I'm not dismissing non-technical users, I'm acknowledging that plenty of them seem to use IRC just fine, contrary to what people are saying itt. The barrier is

I'm not dismissing non-technical users, I'm acknowledging that plenty of them seem to use IRC just fine, contrary to what people are saying itt. The barrier isn't skill or knowledge, it's investing a small amount of time in figuring out IRC. Anyone can do it, there's loads of resources about setting up IRC expressly written for a non-technical audience (which you can provide to new contributors).