It's an enclave untouched by much of the current toxicity of social media. It requires you to make friends with others based on your words and not content filtering algorithms. You are exposed to other people with other ideas since it isn't filtered. All with a reasonably high lowest level since the lack of bells and whistles turn a lot of people away from it.
The only response I can conjure up for this is “wat”
IRC in my experience is the most toxic and mean-spirited place on earth. 4chan is easier to take because I can justify their meanness to lulz. People on IRC seem to be out to kill people’s spirit.
There are some exceptions like python on free node which is heavily moderated, but by and large (in my nearly 15 years of heavy IRCing) it is not for the faint hearted.
There are still plenty of educational/social IRC communities that welcome curious people of all skill levels.
I can vouch for https://hashbang.sh (irc.hashbang.sh/6697) which has piles of industry leaders as regulars that prefer investing in open federated standards for internet communication over the endless array of hip walled garden flavor of the week chat systems.
We give out free bouncers/shells to anyone too :)
My personal experience suggests that IRC communities are just like other communities, that is, with a right amount of moderation and a right set of users they will survive, otherwise they will fail.
That said, IRC is made by the communities using it. The only, but a significant technological advantage it has over other chat mediums is its minimalism. Barebones chat is much more conducive to technical discussions, than the bloated alternatives, and I think the same applies for other kinds of discussions as well.
but i also use it only for very specific technical topics.
People are people I guess.
I like #emacs. It's like a gathering of friends who happen to use Emacs.
Telling exact channel names would out me pretty fast though I reckon.
I strongly doubt it we would have met, in this day and age. The mainstream online socialising of today is superficial and desperate.
Today, a remote worker, I communicate with my colleagues over IRC. It's rare that I'd speak to a stranger on it.
You say that but it's a sweeping generalization; a filtering down to more close-knit and direct interaction still happens all over the place. You're just not 'in' that kinda thing at the moment.