> Slack is a quick sign up You don't even have to sign up to connect to IRC (though you can register with a nickserv if you want). > and pay if you want histo

> Slack is a quick sign up You don't even have to sign up to connect to IRC (though you can register with a nickserv if you want). > and pay if you want history over 10,000 messages IRC is only limited by disk space on your local machine. > IRC, possibly available by hacks/add-ons and not by default or available via quick button, is missing chat history I'm not sure what you're referring to, but pretty much every client can keep a log of messages sent and received separated by channel/dcc session. > doesn't support uploads You can send files to others via DCC. In any case, the other messenger services I mentioned did not have a long sign up process either. Creating new accounts for AOL instant messenger didn't require much effort at all, for example. Their clients also handled logging much like an IRC client would.