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This page about ~~irc.mozilla.org~~ - Mozilla's IRC server.

As of March 2020, irc.mozilla.org has been permanently decommissioned

As of 2nd March 2020, Mozilla has moved away from IRC to Matrix for its public channels and the IRC server was shut down. This page is being retained for historical and reference purposes only.

History

To ask questions

Join a question-friendly channel like #introduction, #mozillians, #newbies, #seneca or #coding.
Ask away! You don't have to ask permission to ask first. It is better to just blurt out your question, even though you don't know if anyone is paying attention.
Leave your IRC client open if nobody answers right away. Most of the folks on IRC do not spend all day watching their IRC client. They just leave it open while they're doing other things. It might be an hour before the right person notices your question. When answering someone's question, especially if there's a delay, the nick of the questioner should be used in the answer so that you'll see a highlighted line with their response. (eg: "lsblakk: the answer is 42")
Be prepared to ask in several places. Very often the first response to a question is, "I don't know, but you should ask that question in #developers or #devtools or #jsapi or any of a hundred other special-purpose channels. Over time, you'll get a better sense of which questions to ask where, but to start with, it's always OK to ask in #introduction.
Remember to be courteous. Don't repeat your question every time someone new enters the room. Don't individually ask everybody in the room if they know the answer. Don't type helllooooooooo. And if someone is rude to you, please do the rest of us a favor and respond politely anyway.

Connect to the Mozilla IRC server

You could connect to server using setting settings below. Protocol: IRC;
Server URL: irc.mozilla.org;
Port: 6697;
SSL Connection: Checked;
Server Password: [blank];
Chat Server Port for users of mobile carriers that block IRC (e.g. Verizon) : 8443

Nickname: Your_IRC_nickname Real Name: Your Name

Channels

Good channels to start

Being new to IRC can be intimidating. Mozilla's IRC channels are very friendly and welcoming but some of them are geared to teams trying to get things done where others are more relaxed and open to new folks giving IRC or other Mozilla tools a try.

#mozillians - meet other Mozilla project folks all over the world
#newbies - kind of self-explanatory, right?
#introduction - a place to get started and be welcoming to new contributors
#sf, #toronto - remote office's water-cooler hotspot for socializing and planning lunch

Channels to get help with IRC

If you're able to connect to IRC and join channels, try asking for help in #introduction, #mozillians, #newbies, #seneca or #coding. The folks who hang out in those channels will be happy to help.

How to ask questions on IRC

Join a question-friendly channel like #introduction, #mozillians, #newbies, #seneca or #coding.
Ask away! You don't have to ask permission to ask first. It is better to just blurt out your question, even though you don't know if anyone is paying attention.
Leave your IRC client open if nobody answers right away. Most of the folks on IRC do not spend all day watching their IRC client. They just leave it open while they're doing other things. It might be an hour before the right person notices your question. When answering someone's question, especially if there's a delay, the nick of the questioner should be used in the answer so that you'll see a highlighted line with their response. (eg: "lsblakk: the answer is 42")
Be prepared to ask in several places. Very often the first response to a question is, "I don't know, but you should ask that question in #developers or #devtools or #jsapi or any of a hundred other special-purpose channels. Over time, you'll get a better sense of which questions to ask where, but to start with, it's always OK to ask in #introduction.
Remember to be courteous. Don't repeat your question every time someone new enters the room. Don't individually ask everybody in the room if they know the answer. Don't type helllooooooooo. And if someone is rude to you, please do the rest of us a favor and respond politely anyway.

Commonly Used Mozilla IRC Channels

There are many different irc channels for various topics. If you have ChatZilla, you can just click the provided links below to join that particular channel. For other clients, connect to server irc.mozilla.org and type /join channelname, replacing channelname with the name of the channel (including the leading "#"). All channels use English unless otherwise specified.

Development and Planning

These channels are frequently used for discussions regarding development and planning of Firefox and Thunderbird.

