Exactly. Back in 2012 or so I wrote a web chat system that had all that (minus the screenshare & voice chat) and it was quite a challenge supporting all the permutations of links, images, emoji's, bbcode, etc. It's a pos in today's standards but back before slack it was "on the right track". Slack pretty much came out of nowhere and killed the effort though. To your point about a bouncer, I think a lot of folks are nostalgic and forget what a shitty system IRC was. Net-splits, bouncers, no filters or mod tools other than kick. No embedded media unless your client did magic. It was some folks' first foray into online community so naturally they want that feeling back.

I'm glad to see this pushback against centralized monopolies. The open-web needs more openness.

It’s it interesting how many meaningful conversations we’ve all had on IRC, lacking all those essential features you mention?

IRC is dead in any meaningful way, though. It's a decent technology that's lost to services with all those essential features. We also used to have great conversations while riding bikes with our friends when we were kids. Does that mean employers would be served to hold all of their meetings on bikes?

irc has 2 killer features: 1) it takes some effort to get and stay on. web chatters leave pretty fast. 2) people leave for digital prisons.

the freenode exodus was great, there was no discussion, nothing to explain.

> IRC is dead in any meaningful way

False. IRC is still alive and kicking.

> IRC is dead in any meaningful way

It's interesting how many meaningful conversations I've had over email too, the medium doesn't matter, but it doesn't mean the features aren't useful.