Oshaberi

The Backstory

A group of friends had long socialized on the web through means of IRC, forums and mailing lists. United by common interests, this group formed a channel on FreeNode. FreeNode was the home of these friends for many years, serving their needs well; as time progressed, a need for finely-grained control arose as their knowlege of computing and familiarity with administration increased. ×

The Formation

In September of 2013 the seed of oshaberi was sown when the idea of running an IRC network was found to be an appealing alternative to using one ran by another group. Many issues were brought forth by the idea; the primary points of interest were: the name, the setup, the rules, and the -tan.

The Name

Many names were suggested, and a pool was formed that included options such as robolita, nyetnyet.net, chinmusic, saunternet, blagolith, stenoweb.net, and dahizzle.biz. After a few days of deliberation "oshaberi" was decided upon, with the intention of getting a domain name in the Japanese top level domain; soon many members pitched in, and tsundoku was more than happy to procure the goods.

"oshaberi" was choosen due to it's meaning; "chattering, talk, or idle talk" aptly describes the purpose of this network. Discussion about technology, media, current events, the geoplitical state of the world, everday trivialities or chat among an already established community like the 68kmla. Oshaberi's founders wish to replicate the feeling of what it is to "hang out"; doing everything, yet nothing at all with a close group of associates.

The Setup

The IRCd

With a name in hand, it was time to decide upon the network's implementation. This happened in primarily three parts, choosing the ircd, the network map and deciding if services were neccesary. There are many choices available for an IRCd, choosing one seemed an almost daunting task until Ulterior suggested UnrealIRCd. Unreal's featureset, ease of use and Ulterior's previous experience supplied much weight to his suggestion, and Unreal was accepted as oshaberi's IRCd.

By 2019 UnrealIRCd 3.x had reached its end of life and many discussions were had about the future of the network. It was decided that InspIRCd would replace the aging UnrealIRCd as it was, at the time, developed actively and filled a similar niche as UnrealIRCd.

The Map

Oshaberi's original network map consisted of "glinda" as the hub, with stenoweb.net and irc.tsundoku.ne.jp linking to it. Glinda was hosted on Ulterior's home connection, and while a more than capable machine for running the IRCd, it's ISP was less than satisfactory. Soon, stenoweb.net replaced glinda as the hub with irc.tsundoku.ne.jp and dillamond.680x0.com linked as leaf nodes. Later, irc.reworktel.us replaced dillamond.680x0.com. In 2020 irc.reworktel.us was replaced by irc.nv.us.reworktel.net.

The Services

The most hotly debated subject during oshaberi's formation was the issue of network services. Many other IRC networks use services that allow one amenities such as nickname management, channel management and a few other goodies; oshaberi does not run any sort of network services aside from the security server. While it may make our network a bit more like the "wild west" of EFnet past, it makes maintaining the network quite easy. We also believe that anyone may have any nick that is available -- unless you're a friend. Oftentimes this leads to more active administraction; we think that active admins are a good thing.

During the IRCd change-over of 2020 it was determined the network was large enough that services would be a good idea. In lock-step with the IRCd migration Atheme IRC services were implemented for nick and channel management. SASL authentication to services is supported on all nodes.

The Rules

The rulset Oshaberi operates on it simple; do not cause undue stress to the operators, don't do anything illegal. Individual nodes may have further restrictions, so be sure to read the message of the day for the server you're connected to or join #oshaberi for help. You can also find out more about the server you're connected to via it's wikipage.