Project Channels

#firefox - Firefox project discussion and end-user help. Another official #firefox channel is maintained on the Freenode network)
#accessibility - Discussion about accessibility in Mozilla applications - developers and end users welcome
#addons - End user support for add-ons, extensions, and themes
#addon-reviewers - Support for add-on reviews
#amo - Development of the addons.mozilla.org (AMO) website
#balrog - Balrog (Application Update Service) project discussion.
#bmo - Bugzilla.Mozilla.Org discussion (mainly on #bugzilla below)
#bugzilla - Bugzilla project discussion
#calendar - Calendar project and Lightning. This addon is for Thunderbird and SeaMonkey while the freestanding Sunbird isn't actively developed.
#chatzilla - Discussion about ChatZilla, the IRC client extension
#firefoxstudents - Student Ambassadors main channel
#instantbird - Instantbird project discussion
#js - Discussion about JavaScript programming
#l10n - Discussion about localization (l10n) of Mozilla applications
#mdn - Discussion about developer documentation
#mdndev - Discussion about development of the documentation web site (Kuma platform)
#mozillazine - Community for Users, Web Authors, and Testers; go here if you need help
#mozdev - Discussion of and support for free project hosting at mozdev.org
#mozwebqa - Home of Mozilla's web-testing efforts
#nightingale - Nightingale project discussion
#nightly - Home of the Firefox Nightly community
#qa - Mozilla QA Community of users and testers dedicated to improving the quality of Firefox and other Mozilla applications
#remo - Mozilla Reps main channel
#remo-dev - Discussion about webdev and planning of next Mozilla Reps web properties
#rust - General discussion about the Rust programming language
#rust-beginners - Discussion for beginners of the Rust programming language
#rust-gamedev - Computer graphics and game development with Rust
#rust-internals - Rust compiler and library development
#rust-osdev - Operating system development with Rust
#seamonkey - Community project to revive the bundled application suite (The main channel is now at Freenode.)
#servo - Development of a research web browser in Rust
#songbird - Songbird project discussion
#sumo - Mozilla Support main channel
#sync - Discussion of Firefox Sync, including self-hosting
#testpilot - Discussion about the Test Pilot project prototyping new features in Firefox.
#themedev - Discussion about theme development
#thunderbird - Thunderbird project discussion and end-user help
#tb-support-crew - for Thunderbird support meta discussion NOT for Thunderbird support;
- informal companion IRC channel to the tb-support-crew mailing list
#tb-qa - QA Community of users and testers dedicated to improving the quality of Thunderbird
#transvision - Transvision (l10n QA tool in PHP) project discussion
#webextensions - Webextensions addons and API dev
#webcompat - Home of Mozilla's Web compatibility effort
#webtools - Bonsai, LXR, Tinderbox, and Mozbot project discussion
#womoz - Women & Mozilla Discussion channel
#xul - Discussion about the XUL interface specification language

General Discussion

#contributors - A offtopic channel for all contributors to chat in and discuss their projects with each other (although this channel still exists, discussion has moved to #mozillians)
#developers - general Firefox and Gecko development discussion
#planning - discussion of upcoming Firefox and Gecko branch and trunk releases

Specific Areas

#airmozilla - discussion around https://air.mozilla.org/
#ateam - Automation & Tools development discussion
#audio - development discussion for audio specifically
#badges - discussion and support channel for the Mozilla Open Badges project
#bluetooth - development discussion for bluetooth specifically
#build - The build system - make/autoconf etc
#ci - discussion about Continuous Integration infrastructure at Mozilla (formerly Release Engineering)
#content - development discussion for DOM code
#devtools - development discussion for Firefox DevTools
#e10s - development discussion for Electrolysis
#fistbump - visual design for both products and marketing; copywriting
#focus - Focus mobile browser development discussion
#fx-team - Firefox front-end development discussion and team channel
#fxa - Firefox Accounts development and support channel
#fxos - Firefox OS development
#gfx - development discussion for graphics, widget and OS-specific code
#identity - Persona and BrowserID protocol discussion
#jsapi - development discussion for the JavaScript engine
#jsctypes - discussion and support for js-ctypes development
#labs - discussion of development of Mozilla Labs projects
#layout - development discussion for layout code
#macdev - OSX developers
#maildev - Thunderbird development channel
#media - development discussion for audio/video and related topics like WebRTC
#memshrink - development discussion about memory consumption
#mobile - Firefox mobile development discussion
#necko - development discussion for the networking code
#newslettercode - community newsletter channel
#power - development discussion about power consumption
#push - Push server and DOM API development channel
#seamonkey - SeaMonkey development channel (The main channel is now at Freenode.)
#security - security discussions and public channel for all Security teams
#services-dev - Cloud Services discussion channel
#telemetry - Telemetry development channel
#ur - discussion of user experience research for all Mozilla projects
#ux - discussion of visual and interactive user experience design for all Mozilla projects
#videol10n - making/translating subtitles for Mozilla related videos
#webdev - the web development group's channel
#webmaker - discussion and support channel for Mozilla Webmaker
#wiki - discussion and support channel for MozillaWiki
#windev - development discussion for Windows platforms
#www - discussion of the development of www.mozilla.org

