I've spent over 20 years on IRC and im still on every day. Two years ago, I felt the community could use more client options, so I created Halloy. It has since become my primary spare-time project, and I love seeing people enjoy IRC.
Writing an IRC client is really a fun and rewarding exercise.
I also more or less started my career as a software engineer by maintaining a mildly popular Linux one, at the time.
Some things I learned ...
- A lot about shipping to real users and their pain points, since the devs are naturally accessible by IRC and you get to meet directly
- A whole lot about what makes a successful technology
- Equally much about tech warts, as IRC suffers from a fair number misguided early decisions and many years without functioning governance
- How incredibly rewarding it is to work on products that users directly "live their lives" in and that can help facilitate anything they do - it taught me to look out for jobs that have similar substrate-like qualities
Good luck with your project, I'm glad to see the cycle of renewal continue.