Comment by encom
14 days ago
>IRC exposes your IP
That hasn't been true for decades, and even if it was, it sounds like Hollywood's idea of a problem.
>IRC only will exclude a lot of people
If they can't figure out how to point a client to an IRC server, their contribution is worthless. It's the most trivial barrier to entry possible.
>sharing screenshots
Print screen > paste to image host > share link. Not hard.
I get that the Discord experience is slick, if you're willing to give up any sort of privacy or confidentiality. IRC is lightweight and simple, and its shortcomings can be worked around without too much effort. Discord is bloated, malicious, evil - I will gladly suffer some inconveniences of IRC.
Keep in mind that I am an IRC user, and I am not advocating for staying on Discord. I'm just stating that IRC is not - and probably never will be - a contender for "Discord alternatives", even among developers.
I can still see other peoples IPs on IRC today. When writing this comment, I can see people on major IRC servers with IP addresses that appear to correspond to consumer ISPs.
Another benefit of not being on IRC is that they don't have to interact with people who will disregard their contributions as "worthless". That's so dismissive of other people that I can't really take your comment seriously on the topic of interpersonal collaboration and communication.
And yes, even sharing screenshots becomes difficult. What host would you use that works in every country the IRC server operates in, works with people using any given VPN, and has a ToS and PP that is at least not worse than Discord's? Keep in mind this excludes Imgur and Catbox.
IRC is not simple and its many problems are not trivial.