IRC Will Never Die (2021)

What makes IRC special isn't the protocol but the community, and that community has been steadily shrinking month after month, year after year. The average age of regulars continues to go up. Unless its popularity sees some kind of resurgence and the current trends reverse, IRC will most definitely die.

Funny that they mention freenode because it <i>did</i> burn to the ground 2 years after this article.<p>However it was reborn as Libera which is once again doing great. If you don&#x27;t know the story, Google it. I don&#x27;t want to drag up the past, it&#x27;s better forgotten.<p>I don&#x27;t think IRC will really die, it will become a more fringey thing though. Probably more than it already is.

The article makes a solid point about the timelessness of a protocol versus a service. I will never get to relive my memories of CompuServe, but just last weekend I was able to goof around with Microsoft Comic Chat 2.5 under WINE. It connected to a server just fine and it was 1999 all over again. I really wish we would see new Internet (No not web, Internet) protocols. The last one I have seen get any resemblance of traction is the Gemini protocol and that is still a very niche thing.

Needs a 2021 in the title.<p>There seems a genuine loss of mojo amongst those purporting to support freedom of expression across the spectrum.<p>One does not wish to feel as though there were some &quot;Dark Age&quot; pending, but here we are.

IRC is still my favorite chat system even if my close friends have moved on to fancier systems like discord and Zulip and slack.<p>If I could set technical direction in a company we’d use only IRC and email. Maybe mumble.

I&#x27;ve always thought Hacker News could do with a chat room, and given how simple it is (and free), IRC would probably best fit the bill. Searching Hacker News shows that some people have proposed different chat rooms but nothing&#x27;s stuck really. I reckon it&#x27;d need a &quot;chat&quot; tab up the top. Nice-to-haves would be adding an optional web-based client, and tying it into your actual HN login.<p>I&#x27;ve never set up IRC before though, so I have no idea if this is actually feasible.

Ircs limitations are its biggest pros. No memes,no videos, no gameification, no shops, just text and thought,or lack thereof.

I began using IRC before the age of 10, creating fond memories along the way. But let&#x27;s face the harsh reality: IRC has largely become obsolete for most purposes. The alternatives available now are not only more user-friendly but also offer superior functionality for the general population, so I highly doubt IRC will become popular once again anytime. While it is sad, why would anyone choose to use outdated 90s technology that poses challenges for the average user when there are more advanced and accessible options?

The protocol won&#x27;t die, but the people will.<p>For me, IRC stopped being attractive when Freenode changed owner. They broke it in two months and with no way to migrate nicks between servers, many lost their registered nicks on the channels that moved to other servers, and I had no want to stay on Freenode for the channels that stayed.<p>Identity is a major problem with IRC. Losing mine cut a core tether for me, it wasn&#x27;t my space any more.

Ohh, IRC will eventually die, unfortunately. Why? When last dinosaurs like me vanish. I love IRC, I met hell of people on IRC in golden times.. 1998-2004. IRC will be always special in my hearh. I wrote IRC bots, IRC servers.<p>Currently, I still run my own IRC server for friends, I have syslog channel where bots are idling and msg importand&#x2F;criticial messages from my infra (semi-centrliazed logging). I see no reason to move away from it.

“Hey, kids! It&#x27;s your old buddy Steve King telling you that if they ban a book in your school, haul your ass to the nearest bookstore or library ASAP and find out what they don&#x27;t want you to read.” - Stephen King, 2023-01-18<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gauravgiri.com&#x2F;for-the-record&#x2F;a-confession&#x2F;666.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gauravgiri.com&#x2F;for-the-record&#x2F;a-confession&#x2F;666.pdf</a>

So, I was a decently heavy IRC user back in its heyday. Today, &quot;the kids&quot; are all about Discord -- and I do mean the geek coding creative kids most like me but younger and I absolutely see why.<p>I think I do lament the abscence of a more aggressive &quot;why not just update IRC to be like Discord?&quot;<p>WAY easier said than done, and I think Matrix is trying, but I suppose the most frustrating thing is trying to tell the young&#x27;ns, hey this has a strong chance of enshittifying

Meh.<p>I got into IRC multiple times, but I really have no desire to go back to it. The fact that I have to set up a ZNC bouncer if I want messages to show up on multiple devices kind of feels like, well, something from the 90&#x27;s.<p>I feel like Matrix is considerably less annoying, while being federated and relatively easy to set up.<p>I&#x27;m happy enough with IRC dying.

Many open source projects move to Matrix. There are IRC bridges for it too.

What is the law that says anything owned by a corporation will eventually die to be replaced by the free alternative? IRC will rise again.

There&#x27;s an XKCD for almost every occasion: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;xkcd.com&#x2F;1782&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;xkcd.com&#x2F;1782&#x2F;</a>

IRC can absolutely die when the people running the networks and the servers stop doing so. A number of IRC networks have died over the years. IRC is just another service built, ran and operated by volunteers. If IRC was more popular, you&#x27;d hear about the same moderation concerns social networks are dealing with. I banned entire countries (hello, Malaysia!) in my time as network admin.

(2021)

Slack may die.

is it still in use?<p>I cant remember the last time I saw a reference to an active channel. Or seen it installed on any system.