Presenting an alternative user perspective here, I would go on freenode, but only for sports channels (really, and how that happened is because on reddit before

Presenting an alternative user perspective here, I would go on freenode, but only for sports channels (really, and how that happened is because on reddit before they started promoting discord, there was a window where IRC was advertised for sports chat, usually during game nights). Freenode wasn't only for technology channels, though they were absolutely the majority. My experience with freenode has been a positive one, the sports channels had the same crowd of regulars and there were no real issues. Freenode was very nice, especially compared to the shower that EFNet was in the 90s and I am sorry to see that the freenode network is having troubles now. IRC is a great technology, it's too difficult for the average user to understand, and this is not necessarily a bad thing.