Oh, God. Every time I try to use IRC I turn off my computer hours later wondering what just happened to my time.
Do people ever use IRC productively? I'm curious how that would work.
Actually, many of the technical channels on Freenode are quite good.
I use IRC channels to ask arcane mysql, asterisk, and other tech questions, on the freenode channels. It's kind of hit or miss. However, a couple of times I have found good help on the #asterisk channel, and ended up talking with someone via private message who I recommended that my customer just pay to do the work instead of me.