I'm on Freenode from time to time, mostly for Wikimedia and a bit for free software support as well. I'd be there all the time if I had more time. I've seen a

I'm on Freenode from time to time, mostly for Wikimedia and a bit for free software support as well. I'd be there all the time if I had more time. I've seen a lot of people switching to XMPP, then Facebook, then Gitter, then Discord, then Slack, then… At the end, the result is mostly a fragmented community because not everyone is moving to the next trendy protocol, and there is an increasing number of alternatives. Sure, there's some merit in lowering the effort for newcomers, but it doesn't fully outweight its cost, IMHO. IRC is the only protocol that remains widely used in the (very) long run and doesn't die when it gets out of fashion (see: it's been out of fashion since before fashion protocols were born). I'm closely following Matrix, though, because of the bridges (especially the IRC bridge, obviously).