I've just heard via the chat room that we're splitting the room into two: #portableapps for development chat and #portableapps-support for support. I've discussed this with John before and thought I'd spill my thoughts here.
This is the wrong way to do it. #portableapps should be for support and #portableapps-dev should be for development. Why?
- Confusing to users - Having support in a separate channel is confusing for users. I've seen many people come into a main channel which is for development only, to be told to go to a support channel instead. On the other hand, I've never seen anyone come into #wordpress for development talk, they always go to #wordpress-dev straight away
- More bother for more users - If we move just the development, we affect a smaller portion of users. If we move the support, almost all users will have to change their clients to the new channel
- Common sense - Isn't it just common sense to have the more active channel at #portableapps and the less active one in a side channel?
What are your thoughts on this?
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especially during EU daytime there is really no need as there is very little dev talk, why not do as Ryan said but have the -dev simply as a place to take those conversations when it gets too busy, if there is no-one else about then have the dev chats in the main channel.
I reckon that #portableapps-dev/#portableapps is the correct way to go.
Thanks for proposing it before it's too late to change it
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
that they can stay as one until John gets more IRC traffic.
Say, who wants to go to #portableapps-pokemon :P?
Insert original signature here with Greasemonkey Script.
The problem is chat vs support. #portableapps is used to hang out and chat (mostly people screwing around with pabot and such), something we do NOT want happening in a support channel. Nearly all users looking for support will be finding the channel via this website... the only people who've wandered in have found it from here in the forums. It's more a matter of wanting to have support be a separate channel where ONLY support is done. An end-user, especially one unfamiliar with IRC who will be connecting via our embedded mibbit client (which will be MOST users looking for support), should not be entering a busy chat room where people are joking about waffles, telling pabot what to do and chatting about their favorite youtube video.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I for one would prefer going to a full general chat channel and dealing with waffle and pabot spam to have my questions answered fairly promptly versus going to a ghost-town of a support channel and having to wait until someone happens to check in and answer my question. Unless you plan on paying support people to staff the support chat, it's simply human nature that people capable of answering questions are going to hang out primarily on the busy chat channel where they can chit-chat with friends at the same time. Even if they are logged into both, chances are the support channel is not checked anywhere near as frequently.
formerly rayven01
it would be better if we were to define a set of rules as to what is allowable behavior on the channel and to properly enforce it. For example I am about a fair bit on IRC at the moment and have all of the permissions, but as there are no rules as there are for moderation here I am not sure when is appropriate use of the powers.
I'll give you an example of how #wordpress works.
#wordpress is used for all support and for most general chat. People chat about almost anything in there, but when someone answers a question, it's answered almost straight away. By having the general chat there, you keep the users attention there and therefore more people are able to see the question.
On the other hand, if you have the chat in another channel, it draws the users attention away from the support channel. Most people in the chat channel will be the regulars, the people who can answer the questions.
Oh, and also: non-essential pabot commands will be disabled, only available in #rmccue (or maybe #pabot, haven't decided on that yet). pabot is also being moved to a server for better uptime.
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
I understand it.. a little.
My option.. stick with how it is. Why? Well unless something changed and there's now 50+ people I don't think its worth maintaining 2 channels. The developers could use #PortableApps-Dev if they need privacy but for now the one #PortableApps will be enough.
Don't do #PortableApps-Support expecting users -if they even visit IRC- to join that for support. I for one believe at this stage we don't need the split. Just as I would not discourage random chatter to pollute the chat. De developers are part of the community as well!
We don't promote the IRC channel at all officially... just in a couple forum posts. There will be a prominent "Live Support" link right from the support page linking to the support IRC channel which will launch an embedded mibbit chat right her (no IRC client or knowledge necessary) as well as a front page news story mentioning the channels.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Why not promote it officially? Anything wrong with it? And if it's not officially promoted, why the discussion at all. Anyway I understand that people don't need knowledge of IRC. But please be aware I been in 'support' chats that had 3 to 5 people in there and your question was answered after a loooong time or not at all. Even with the most dedicated 'support' people. It's not the support people's fault, but having 24/7 people on standby is only possible if you have the people who have the time and energy.
