Greetings programs,

On behalf of the CSC Systems Committee I am pleased to announce the availability of the CSC's very own installation of The Lounge web IRC client, available to our members at https://chat.csclub.uwaterloo.ca.

This is the first of several steps we at the CSC Systems Committee are taking to bring modern user freedom- and privacy-respecting communication tools to our members. This is now more crucial than ever, as we have all grown our dependence on remote communication tools due to the ongoing global crisis.

Starting today, CSC members can use their CSC account credentials to log into https://chat.csclub.uwaterloo.ca to access the CSC-hosted version of The Lounge web IRC client [0]. The Lounge is free software [1], under the Expat License (also referred to as the MIT License) [2] and self-hostable by anyone.

[0]: https://thelounge.chat [1]: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html [2]: https://github.com/thelounge/thelounge

On your first login to the web IRC client, it will automatically create an account for you, saving and keeping your settings even when you close your browser. The Lounge acts similarly to an IRC bouncer, keeping you connected and logged into the IRC networks you connect to and the channels you join in, even when you close your browser or turn off your computer. This helps avoid missing chat history due to your computer not being always connected to the IRC server(s) directly.

The new web IRC client's default suggested connection uses a secure encrypted connection method (over TLS) for connecting to IRC servers. However, even if you don't use the web client, and e.g. run a TUI client on one of our servers (e.g. neotame), please be sure to update your client connection configuration and always use TLS to avoid sending your IRC account password and other data to the IRC network(s) in cleartext.

We are excited to share more news about IRC-based communication tools for our members in the coming weeks. Be sure to keep an eye on your inbox and/or the csc-general list [3] for our upcoming announcements. Further, we will be updating the "How to IRC" page [4] of the CSC Wiki to recommend using the new web IRC client going forward.

[3]: https://mailman.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/listinfo/csc-general [4]: https://wiki.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/How_to_IRC

Want to learn more or find more user freedom- and privacy-respecting remote communication tools? See [5] for a large list of free software tools you can use to communicate with your peers and/or loved ones in privacy and freedom.

[5]: https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Remote_Communication

Have a question or suggestion? Do not hesitate to write to us at the Systems Committee syscom@csclub.uwaterloo.ca; we look forward to hearing from you!

Amin Bandali System Administrator, Systems Committee Computer Science Club, University of Waterloo