Bridge Between Skype and IRC

[♫ The Bridge People No Longer Cross]

So Krista showed me this tool called Sameroom ( https://sameroom.io/ ) that could bridge between IRC and Skype

I've tested it out on my own and it works fine enough, although we would probably run into the same issue we had when we tried bridging the two in the past (i.e. some people will be annoyed by the constant barrage of messages on Skype, needing to prefix the name using the "bridge user")

What I mean by the latter is that a message from IRC -> Skype shows up like this:


and a message from Skype -> IRC shows up like this:


So it's a pretty neat tool. I think it'd be good for people who might want to use Skype to keep in touch with the IRC people, but I want to confirm with both sides that it is alright before I go ahead and do it.

My plan currently is to use my old Skype account (eebit.tibee) as the bridge from Skype, and I'd create a dummy account for the IRC side of things so it'll be evident when I'm talking vs. when the bot is talking.

From the IRC side of things, I don't think it'll be too invasive. It might take some adjusting, but I don't think that it'd overwhelmingly disrupt the flow of things as long as everyone is okay with the format of the conversation. I feel like the main issue we had last time was that the experiments were conducted without warning and in the main chat.

One thing that we would need to do is set up a new Skype group. The current one would not be supported by Sameroom as it was created before Microsoft acquired Skype according to the "/get name" command. The current Skypers would undoubtedly need to adjust their settings on the new group to not notify them on every new message. I say this because I know it really annoyed people last time we attempted it without warning. People could be added to this new group on request, since not everyone is going to want to be in it, and obviously, we'll also have people who use both IRC and Skype.

All of this said, I want to propose this idea to the group-at-large. I know we're not (currently) the most active, but I think that allowing people to chat on their preferred platform using a bridge is ideal. Let me know what you think, if you have any questions, etc.

 

I attached a poll last night shortly before ZEJ went down. If people wouldn't mind voting in that, that'd be grand!

 

That was something I was trying to address in the original post. From my perspective, one of the biggest issues we faced then was the lack of forewarning before we tried using it, as well as having used an actively-chatting user's account as our bridge which made it cluttered and clunky. It wasn't easy to decipher when you were talking versus when the bridge was sending messages, as I recall.

Skype-side, the notifications can be easily remedied by changing the Notification Settings for the group chat in Skype. That, along with making an entirely new opt-in chat, should be enough to smoothen out that bump.

 

As Cerby said, I've been talking to him directly about his thoughts on the IRC-Skype bridge. As of late, the whole "how much usage is it going to get, really" question is starting to nag at my brain. The free version is probably a good "trial experiment," although a paltry 30 messages a day is going to be insignificant compared to the activity #CoE gets in a day.

I'm perfectly content with footing the bill of the unlimited plan each month (although I wouldn't be opposed to having someone go splits with me on it). But I only want to actually buy into the plan if there is going to be some usage. At this point, the only people Skype-side who have messaged me about using it are Cerby and @"CodasterTheDisaster", with @Zantok also having voted on the poll.

So, what I'm looking for is some opinions one way or the other. I think I'll go ahead with setting it up anyway, but I want to know who actually wants it -- especially from the Skype side of things.

The people who would "benefit" the most from tapping into the IRC are all capable of using the platform, sure. But I think the best part of having the bridge is that it offers a chance those who have in the past expressed that they want to be a part of the #CoE community, and to do so without having to leave IRC running / idle through its "lulls" in conversation. Skype has the benefit ("benefit") of allowing you to go away from your computer or phone and come back to see what you've missed in terms of group chats. Even if that may be 900 messages about Fire Emblem.

 

Oh? I didn't know that. I guess that's a good reason to mark down in the "Pros" category, haha.

 

I'm going to go ahead and set up the "trial version" of the pipeline (despite it only relaying 30 messages in a 24 hour time period) tomorrow in #CoE. I want to make sure that it works as intended and that everyone is alright with the way it is handled. After that, I'll look into buying the full package.

@CodasterTheDisaster has graciously offered to help me fund it if need be, but if anyone else has some spare change kicking around, that'd be rad as heck.

If anyone has any comments, questions, etc. at this point, now would probably be a good time to post! If you want the link to join the Skype-side chatroom, shoot me a PM.

 

So, now that a good chunk of time has passed of us using Sameroom to connect the IRC channels and Skype groups, I wanted to bring it back to the table to discuss it with you guys. How effective have you guys found the bridge to be? And going forward, is it worth maintaining?

I want to put it out there that I want unbiased opinions. Stripping away the fact that there is money involved, I would like to hear everyone's genuine thoughts on how they feel about the pipeline, and whether or not it is doing its job.

Myself? I feel like it started off strong, and connected the two "separate" facets of our community in a relatively inoffensive way. It has been extremely convenient to get the messages and activity of our IRC channels delivered straight to Skype, and without having to be constantly logged in to read said messages. But as it stands, it seems like Cerby and I (along with the occasional appearance from Timber) are really the only people who are posting from the Skype side to engage with people in IRC. And Cerby has said that he has been connecting to IRC lately anyway, so it's not a big deal for him if we cut out the Skype pipeline.

With that in mind, I'm starting to think about dropping the pipeline. I have it paid until November 9th either way, but I wanted to hear some other perspectives before I go ahead with cancelling my plan. I could handle not getting the messages delivered straight to Skype as well and just connect to IRC. But I did want to get the perspective of those who it does impact a little more -- those who aren't, don't want to, or otherwise can't use IRC. Are there people who are around that would like for me to continue using Sameroom to connect the two channels with our Skype groups?

 

I edited out my comment about Discord because I didn't want it to feel as though people were being held hostage to download it if they didn't want to, although I guess you jumped in here before I submitted that revision, lol (for posterity, the gist of what I said was that Discord was starting to gain traction in our community and that it is seeming to sap some of the activity that might have once been in Skype).

Sameroom had been tweeting about potentially adding support for Discord a while ago, but they haven't exactly been quick to act on it. If I'm remembering right, they were discussing it back in the early-mid summer on their Twitter account with some users, right around the time Discord was putting out the support for their API that Sameroom would need to set up their service. If they were able to put it out then I would be content to run a connection between IRC and Skype and Discord in some capacity. But there hasn't been any news lately on that front.