I think the chat is a very good way to ask a question and participate in the community and even meet some developers. And maybe people stick around and the user base on the chat will grow, like the community.
But if it becomes as bad as #ubuntu then I agree to have separated channels. For now I think you should officially promote the chat and not try to spend to much time with it organizing it to strict. When the time comes the chat is used much more you can always structure it a bit more.
Of course people using abusive language should be moderated.
The thought is people would stick to joking in the #portableapps-ot channel and just keep the standard window open in another tab to watch for people. When people joke around a lot and flood with random comments it's hard to do any type of support. If somebody comes stumbling in when the channel is officially supported and can't get help do to joking we'll gain a bad rep.
Release Team Member
Maybe true, but I been in chat many times. Support questions are few, developement questions are sometimes, and if regular chit-chat disappears some people would find the channel boring and might not use it. Check out some projects with bigger IRC presence. Community can be helpful and decent at the same time as well allowing off topic chit-chat. It's just my experience from wandering around on IRC channels from projects. And although there is joking around, none of that ever gave a project a bad rep.
Like I JUST said: "There will be a prominent "Live Support" link right from the support page linking to the support IRC channel which will launch an embedded mibbit chat right her (no IRC client or knowledge necessary) as well as a front page news story mentioning the channels." I wanted to ensure we have the proper division (support vs development vs chat) before promoting it. And the mibbit theme was just finished last week.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I have to basically agree with you.
#portableapps should be the channel for most users seeking support and information.
#portableapps-dev should be the channel for devs taking to each other about creating testing, fixing, improving their apps.
The rules for the current #portableapps should be changed so that it is less of a play ground for the kids. If they want to be treated like adults they need to learn how to behave like adults. If they can't or don't want to, we already have #portableapps-ot where they can you, or be encouraged firmly to go.
Don't get me wrong, side chat when no one wants to discuss an app or a problem is fine, but playing with pabot, .defs, nicking to forms of other peoples names 3 times a minute, flooding, yelling, just gets ridiculous
Tim
[EDIT:] I have changed my mind, see my post of 09/10/08 below
https://portableapps.com/node/15356#comment-96825
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
Having #portableapps as the main channel makes total sense to me.
Having a separate for dev talk is good too.
And one with bots and such as a playground for people with too much time is almost necessary.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
That was right on.
Okay here is how it should be:
Ryan's right
Channel one: #portableapps should be for support and other portableapps.com related info/discussion.
Channel two: #portableapps-dev should be for portableapps.com developers on their projects and the site's development
Channel three: #portableapps-ot (already exists [off topic]) should be for members of the portableapps.com community to just talk about waffles or whatever else they want.
I thought that's why we had the three channels? Anyone else agree with me?
Release Team Member
Although I'm not that active on #PortableApps, I don't see a real need to split the user base in three seeing how there's only 14 users on there... It's up to you guys though.
I'm going to have to agree with LOGAN and Ryan on this one. While John's idea is theoretically good, they will only be successful in a perfect world, which we all know this isn't.
Take a gander around at IRC channels for other projects. #Songbird on mozilla, #ampache on freenode...just a few small examples. These are small, but not small, projects and there is a fair bit of chit chat that goes on, but there is ALWAYS someone in there if you need help, and even through the chitchat that's in there, support is completed successfully, and it still keeps users engaged as it's a fun/nice environment to be a part of.
Think of it this way, if someone has a question about something, ie - as I did with ampache, they are going to try the most logical channel first (in this case #ampache) and what do you know, there is the support and devs, and what have you. Support was a breeze to get to, and there is always someone there (almost).
(I know, I know, you are going to have the mibbit client, but I cover that next):
You can't count on an IRC user ALWAYS using the mibbit client to get to the channels. There are people that might know a fair amount about IRC, just not about Portableapps and they need the question answered. If they are already on IRC, the logical step is going to be to go to #portableapps, not #portableapps-support.
