Communication/IRC

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MusicBrainz uses two IRC channels for real-time chat and discussions. For more information about IRC in general, see the Wikipedia article. If you don't have an IRC client (such as mIRC or Colloquy), Freenode provides a web-based client.

Please note that all users of the IRC channels are expected to follow the Code of Conduct.

Note: Due to an on-going spam attack on the IRC network we use we temporarily require people to register on the network to be able to talk in our channels. Please follow the guide on how to register and feel free to contact us if you're having issues or questions regarding this.

Channels

#musicbrainz

This is the MusicBrainz community and support channel.

  • #musicbrainz on the freenode web client. Recommended for users without an IRC client installed.
  • #musicbrainz on chat.freenode.net. Recommended for users who seek more options and have an IRC client installed.

Among the regulars in this channel are quite a few of the developers as well as some of the auto-editors and other active MusicBrainz users. Anything related to MusicBrainz, including Picard and other MusicBrainz products, is welcome here. References to IRC in MusicBrainz generally refer to this channel. As in many communities, the regulars in the channel have their own slang.

#metabrainz

This is the the development and general MetaBrainz channel.

  • #metabrainz on the freenode web client. Recommended for users without an IRC client installed.
  • #metabrainz on chat.freenode.net. Recommended for users who seek more options and have an IRC client installed.

Apart from MusicBrainz development, this channel also hosts general MetaBrainz talk, incl. discussion about all the other *Brainz projects: BookBrainz, CritiqueBrainz, AcousticBrainz, ListenBrainz, MessyBrainz, and the Cover Art Archive. There is a weekly dev chat held in this channel. A reminder is normally sent out to the developers mailing list Sunday night/Monday morning.

Non-English channels

There are also channels in other languages than English:

BrainzBot

BrainzBot is a bot which logs all conversion in the MetaBrainz IRC channels. You can see all of the chat log archives at https://chatlogs.metabrainz.org/. BrainzBot will not log messages that start with "[off]", so feel free to use that if you have some sensitive messages.

Usage

If you are not familiar with how IRC works, it can seem a bit odd at first. Some rules of thumbs that will make you (and everyone else) have a better time:

  1. "Don't ask to ask; just ask." Don't ask for permission to ask a question or ask if anyone's around with expertise in the area you want to ask about. Just ask your question. See "Don't ask to ask, just ask" for a slightly more in-depth discussion.
  2. Don't ask and then quit. IRC is asynchronous and the people who may have the answer might not be around just this second. Stick around and someone will get back to you later. If you have to leave, you can check the chatlogs to see if someone replied to you after you left (but often people won't reply to someone who's already left).

You may also want to protect your identity in the form of your nick. freenode has a guide on registering your nickname you can follow for this.