe instead. Then it worked instantly.
@ogra Like I mentioned earlier, we can consider Matrix as well. Unlike Telegram, it doesn’t require you to enter your phone number and since it’s decentralized, Ubuntu can set up its own Matrix server.
Yes and if the goal is to reach new users, add the channel to the URL as well, like http://webchat.freenode.net/?chan=#ubuntu-meeting. Not much left then. 
I added the support channels to the document long ago because someone requested it.
Any wiki editor can do it, it just takes time (mostly in testing, and deciding a title).
Given the current upheaval at Freenode, it might be timely for Ubuntu to reconsider its position anyway, be that sticking on Freenode, moving to another network, or moving to another platform entirely.
The CC and IRCC are taking the lead on this decision, and have been in touch with the community team. We all agree this is urgent, and I imagine after tonight’s CC meeting there will be a clearer direction of what we do from here - and we’ll make sure that direction gets out to everyone.