In summary, here is my proposal:
#portableapps should be the main channel. Right now, there is a very small userbase in the channel, and with the small number of people, it would be harder to maintain more channels. IMO - this should be the standard channel until there are a constant 75-100+ users. Chances are that it would be a long time before the IRC channel sees over 50 active users for any extended period of time. If there comes a point where this channel gets too busy, we can always lay down a rule where the more off-topic chat be taken to #portableapps-ot to keep the traffic down in the main channel.
#portableapps-dev is a great idea to keep alongside of #portableapps. I am all for having a separate channel for the development talk. A lot of users might get scared off if they see that (granted it may/may not happen) kind of talk. This will also help to keep the conversations clean and easy to follow for the devs.
I don't think that #portableapps-support would ever be a good idea. It's too obscure for a user to find, and the community is "home" in #portableapps now. Like the old saying goes, "If it's not broke, don't fix it."
NOTE: Support should ALWAYS be welcome in ANY channel...regardless. Just because a user didn't get the right channel, doesn't mean you need to tell them to go to the correct channel, or push them away. Period.
REMEMBER: In any case, if you do finally decide to through it through three channels, instead of the two, there WILL need to be more OPs present at any time. Just like in the forum you have mods always on hand, in the IRC chat, there have been quite a few instances where an OP was needed, and wasn't available. This CAN'T happen in a live chat such as this. I am more than willing to help in that respect if it is ever needed.
I will always support this community, regardless of what route is taken for IRC, but I feel that this issue isn't being seen from a basic user standpoint.
Just my $.02 worth (or at this length is it more?? lol)
Yoda would say, 'Makes sense he does'.
I second the opinions.
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
You know what, I agree with Ryan.
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
What we need are rules for the (existing) channel.
#portableapps was established first as a place to talk about portable apps not for joking and talk about waffles. Get me right, there is nothing to say against one or to jokes, smilies or one line about the weather. But if there are sometimes pages (!) with 'spam' You have to scroll to read an aswer if You are for minutes away or afk this is ugly.
Most people who are willing to be present in an irc channel in order to answer questions and give support will leave it quickly and look for better places.
If there are nor rules (how simple ever) every (new or old) channel will be unusable for support.
The place for private conversation is a separe (privat chat peer to peer or in a temporary channel for more persons). If two ore more developers will talk about a special problem without interessting informations for the public or to tell 'secrets'
the public irc channel is the wrong place too...
We have simple rules in the forums and it works, why not use simple rules in the existing chanel too?
Something like:
#portableapps is the place to talk about portableapps with developers and other users.
Ask Your question, tell Your tipps, give feedback or simply talk about Your favorit portable Apps or ideas for new Apps.
Be as kind as You'll espect it from each other, be patient if an answer takes some time
Humor like a little joke at the right time is welcome. But if Your intention is to joking all the time or to spam the chanel, please look for other places.
A kick or bann should be never necessary but as last way it will be used be the mods to prevent the channel and the community from boring actions.
Just me 2cent
Paid for Software more or less?
What You need is OSS!
I'll defer to the more experienced IRC folks and we'll go with #portableapps for our main room and support. I've got the first mibbit test up here:
https://portableapps.com/support/chat
Once we iron out the kinks, I'll announce it.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
My Mibbit skin is becoming
portable... whoops, official!Just a couple of quick comments, John:
style="border:0"doesn't work in iframes, it does need to beborder="0"Other than that, it looks good (though I haven't yet used it, I'll actually test it later :P).
Thanks!
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
Hey, I found many parts of my skin, too
Life is crunchy, anywhere
Close is just to essentially log you out of chatting. So it just links to the current page. You click, it reloads and the chat is closed. We won't do popup windows.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
with you Ryan. Support should be in the main channel, other discussions in other channels. like the portableapps-ot channel is the off topic channel already (as far as I know), so I say we keep dev discussions in a similar manner.
OliverK> you don't live on a cow
IRC: It brings out the best in all of us...Especially when tired.
1. The .def behavior in Pabot is not very intuitive. Might it be better to take a mozbot or infobot, and port over the public-memoserv functionality...
