IRC revival?!

i know that IRC never died (it's still very much alive, as i've seen and engaged with it these past few months!) but it seems like most of the world has forgotten that it existed, or assumes that it did, in fact, die! but it didn't! there's still quite a few IRC networks on the planet, and i would really like to encourage more people to use it and gas it up

in short, discord in almost its entirety was BASED on IRC - from servers, to channels, even to bots and nicknames. IRC networks are comprised of multiple servers that exchange messages to relay them to the connected users, and those servers have channels! the thing that people like about Discord and other platforms is that they're easy to use, they have cute custom profiles and emojis and all. but these things all still need to find a way to profit from you to keep running!

IRC is decentralized, open-source, and not for profit. IRC networks aren't going to be pushing advertising in your face to try to get in your wallet. sure, it may not have nice voice and video and screen sharing capabilities, but the other things it's capable of far exceed what Discord can accomplish.

instead of having a single application or website or client to use, you can install any IRC client you want, and customize it exactly as you see fit - or just use a web client, like https://web.libera.chat ! the biggest caveat is that you don't have any message history - you don't get to scroll back and read what the conversation was before you connected.

but that's why people run something called an IRC bouncer! i have one of my own at https://lounge.zomboid.pro/ (and you're welcome to drop a message here, or send me a direct message to ask for an account!) and one of my friends, swee, runs his own instance that you can submit an application for an account on!

or, if you're more into self-hosting and have your own hardware, you can install the lounge yourself!

i've personally just been hanging out on irc.libera.chat in channels like ##Llamas, ##netizen, ##trans, and ##furry, but there's plenty of other channels and communities to find and engage with :D

i've also written my own crash-course guide to IRC for anyone that's never heard of it before!