Fue problem with IRC is that it's crucial to have really robust read state synchronization across desktop and mobile these days.

Slack was the first to really get that right, and Discord effectively emulated them and made it available for free.

IRC users could get there with bouncers, but those were always a lot harder to get going with.

Practically all of my friends grew up with IRC, we are in our late 30s, 40s, early 50s.

We might reminisce about irc but we all prefer discord.

Even the searchability of indexed irc has been surpassed by other knowledge sites. It would have to be something extremely niche these days where the only source of info is in an irc chat log

IRC doesn't even have history, one of the most basic requirements for a modern rudimentary chat app. It's ridiculous to suggest using it in 2023 when it doesn't have features a freshman homework assignment chat app has.

I've used IRC for a long time and still do, but I do think Discord has a nicer UX for most use cases. In particular, building communities around clusters of channels ("servers") and support for rich media (yes, some old people might call that a downside) increase the appeal for most people. It's also a lot more work to have a persistent connection on IRC (bouncers).

My main problem with Discord is that it's someone else's centralized, for-profit company and has no apparent barriers to enshittification[0]. As Reddit recently demonstrated, it's probably a mistake to build communities on top of something like that.

Matrix is a good candidate for a modern successor to IRC. It's not quite as slick a UX as Discord, but it addresses the main advantages Discord has over IRC.

[0] https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

Matrix would be my choice as well but good luck getting people to use the uglier alternative. Discord is great.