I use https://riot.im https://riot.im for IRC for some channels. It stays connected, keeps archives, etc. For small communities, I recommend Mattermost or Rock

I use https://riot.im https://riot.im for IRC for some channels. It stays connected, keeps archives, etc. For small communities, I recommend Mattermost or Rocket Chat. I used to be a die-hard fan of irssi inside tmux, but seeing how tiny usability issues can really cause adoption issues, I wouldn't even recommend riot.im to less technical people.