2. On freenode, nobody is taking #pa (along with #pa-dev and #pa-ot)...those are much smaller than #portableapps-ot or #portableapps-dev and users are less likely to misspell it. Or maybe just set a redirect from #pa to #portableapps (and continuation of the other channels)
With regards to #1, what do you mean? I am open to suggestions and improvements.
Oh, and w.r.t. #2, crschmidt has registered it.
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
The Puppy Linux group has two channels:
puppylinux which is the general chat and support area
and
Tuxhelper - which is primarily support
What I've observed is that the answers to queries are faster and of higher
quality in the tuxhelper area...perhaps because it's not so busy and some of
the guru types are not always in the general chat area.
Thom
Sound like it's prudent to have a developers' channel (sensibly named #portableapps-dev) separated from the general channel #portableapps.
#portableapps would be the most likely channel for help too, as it's the most obvious one to enter for rookie users, and therefore would almost certainly get people asking support queries there in addition to the miscellaneous other topics people would banter about.
It would also be seemingly helpful to have an explicitly named #portableapps-support to maybe focus users queries, and guide them to frequent that channel in future for technical answers.
If I'd to choose at random a channel for any given site/software, I'd think that the name of the site/software would be the most likely route to follow to get help in the first instance.
John was right, as usual
After some more reflection and experience I think that the pattern i have seen in some other channels would be better.
I really wonder if the current channel can be made usable as a support channel.
Many of the members would have a hard time learning that it was no longer a play room.
I think a new -support channel might be a better idea with the understanding that it is strictly for support, not games, flooding, yelling, BotPlay, or YouTube. I think that rules for the new room should be made clear and enforced.
If someone came into the current room with a support question they could easily be given the link to the support room where they could be helped by people who understood what they were there for.
I've been very busy this week and will continue to be so I can't write one of my wonderful post that take me 20 minutes to write, but I just wanted to say that I have changed my mind and my vote, John was right, I was wrong.
I'm not sure the current room can be saved.
Tim
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
Should i make the channel or anyone else?
The channel already exists and is registered.
I stand by my original statement, as I know it works. If a bunch of people are messing around and someone comes in to ask for support, I'll guarantee they'll stop messing around and help as much as possible. Nevertheless, I'll address each of your problems:
I really wonder if the current channel can be made usable as a support channel.
Many of the members would have a hard time learning that it was no longer a play room.
Make sure to reinforce your point. If they still have "a hard time", you may need to speak to them privately about it.
If someone came into the current room with a support question they could easily be given the link to the support room where they could be helped by people who understood what they were there for.
A link wouldn't work, you'd have to tell them to join the other channel manually. Many of the users won't know IRC commands, which will lead to more confusion for both involved parties.
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
I like it the way Patrick and John said it was gonna be. #portableapps for chat, #portableapps-support for Support.
1. So? Tell the users that the support channel is #portableapps-support on PortableApps.com, and they will go there.
2. Haven't we've done a heck more damage that that? I mean, we have #portableapps-ot, #portableapps-spam, #portableapps-pokemon, ##portableapps, #portableapps-junior, and even more. i think we are used to it dude.
3. Yes. But not in the plan your thinking. #portableapps for chat, #portableapps-support for Support. Its just Common sence!
Your just Mr. "No Fun" and won't let it be done the other way. :|
Na na na, come on!
I must disagree. (I also disagree with not using ordered lists :-P)
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
"I just don't bother" - We were not talking about you, were we?
"I know by now that side channels are always going to be less populated than main channels" - Yea, we've known this in the first place and we really dont think it will make any difference.
"The reason we're on IRC is mainly for support" - This has been changed for a while know, havn't you noticed?
"so therefore the main channel should be for support" - So i guess you removing my op from #portableapps-support was useless?
Im still going with Patrick and Johns way.
Na na na, come on!
(Plus, the title would have been too long :-P)
"I just don't bother" - We were not talking about you, were we?
Once again, myself as an example; I've seen many others do the same (I tend to idle on a lot of channels).
