Ok, so there's a difference between failing as an underlying technology, and failing as an actual thing people use. Herein lies the difference between e-mail a

Ok, so there's a difference between failing as an underlying technology, and failing as an actual thing people use. Herein lies the difference between e-mail and IRC - e-mail is fundamentally the same as an underlying technology (we still use IMAP!), but as an end-user product has changed a huge amount over the last twenty years. Things like webmail have progressed a huge amount, and systems like Outlook/Exchange have been built that allow it to be managed in a business centric manner. With modern e-mail, you sign up for an e-mail, and that's it. You can now go to a website and e-mail people. With IRC as a product, (aside from the ugly webchats that still expose huge streams of text and NickServ and other things), the end-user experience is still fundamentally the same.