This is just a quick argument for why we should use IRC.
I have used Slack, Discord, Mattermost, Zulip, Telegram, Whatsapp,
Messenger, Signal, Matrix and many others - and the one I keep coming
back to is IRC. With such advanced tools, why do I keep going back to
one of the oldest widespread communications protocols?
A potato could connect to IRC – The protocol is simple and
it works. You can even connect via telnet or
nc and manually write the commands to connect, it really is
that simple. With half of the protocols mentioned previously you need
some massive Electron (or JS framework) using up significant amounts of
CPU to even have a hope of working. You should not require more CPU
power than rovers on Mars just to talk to one another via text.
Reliability – It hardly ever goes down and it never needs
servicing, the protocol is so well understood that some of the software
has been mature now for many years. How many times has your team lost
it’s vital communications for a few hours because somebody tripped over
a wire in California?
No vendor lockin – You can switch to any server, run your
own server, run any client, run no client - you are really free to run
IRC how you want.
Messages are not saved offline – When you first login to
IRC, that is when you become available to talk. I think that with
current chat apps you encourage FOMO (fear of missing out) and this has
a negative impact on how people behave. I really do not want
people contacting me when it is convenient for them. (This is one of the
reasons I hate phones.)
Writing bots is easy – You can do it in any language that
has networking abilities - you do not need some crazy API or library in
order to get a bot operational. The flexibility is simply
unmatched.
Coffee Space 
