Being text-based, and chat, I'd guess IRC is many times lighter to (financially) sustain for a set amount of users, compared to many web based social network to

Being text-based, and chat, I'd guess IRC is many times lighter to (financially) sustain for a set amount of users, compared to many web based social network today. Page loads, reloads, dynamic content, rich media and more does add up to amazing amounts of data. As the user base grows, monetization or financial donations becomes a requirement if such a platform will be sustainable. A lot of processing and data transfers "need" to happen to simply read a short text message from a friend. How could we design social platforms as streamlined as IRC? What technologies do we have? HTML works. How do we keep the online experience and rich media we are accustomed to today while going for an affordable architecture. Solving the ads and monetization issue should be tackled from multiple angles. Not just asking where the money will come from. I believe more could be discussed about creating sustainable, lightweight solutions as well.