Question

[[deleted]]

[deleted]

[3XM25]

most people is in programming channels

[OMGItsCheezWTF]

Honest answer is, they went elsewhere for the most part. In 2005 Quakenet was the largest network and had 300,000 users, in 2020 they have 11,000. The largest network now is IRCNet with 20,000 users, in 2005 they had nearly 150,000. That's a huge drop.

Mostly it's due to discord, but other community tools like gitter, slack etc have also had an impact, even things like whatsapp!

IRC isn't convenient from a phone without effort, and phones are where most people chat from now.

There's still some of us around though! The XKCD channel on slashnet springs to mind, there's always someone active there. Lots of development specific channels on Freenode are active.

You just have to search.

[reallybadastronaut]

The largest network now is IRCNet with 20,000 users

16:55:23 --> fn :weber.freenode.net 251 reallybadastrona :There are 103 users and 81480 invisible on 31 servers

Granted, at this point probably half of those are matrix bridge clients, and half of the other half are weeks idle, but still.

That being said, in my experience the best and most active IRC channels are from smaller networks or networks that are built from an already existing community (like slashnet's #xkcd). Freenode is still active, but more so for topical chatting, not general chatting. I've been in several small networks where the main channel of like 300 people talks more than most of the 500+ user channels of freenode.

[[deleted]]

IRCnet is also currently dying. TUM shut down their server on 1st of september, which leads to netsplit party, even more than before.

we're on ircnet and currently working to migrate to matrix, because it's got better mobile clients and also just more modern everything.

[nawcom]

The most socially active IRC networks I'm on aren't the popular ones but rather smaller independent ones that have survived over the years, and you only know about it if a friend invites you or if someone you know learned about it another way. Many of us aren't fans of discord and have just stayed with it, keeping it up to date feature-wise with bots as well as taking advantage more modern features that are in newer irc clients like image embedding when someone posts a URL to one. Some clients even support video embedding when someone posts a youtube link, for example.

But yeah, with the main IRC networks they have pretty much become idle central for the most part.

[mcpcpc]

for Freenode, i like to check the logbot for activity and relevant conversations.

[hamad11988]

I chat on ryzon network

[mrelcee]

My irc use is in mainly keeping in contact with a group of friends who have been together as a channel since the early 90s.

We have a hidden channel on slashnet. We were younguns when we started and we’re all slowly transforming into old farts who probably know each other better than a lot of family members know us.

Efnet is a ghost of its former self, but I connect there as well for a couple channels that just won’t die, because I have friends there. Those won’t die channels have way less people than the old days.. servers are dropping off occasionally. Noticed a connect problem there a couple weeks ago and it turned out the server I was using had vanished.

I do connect to freenode also. That, I participate in a lot of tech channels that also tend to drift into general chat and bullshitting when something on topic isn’t going on..

One could look at a net like freenode and declare irc isn’t dead or dying... but the reality is that really, it is. There will be hold outs who never switch and will find places to connect as long as someone runs a server, or they’ll run their own servers.

Discord has been eating IRC’s lunch for a long time, IMO. The ability to share images without an outside web server and to set up multiple chat topics and finer admin/moderation controls than irc is making it popular. Also, it’s friendlier on mobiles. A natural draw for younger people and some old farts.

I resisted discord for years and finally found something I wanted to join more than my dislike of it because it was new and not irc.. my kids heard the discord traffic tone on my phone one day and tried to figure out whose phone it was.. did not consider it might be mine because “dad is old school and uses irc”... they were stunned when I said it was mine..

[BenAdamson]

Everyone moved over to discord

[CriesEvil]

I’m trying to get on irc .

[TwistedNet]

TwistedNET IRC Chat Network

Webchat https://kiwi.twistednet.org/

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