/moznetpocalypse-faq

Documentation of the MozNetpocalypse (mostly focused on its impacts on Rust and related communities)

MozNetpocalypse FAQ

Many members of the Rust community are active in the mozilla IRC server (MozNet). Mozilla has announced that they will be retiring MozNet, starting a series of conversations regarding the future of these IRC channels and communities.

Timeline/Overview

  • 2011: #rust is registered on mozilla IRC
  • Mid-late 2018: Some official rust teams migrate off IRC, to platforms such as Discord and zulip: announcement, background.
  • April 26, 2019: Mozilla announces that MozNet will be discontinued: mhoye's announcement
  • April 26, 2019: Rust makes a statement regarding the shutdown. The post names the official Discord and several other unofficial platforms as alternatives: official blog post, reddit thread
  • April 26, 2019: Some users and channels begin discussing migration plans, creating new channels, and so on.
  • May 3, 2019: mhoye publishes a followup blog post outlining some of mozilla's requirements for an IRC replacement.

Note: Mozilla is not switching to Discord

Mozilla has (as of May 4, 2019) announced requirements for an IRC replacement, and it has been said elsewhere that Discord doesn't meet all of Mozilla's requirements. Many official Rust channels and teams are moving or have already moved to Discord, but that does not reflect on Mozilla overall.

Where will all the channels go!?!?

Internal discussions and working groups

A lot of internal discussion channels and rust team communications have already moved to Discord and Zulip, at the discretion of individual teams. The choice of new homes for teams still on IRC will still be up to them.

Rust support and discussion channels

Equivalents of #rust and #rust-beginners (MozNet), #users, #help, and #beginners (Discord), and so on will continue to exist on the official and community Discord servers. These channels will also continue exist or start appearing on other IRC networks, but no official space other than Discord has been announced at this time.

  • freenode/##rust, oftc/#rust

Miscellaneous rust rooms, unofficial channels, and specific topic channels

such as #rust-offtopic, #rust-(language), #rust-networking will have to find new homes. Some users or channels will likely go to another IRC server such as OFTC or freenode, some to community-maintained servers on Discord, matrix, zulip, slack, gitter, etc.

  • freenode/##rust-offtopic, oftc/#rust-offtopic

Rust project channels

Projects that have IRC channels on MozNet, such as #cranelift, #diesel, #gfx, #hyper, #rocket, and #servo, will be up to those projects to decide. Many of these already have other support avenues, and may just drop IRC. Others might move to matrix, Discord, or another IRC network. If you know of any decisions, they can be added here as examples.

Non-rust channels

I have not followed these discussions; most of these will go to other servers and/or whatever platform mozilla chooses for itself.

  • PRs welcome to add additional details.

IRC matrix bridges

IRC channels bridged to matrix will still exist on matrix after MozNet shuts down.

Notes

  • I am attempting to keep this an unbiased summary of events and future directions. I am not interested in discussing the merits or demerits of any specific platforms in this space.
  • Issues and PRs to add or correct information are welcome and encouraged.