Non-plaintext authentication mechanisms are a good start - it's an extra layer of security that you add to your system. Having SSL between your servers is also an extra layer of security. Having client-to-server SSL is, once again, also an extra layer of security. And so on.

We are not asking the Quakenet staff to "fix" multiuser chat encryption - leave that to the protocol developers, researchers and people working on different experimental protocols to try to "fix".

But, I still don't understand how much you refuse to step into reality and face that SSL is nice to have on a modern IRC network - we agree that it's not perfect, but do allow your users to understand the risk and let them take the necessary step to enhance the privacy of their communication.

Right now you are just hindering it where every other network is way ahead of you in this regard...

Your users are not dumb. I, as a user, want to be able to decide whether or not I connect, to a network, over SSL, where I assume that the network is able to interconnect its servers over SSL encrypted links, then I can make the decision if I want to add an extra layer of security by using software like FiSH where I can share secrets with my closets friends using, say, a pre-shared key.

Please, stop assuming that us users are idiots.