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Comment by gcau

3 years ago

This is not true at all. IRC has, maybe, 10% of the features and ability Discord has. I do agree a good, usable and more modern IRC client is a good opportunity.

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gcau

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anthk  3 years ago

With jabber I could

- play simple games on Jabber thru the client, like chess or checkers

- inline LaTeX with Kopete

- embedded YT videos with Kopete or some Pidgin plugins

- automatic message translating with Google Translate or similar. It just worked. Again, it was a Pidgin plugin

- OTR/Omemo encrypted chats

- video/audio chats

- multi user chats

- file transfers

- chat from either text mode or from a graphical client

- chat with Gtalk peers

- scribble in a whiteboard

Please, gen-Z ers, stop comparing Discord with IRC, you just show ignorance. If any, compare Discord with Jabber and what we had from 2007 to ~2013-14 and beyond.

IRC and IM are totally different platforms with polar opossite usages. IRC chats were made to be public in order to join a public conversation, IM was made to chat between people you already knew, and sometimes in a group with few peers.

  • RadiozRadioz  3 years ago

    I have noticed this too about gen-Z XMPP ignorance, IRC seems more widely known despite many of them growing up using XMPP. Perhaps gen-Z were too young to care back then, and nowadays open IRC communities appear more plentiful.

    • anthk  3 years ago

      Sure. When we were teens/early adults using (a)MSN/AIM/Gtalk they were either toddlers or young children. Too young to be aware.

      When they became teens classical IM platforms began to decay/rot because of social media and mobile messengers.

toastal  3 years ago

A MUC on a modern XMPP client/server can do most of it. There are XEPs for reactions, stickers, threading, etc. and it still works well for small voice and video chats. The voice chat for gaming though is better handled by Mumble.

acuozzo  3 years ago

Can you please list some features Discord has that IRC lacks?

(Since IRC is a protocol, let's use the mIRC application for comparison with Discord.)

  • TeddyDD  3 years ago

    Take a look at IRCv3 specs: https://ircv3.net/irc/

    Unfortunately, many of them are still a work in progress. Still, a fully featured IRCv3 client connected to a modern server should be usable by normies.

  • madars  3 years ago

    A big one is mobile (and laptop roaming) support. IRC alternative is to either run a bouncer (excludes casual users) or to pay for something like IRCCloud.