oh God
https://mastodon.social/media/eMx4WIxlamQAFlzOaPw

*EXTREMELY LINUX VOICE*

you GOTTA upgrade the software on your computer or someone may hack you, and steal all your money. so make sure to ALWAYS update your computer.

btw, sometimes when you update your computer, it'll ask you if you want to replace some important-sounding script youve never heard of yet have apparently changed

this means you now have to work out:

-what the script is
-what it does
-what "your" changes do/mean
-what their changes do
-which set of changes to keep

good luck!

@jk We really need a better feedback channel for ordinary users to talk to developers about stuff like this.

"Mailing lists" don't count. Mailing lists suck.

@HihiDanni @jk

Hmm, I wonder how well IRC channels work in such a situation...
I guess those don't allow "persistent" issue tracking, though
Perhaps that, in tandem with github for issue tracking?

@marlyn @jk IRC is about as archaic as mailing lists, and perhaps even harder to use. Github at the very least *tries* to be human-friendly

@HihiDanni @jk
IRC has suitable web-clients that require no user installation, and can easily be embedded in a website - I'm not sure if that's suitably "user-friendly" enough - at what point does it become comparable to a more "mainstream" communication system such as Discord?

@jk @HihiDanni
Certain clients such as "hexchat" also allow for native opening and importing of server links, as well - does that function suitably in place of "invite links" services such as discord offer?

@marlyn @jk 1. The person has to be using Hexchat. 2. The person has to be using _that_ Xchat, no not that other Xchat, or that other fork or mIRC or w/e. 3. It would not subscribe the browser to server URLs or w/e so you'd need to find the option hidden in the menubar that lets you connect, and you'd have to make sure that yes, the server URL syntax is correct. 4. "No I can't help you because I did it myself on this other client, do it yourself."

@HihiDanni
1. I only used Hexchat as an example, other clients such as quassel, pidgin, and mibbit should also be able to open such links. For example, I think this link should be parsable to such clients? Your web browser should offer a list of IRC clients registered to handle that URI if you click on links in this form (this one is a dummy example and not real, however)
irc://irc.foobarbaz.net/#frotz
5. Browser-embedded clients such as mibbit or kiwi are good fall-backs if the user only has "default" software, or if they have difficulties configuring their client