You can’t even see the history in many channels.

  • @blank_sl8@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    22 years ago

    A lot of the reason is /because/ it’s hard to use. Discussion on Libera Chat (formerly Freenode) is usually higher quality than on your average discord channel for example, no doubt because people who go to the trouble to properly set up an IRC bouncer and learn the other idiosyncrasies of IRC are more interested in having serious conversation.

    On the technical side, IRC is a very simple protocol compared to all serious alternatives. There are clients to satisfy anyone’s needs, no matter how niche. There are less distractions for those of us who only want text.

  • 10_0
    link
    fedilink
    22 years ago

    Not sure, it seems relyable like SMS and has the same security, but just like SMS there are better options available. And most people don’t use IRC or SMS and use WhatsApp or Signal instead, because they have more and better features and security.

    • Azure
      link
      fedilink
      1
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Signal became a nonstarter for me when it turned out the person running the project is actively hostile to third party clients and bullied one out of existence.

      That and, at least historically, it was pretty heavily wedded to mobile phones in a way that disqualifies it for anything I want to have long conversations with.

  • Marxism-Fennekinism
    link
    fedilink
    22 years ago

    Assuming that the history is not stored anywhere, that’s a pretty big advantage for security. A hacker can’t breach what doesn’t exist anymore.

  • @ganymede@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    1
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Why is seeing the history so important?

    If you mean backlog from when you were away then you can solve that with a bouncer.

    Anyone can host an IRC server. Discord is not a charity, you don’t get all that cotton candy for free.

  • GadgeteerZA
    link
    fedilink
    12 years ago

    Utter simplicity, and it does what it does very well. It’s not for photo sharing, selling stuff, etc. Quite a few tech support groups still use it, and I blog my tech posts in a channel run.

  • Azure
    link
    fedilink
    12 years ago

    Because there are a multitude of clients that work with it. it’s open. It’s not a walled garden. You aren’t stuck in yet another horrid browser app.

    Also for some purposes the lack of history can be an advantage. For a channel that’s real-time social interaction, people coming and going and only having access to the things that happened when they were there can be a positive.

  • savoy
    link
    fedilink
    12 years ago

    IRC’s been around for ages and got a huge foothold in tech circles. There’s a lot to hack around it and the process of setting it up and managing is very simple, not to mention the protocol is lightweight.

    It fills its own role very well where persistent message history isn’t required, joining is easy, and to be incredibly robust.

  • Ninmi
    link
    fedilink
    0
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Really the only advantage IRC has is excellent terminal clients. It’s old and does not serve the vast majority well enough.