IRC was too hard for most people to use. Also, "IRC" is not a single entity. Which network are you connecting to? What's your nick? Is it reserved? Are you runn

IRC was too hard for most people to use. Also, "IRC" is not a single entity. Which network are you connecting to? What's your nick? Is it reserved? Are you running a bouncer, or can I only message you when you're online? Way too complicated. ICQ, and later AIM, made most of this stuff "easy" for the average person. Too bad AIM didn't evolve more... It could've been Slack 20 years earlier.