"The reason we're on IRC is mainly for support" - This has been changed for a while know, havn't you noticed?
Once we open IRC up as a support avenue, IRC will be mainly for support. (I'm also assuming this was a joke 
)
That's because certain people aren't using it the right way
"so therefore the main channel should be for support" - So i guess you removing my op from #portableapps-support was useless?
That was to try and consolidate all access lists for as many #portableapps-* that I knew about/had access to. Although the channels might not actually be used, it's still better to appear unified to anyone that stumbles across them.
Im still going with Patrick and Johns way.
You mean John's way, Patrick just implements them. He can express his views if he so wishes.
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
If I was a user and connected to #PortableApps and people would refer me to #PortableApps-support I would be a bit annoyed. And if I then see the same people (only less) in the new channel I would feel like, "comon guys, don't play games and just help me."
Just have the main channel as community channel that also provides support. I'm sure the people who now talk about unrelated things start helping if needed. A developer channel makes sense when there's some in depth discussions going on about development. But at that time the developers could go to the chat room as needed, no need to idle there unless its in use.
I think this discussion is just over complicating things. A separate support channel requires people to constantly monitor the room just in case someone comes to seek support.
A community channel that's alive is always more helpful than a channel with a few (random?) people trying to offer 24/7 live support.
Don't expect a professional help channel unless you hire some people, I guess.
I wan't #portableapps and #portableapps-dev. I only wanted that channel as that's how John wanted it.
Oh, I thought it was asking opinions and discussion about it. What are your own thoughts?
OMG... there is about 8 or 9 different portableapps channels now.... some are just stupid.......
iLike Macs, iPwn, However you put it... Apple is better ^_^
"Claiming that your operating system is the best in the world because more people use it is like saying McDonalds makes the best food in the world..."
I agree with Ryan completely.
1. Yes. I've added #portableapps-dev to my autojoin list. Currently :
Benawsome
Chanserv
KevinPorter
Me
Oni-Neoxes
PatrickJPatience
ZachT|Supper are present.
There's no dev staff there.
2. I created #portableapps.com That's enough. I don't want anymore.
3. I agree.
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
Related to this, what do we think is acceptable in #portableapps as the primary channel? Most seem to think IRC games are acceptable in a main channel. If that's the case, I'll probably avoid it as constantly scrolling off-topic stuff is of no interest and just makes my IM window flash constantly.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Fun is fun and all, but I never partake in these games and really don't think it's appropriate. Just me though.
Me too!
(Oh, it rhymes!
... what rhymes with rhymes? Ah, crimes!
No, I have committed no crimes,
it is merely that it rhymes...)
I think that IRC games are really the sort of thing that definitely do belong in #portableapps-ot. And I fully understand John's desire to have little talking in the main channel except when support questions are being asked (though I sometimes don't do it myself... :s) and I know that Tim Clark also feels that way.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
Keep the main channel as clean as possible.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
I'm with Patrick.
Na na na, come on!
Erm, what games?
If it refers to flooding, spamming, abusive language I would not call them games.
Playing with pabot? That's just annoying. Even the tell and multi-tells. Maybe fun for a bit, boring after a while.
I'd tend to say not, only because by games, (I'm guessing) you're referring to general spam, like flooding or non-related spam (i.e. YouTube videos with no relevance).
I think with regards to OT-related stuff in #portableapps, it should be the same as the OT forum: if it is semi-related, let it be; otherwise, the #defocus channel is a better place for it.
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
Please don't kill me yet or censor the post, mods
But I mean it quite seriously, do we need a bot at all?
And once again, please don't kill me
If you think that either should stay, just reason it out
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
I'm with you on this one. While handy sometimes, pabot is mostly played with, often to the annoyance of others.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
the CIA bot was set up when Marko and Ryan were working on the updater, I just happen to be the only one commiting at the moment (it scans the whole repository).
By all means remove it, I clearly know when I hxave commited code!