Specific Locations

#atlanta - general chat for people in the Atlanta, GA area
#auckland - general chat for people in Auckland or elsewhere in New Zealand
#australia - general chat for the Australian Mozilla community
#bangladesh - general chat for the Mozilla Bangladesh community
#berlin - general chat for Mozilla Berlin
#community-berlin - general chat for the Berlin Mozilla community
#canada - general chat for the Canadian Mozilla community
#chicago - general chat for the Mozilla Chicago community
#india - general chat for the Mozilla India community
#kerala - general chat for the Mozilla Kerala community
#london - general chat for people connected to or interested in the London MozSpace
#michigan - general chat for the Mozillian Michigan community
#montreal - general chat for people in Montreal, including community. Bilingual channel. (French-English)
#mozilla-cm - general chat for the Mozilla Cameroon community
#mozilla.ch - general chat for people in Switzerland
#mozpdx - general chat for the Mozilla Portland community
#munich - general chat for the Mozilla Munich Area community
#mv - general chat for people in the Mountain View office
#rochester - general chat for people in the Rochester, NY area
#SF - general chat for people in the San Francisco office
#seattle - general chat for people in the greater Seattle area
#socal - general chat for people in the greater Southern California area
#spain - general chat for people in Spain
#tokyo - general chat for people in the Tokyo office and area
#toronto - general chat for people in the Toronto office
#triangle - general chat for people in the Raleigh/Durham, NC area
#tulsa - general chat for people in the Tulsa area
#uk - general chat for the Mozilla UK community
#vancouver - general chat for people in the Vancouver office

Channels in Other Languages

Arabic

Azerbaijani

#mozillaz

Bangladesh

#bangladesh

Brazilian Portuguese

Bulgarian

#mozilla-bg

Catalan

#mozilla-cat

Chinese

Croatian

#croatia

Czech

currently none, see this page to know how to reach us

French

#mozfr Main channel for community members work
#frenchmoz Main channel for Francophone community chat
#L10n-fr Main channel for French localization (Telegram invite link available in channel topic)
#SUMO-fr Main channel for only French SUMO localization discussions (mirror on Telegram)
#devfr Main channel for developers (both webdev and platform)
#politiques Channel for Open Policy & Advocacy discussions
#support-fr Technical support
#xulfr Historically XUL technology channel
#rust-fr Rust language channel

German

Greek

#athens

Hebrew

#mozilla.il

Indonesia

#idmoz

Italian

#developers-it

Japanese

Korean

#mozillakr

Lithuanian

#mozilla-lt

Marathi

#marathi

Myanmar

#mozillamm

Norwegian

#mozilla.no

Persian

#iranmozilla

Polish

#aviarypl

Portuguese (Portugal)

#mozilla-portugal

Philippines

#mozilla-ph

Romanian

#romania

Russian

#mozilla-ru

Serbian

#mozilla.sr

Sinhala

#mozilla.lk

Slovak

#mozilla-sk

Slovenia

#slozilla

Spanish

Swedish

#mozilla.se

Tunisian

#mozillatunisia

Ukrainian

#mozilla-ua

Wolof

#l10n-wo

Connection Notice

When you connect to our IRC server, you will get portscanned from 63.245.208.159, 63.245.212.23, or 63.245.216.214. This is an unfortunate but necessary step in order to cut down on the number of viruses and other malicious users attempting to communicate via our IRC servers. The portscan is checking for common ports used by known viruses and open proxy servers to ensure that your machine is not infected before allowing you to remain connected. By connecting to our IRC servers, you agree to have your computer portscanned by our server. If you don't like this, don't connect.

Privacy Information

Our servers do not keep records of any of your conversations, but anyone in the channels you are in might do so and publish those conversation logs (and some channels are actively logged by users on those channels). If you have questions about this, ask the other users in the channel you are concerned about (every channel has its own culture). In general, you should assume that anything you say on IRC that is not in a private message will be recorded and possibly published somewhere, and even then you are depending on your trust that the person you are sending the message to will not to share it.

Quotes Database

Sometimes people say silly or memorable things on our server. We memorialize them forever on the quotes database managed by Tim De Pauw.

Persistent Connection

If you have access to a host that is always on you can run an irc session on it and connect/disconnect from that session without losing everything. This allows you to keep scrollback, stay present in channels when you are away, and have logs of what happens when you're not around. In this example I will use people.mozilla.org as my host. If someone can add good instructions for setting up a proxy in another way, please do. This tutorial will assume that you have an account on people.mozilla.org (or another server where you can ssh to it and run both 'screen' and 'irssi'), details on how to set this up are below. An alternative is ZNC.

On the server

 ssh lsblakk@people.mozilla.org
 ## create a bin dir
 mkdir bin
 cd bin
 vim irc
 ## paste the following two lines (without the initial spaces) in the empty file:
  #!/bin/bash
  screen -raAd
 ## now hit ESC followed by :x and enter to save this file
 ## make the file executable
 chmod -c a+x irc
 ## Start your irssi session:
 screen irssi

Add Network/Server

Replace <nick> and <password> with your registered Mozilla IRC nickname and password. The following creates an autoconnect to irc.mozilla.org under the name Mozilla.

/SERVER ADD -ssl -auto -network Mozilla irc.mozilla.org 6697
/NETWORK ADD -nick <nick> -user <nick> -autosendcmd "/^msg nickserv identify <password>;wait 2000" Mozilla

Add Channels (optional)

Replace #channel with the channel you'd like to add. <pass> is an optional field, used when an IRC channel requires a password.

/CHANNEL ADD -auto #channel Mozilla <pass>

...repeat till satisfied!

Good practices

/HILIGHT <nick>

more soon

References

Mozilla IRC Server

Contents