That's why I said, "Ultimately, it depends on your use case, but IRC's assumptions don't work for me or my peers." If it works for you, great. It doesn't for me

That's why I said, "Ultimately, it depends on your use case, but IRC's assumptions don't work for me or my peers." If it works for you, great. It doesn't for me. (Believe me, I used to use it a lot back then.) For one thing, I chat with people not just to chat, but to communicate effectively. IRC simply doesn't provide the functionality that aligns with my use cases. It doesn't meet the expectations I have for such systems right out of the box. Creating and maintaining bots or workarounds just to communicate effectively isn't high on my list of priorities, given everything else I have to do.