It is hard to overstate how influential IRC have been in my life. I met my best friend on IRC in 1999. He found his wife on IRC a few years later.

We followed the towers collapse on 9/11 over IRC in a blizzard of all-caps screams and links to TV screenshots and RealVideo clips. It was hours before the government of my country had lifted the embargo on the media to report it. I called my friends and family and everyone was just incredulous, it sounded like a dumb thriller plot.

I got a job offer and moved countries via IRC, then again a few years later. We watched people join, age and disappear. One of the channels I am still on is full of VPS hosted ghosts; its topic had been set by a man who had passed away.