IRC is battle worn. It's tried and tested. It has extensive support everywhere. It's simple to knock up a client/bot/etc in any language you want (Or using teln

IRC is battle worn. It's tried and tested. It has extensive support everywhere. It's simple to knock up a client/bot/etc in any language you want (Or using telnet). It's still used by millions day in day out. Millions use it from websites without knowing that it's IRC under the hood. It's unsurprising that people are defending the defacto chat protocol. Just as they'd defend email.