This is not news to me as I've had jobs offered by simply posting to debian and *bsd mailing lists from out of the blue once they read my posts on hunting kernel bugs. Mailing lists are still a secret gold mine for employment. I also didn't have to send a resume or anything was hired right away each time
Also +1 for IRC. Thankfully something social still exists where you don't have forced real identities, a whole profile of bullshit musical interests nobody cares about (i don't care that you love obscure hipster sweater and beard acoustic), or forum circle jerking and post count worshipping.
Plus it isn't monitored by your employers looking to fire somebody for slight twitter or fb breaches of conduct, and best of all the media and oprah have no idea what IRC is