CIA is there for development purposes (so when devs know they'll need to svn up, for example) and will be moved to #portableapps-dev ASAP.
pabot is intended for useful purposes. If you're finding exceptionally pointless stuff, let me know and I'll disable it. .def changing in #portableapps will be disabled as is and .tells or .asks will PM the user. The .reverse command will be disabled and removed also. Anything else you can think of?
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
I agree with Ryan on this one;
#portableapps for support/general discussion;
#portableapps-dev for developer chat.
The main channel should be the place for support and general discussion. By this I mean "discussion" and not playing games and chatting about stuff completely unrelated to portableapps. I think that if people want to chat about random stuff and play games with a bot, they should make their own channel and invite people, or make an un-official portableapps channel like "#portableapps-ot" or "portableapps-fun" etc. Keep the main channel clean as a place to give support, talk about relevant topics, and greet new users.
The dev talk should be the separate channel. Besides, developers will be the minority (well, there is a lot of us on the forums here and on the irc channel, but lets talk about the general portableapps user base) when the irc support goes official there will be more and more people in the main channel looking for help and information. Although right now the channel is more active as a dev channel, this is expected to change if support is directed there. On a side idea, a sticky topic for the portabeapps-dev channel could go at the top of the development forum.
To me, support and general fit better together. An average user would fit into both of those categories easily. So why split them up into two different channels, and then throw technical developer talk in with the general chat? Keep the technical jargon away from the main channel, and simplify it for the average user.
As far as the bots go, I think we should keep them both. They are both useful, just because pabot has been misused in the past doesn't mean we should ditch it. However, the CIA-** bots should be put in the dev channel only, that's what their use is. Keep pabot in both channels though, it is useful to have, we just need some stricter rules for the .def function, or have it removed completely, as Ryan suggested.
Again, keep #portableapps and #portableapps-dev as the only two official channels, and all other unrelated "off-topic/games" channels unofficial. IMHO, games and random stuff are not appropriate for the main channel. Take that to unofficial channels, and keep the developer talk in the dev channel.
Well, I seem to have exhausted my rant, for now.
As far as the bots go, I think we should keep them both. They are both useful, just because pabot has been misused in the past doesn't mean we should ditch it. However, the CIA-** bots should be put in the dev channel only, that's what their use is. Keep pabot in both channels though, it is useful to have, we just need some stricter rules for the .def function, or have it removed completely, as Ryan suggested.
Just moved CIA to -dev. As soon as I get back home and start pabot again, I'll change the .def function.
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
I just made pabot remind people (i.e. recall .tells and .asks) in PM instead. This should remove some of the "white noise" from the channels.
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
That's very nice, I'm liking that.
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook
Who wants to set up the Google Docs form?
Insert original signature here with Greasemonkey Script.
along the topic of playing games in the IRC.
I came into the chat room a couple of times a user who needed help and when i came in everyone stopped messing around. If anyone could help they would help, if they could not help then they shut up. So the users do not always mess around when someone helps.
Please search before posting. ~Thanks
I have seen this happen before. I don't think that the main channel has to be really serious either, but it should be relaxed enough that a user is comfortable with getting help there. There should be a neutral point between really serious and just silly. We want to make a friendly first impression.
Just your friendly, neighborhood geeks messing around
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
I thought we had solved this issue a while ago, so I never commented here. Apparently not.
Personally, I think that the way we have it now is just fine. Someone comes in for help, we help them, they leave, we go back to whatever we were doing. I don't have a problem with multiple rooms, as long as it isn't too excessive. Sometimes I feel we have too many channels as it is, but maybe that's just me.
I don't understand why we need to keep an IRC channel "organized." First of all, ninety percent of the time, no one is asking for support or help. If someone is, we can easily stop, or continue conversations in #portableapps-ot. That's why we registered that channel. No reason for a -support channel. It just confuses users. And, as Ryan said earlier, there are almost always more people in the main room than in the branch rooms.
About the bots, I don't find it to be much of an issue. I'm usually on a few hours a day, and I don't see much playing with the bots. Perhaps it's just me, but I don't understand why that's a big issue.
Seriously, I think it's perfectly fine as it is.
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook