I didn't downvote, and I'm very pro open standards. I just think we can do better than IRC, that's all.
You can't downvote direct replies.
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Speaking about standards; have you looked at IRCv3? Is there anything specific that you feel is not being addressed?
Encryption (to my mind) is better handled outside of the spec itself, just like HTTP vs TLS wrapped HTTP (HTTPS) where the "TLS" has no bearing at all on how HTTP is implemented.
IRCv3 is attempting to address the persistence issues, though many people like the lack of persistence in general.
I don't want to guess at what your concerns are, but more generally; have you looked at the spec?