There are technical issues with running an IRC server and the protocol. It's the UI/UX you mention that seems to be the bigger blocker. In my experience IRC w

There are technical issues with running an IRC server and the protocol. It's the UI/UX you mention that seems to be the bigger blocker. In my experience IRC was the preferred platform among software developers for a long time. Setting up a persistent shell and bouncer and managing your logs was common and preferred. It was how a good deal of the, small at the time, open source world ran (this is the 90's up through the aughts). I recall that started to change when Slack and other alternatives started breaking into the market. A newer generation of software developers didn't care for IRC and the UI/UX around it. Open source, open protocols, free (as in freedom) software didn't matter to this generation. And as management and executives got more interested in micro-managing developers we needed to include non-technical folks into our chat systems... which is where the UI/UX argument struck again: our friends in HR, management, etc couldn't be expected to setup their own irssi + screen client, log rotation, notifiers, etc; writing and hosting custom bots to integrate with systems became a chore and lost art, etc. Now we have to run multi-gigabyte, resource hogging clients to post memes and emojis. But at least it's easier to administer and get folks on board. At the cost of all your data belongs to Slack I guess. You do get a lot out of Slack than chat though. Forms, integrations, workflows, huddles, etc. It's a different ballgame from early to modern Slack.