what's an irc? what's a git?

[tef]

we need explanatory links and quick ways to get started with these, as not everyone uses them

[gearmonkey]

For the irc half, we could include a direct link to the channel on a web-based client (I'm partial to irccloud) along with a brief (one sentence tops) explanation of irc, something like 'irc is a simple and open group chat protocol, if you're new to irc you visit our chat room in your web brower '

[DRMacIver]

A nice thing about github is that it actually works pretty well without any knowledge of git: The web interface for editing things is pretty easy to use and self-explanatory. We could include a section basically saying "If you don't know how to git, use github this way"

[drtortoise]

@DRMacIver I thought the same thing until I tried getting ICT teachers to use it... I think linking to trygit is a good option.

[DRMacIver]

Interesting. What was the problem?

[tef]

http://www.pyladies.com/blog/irc-resources/ came up as a good resource

[ntlk]

Is there a guide for using github? Not sure everyone needs to know git to do that, I mean files can be edited on the fly, and the most important bit is participating in discussions on e-notes etc

[ntlk]

Also wrt IRC is there a guide to using IRCcloud? By far the most user friendly way to get started I think.

[ntlk]

If there isn't a good IRC resource explains how to use IRCcloud to beginners I can be persuaded to make one, because it's something I want to get my students into as well, so it has plenty of usefulness beyond computer.

[drtortoise]

the problem with irccloud is you need to know someone who already has it so they can give you an invite

[ntlk]

@drtortoise damn, I forgot about that

[DRMacIver]

If only we knew someone at IRCCloud who could help us resolve this difficulty. (cc @russss)

[russss]

Unfortunately there's not much I can easily do to make invites available, and also once we go out of beta (which will be soon), you likely won't be able to connect to IRC networks other than irccloud's without paying - this is mainly an anti-abuse thing.

There is freenode webchat, which is functional (if a bit ugly): http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=##computer

[tef]

that's two more people who can't start a meeting yet because of git

[tef]

we also need to change the language - ie "don't know git? ask us and we'll make you a page'

[russss]

As a temporary measure, an email address would probably be a good start.

[ntlk]

I guess this fixes group creation temporarily https://github.com/computeranonymous/computer/pull/54