[tor-talk] TorChat or other for IRC?

[Moritz Bartl]

On 01/06/2016 03:56 PM, andre76 at fastmail.fm wrote:
> Is TorChat the usual program used for IRC?

No. TorChat is a third-party application that uses its own protocol. It
does not connect to IRC.

> Or, there another irc client that's recommended?

Not really. People use different clients, a popular one is irssi but it
needs some learning. In order to properly use IRC, you need a client
that stays connected 24/7. It does not help to pop into the chat and
then ask a question only to disconnect a few minutes later.
Conversations take place in an asychronous way, and often happen over
the course of multiple days.

> Where can it be downloaded from?  There seem to be way too many places
> to download TorChat.

TorChat is an unofficial messenger for 1:1 conversation that does not
support group chat and has not been approved or even looked at by Tor.
For a long time, there was no protocol specification, just the code, and
from a cursory look it seems to be still that way. I don't know anyone
who is using it. An alternative but (from the looks of it) similar
project is Ricochet, https://ricochet.im/ , which has a specification
and is being developed by someone closer to the Tor team.

-- 
Moritz Bartl
https://www.torservers.net/