Switching to Linux brought on a wave of nostalgia for me. Nostalgia for a time when the word Discord didn’t mean anything, when Facebook was just seeing the light of day, and internet users were still a small community of nerds.
Back in the day™, the internet wasn’t so convenient. You either listened to music as MP3s from file-sharing networks, or you were one of the cool kids listening to radio streams on WinAmp. The music would be interrupted by the subtle “uh-oh” from ICQ. But ICQ was just for the few friends who were on the internet but weren’t really nerds. The real nerds either talked in forums or, for direct communication, on IRC.
IRC, or Internet Relay Chat, is one of the first chat protocols on the internet. Mostly private operators would set up a server, and anyone could connect to it. Then you would join one or more channels. One of the most well-known servers for gamers was QuakeNet, especially since it offered some bots for securely reserving channels and usernames. It became standard for a channel to start with a hashtag, so my channel would have been found at #Kernic.
To connect to IRC, you used an IRC client—either a slow one in the browser or, like most people, mIRC. Though the client itself wasn’t that important, as IRC is limited to basic functions and formatting. Bold, italics, a few colors, that’s it. Avatars? Profiles? No chance. There’s no history at all. If you weren’t logged in, you missed the messages. Only so-called bouncers could help with that. These run continuously on a server and are always connected to IRC. You then connect to your bouncer and can read back a history. If you want to.
The very fact that the introduction and explanation of IRC is so long shows: IRC is not as widespread today as it once was, much like ICQ. While the latter was first replaced by Skype and then by WhatsApp, IRC has fallen victim to Discord. Free, custom servers with your own structure are just cooler than a single IRC channel. Not to mention, Discord comes with modern features like images and a chat history. And, of course, integrated voice chat.
What bothers me about Discord, however, is its performance and how bloated it is. IRC is fast, IRC is lean. Fewer channels led to more community spirit, and the lack of history encouraged more focus and direct interaction. Or, at least, the certainty that no one would reply. And how does Discord even finance itself? I still don’t get it. Is Nitro really enough?
Still, Discord is cozier. The integrated voice chat, hassle-free private messages, and modern look make it functionally superior to IRC. A few weeks ago, I found myself drawn back to an IRC server, and what can I say: it was a ghost town. For larger topics like #archlinux, you can still find a few active users, but other topics are either no longer represented or just dead. A shame. I liked the familiar hustle and bustle of IRC.