Can't set default servers in ERC layer

Question

My user-config looks following:

(defun dotspacemacs/user-config ()
  (setq-default dotspacemacs-configuration-layers
   '((erc :variables
      erc-server-list
      '(("chat.freenode.net"
         :port "6697"
         :ssl t
         :nick "siulkilulki")))))
)

According to point 3.4 in http://spacemacs.org/layers/+chat/erc/README.html it should set default servers, but when I press <leader>aiD I get you must define erc-server-list. What did I do wrong?

Answer 1

It seems like dotspacemacs-configuration-layers should be set up in defun dotspacemacs/layers (). Moving code there solves problem.

Answer 2

It looks like when ERC starts it doesn't actually use the default servers unless you tell it to. Having two possibilities for default servers seems odd.

M-m a-i-D (it has to be a capitalized D) starts the default servers for me. Anything else starts on freenode.net with port 6667

For reference in my dotspacemacs-configuration-layers I have the following format for my default server:

   dotspacemacs-configuration-layers
   '((erc :variables
          erc-server-list
          '(("irc.example.com"
               :port "6770"
               :ssl t
               :nick "nick"
               :password "password"))
          ))

UPDATE: What I ended up doing was making my own key setting to join the IRC server I wanted (C-c i):

  (global-set-key "\C-ci" (lambda () (interactive)
            (erc-tls :server "irc.example.com"
         :port "6779"
         :nick "my_username"
         :password "my_password")))