You are correct. This will drive everyone away. Which is why we have graphs like this:
https://netsplit.de/networks/top10.php
Freenode is dying and the staff are actively killing it.
https://netsplit.de/networks/top10.php
Freenode is dying and the staff are actively killing it.
Thanks for that link - I was on Undernet starting in 1995 and even though the charts only went back to 1998 it was interesting to see the popularity of different IRC networks wax and wane over the years.