Expansion of #skipirc to non-SCP channels is not something that's been ruled out. Indeed, should conditions on SynIRC continue to deteriorate, I've loose plans to invite some Syn communities to join us (certainly not across the board- a small subset of quality, non-problematic channels). And I've not sworn off the network growing in other ways (although there are currently no plans to pursue this actively), should there be an appetite for it (unlikely but not out of the question).

I am fine with #help being de-emphasized or even put on ice, but not merged with 17.

I find having a separate help channel quite useful, even if we only use it rarely. I’m pretty bad at IRC backend stuff and for some reason some folks are very good at remembering it, and usually, if I ask a question about something in there at least one person is ready to help me. I’d be much more hesitant to ask such questions in 17, even if it was to become the officially merged help chat.

I find it quite redundant. Any inquiries ever asked in #help could be easily and — in some cases — be more efficiently answered should the individual have asked in 17. Furthermore, everyone who helps out in the former is also readily available to help in 17 and, seeing that SkipIRC is run by the Chat Admins and Kufat (i.e. members of staff for the SCP Wiki), it just makes sense that #site17 be used in place of this. Currently, there are no other entities using SkipIRC that aren't somewhat interconnected with SCP, but, if that were to change sometime in the near or far future, the help channel would be easily able to be reopened. See, from what I've read, it seems the channel will just be set to +Ll #site17 2. This would limit the channel to two users; the channel +q and ChanServ, and would redirect any more users to 17. This is easily removable, and wouldn't cause any lasting issues. Additionally, I see no reason why someone would be more hesitant to ask a question in one channel or the other.

I would propose that having help redirect to avoid confusion is probably the easiest solution, but perhaps we continue to have a slightly differently named help channel for IRC over SCP questions? Especially given I find it actually easier to get an answer in Help at times over 17, which can be high traffic.

Again, I don't see why this is necessary. SkipIRC is already run by SCP Wiki Staff, so this would just be redundant.

Edit: I got the order of the cmode syntax reversed.

I find having a separate help channel quite useful, even if we only use it rarely. I’m pretty bad at IRC backend stuff and for some reason some folks are very good at remembering it, and usually if I ask a question about something in there at least one person is ready to help me. I’d be much more hesitant to ask such questions in 17, even if it was to become the officially merged help chat.

I would propose that having help redirect to avoid confusion is probably the easiest solution, but perhaps we continue to have a slightly differently named help channel for IRC over SCP questions? Especially given I find it actually easier to get an answer in Help at times over 17, which can be high traffic.

This may be biased since I probably am like, the only person on SkipIRC who uses help in any way regularly lol. It just feels like the difference between asking privately after class, or asking publicly in your very big lecture. _{Maybe i should just go to therapy though seems like less work}

Not a lot to say about this proposal. I can't think of anything that'd be on topic for #help that wouldn't also be on-topic for #site17, and it'd be one less channel for us to keep an eye on.