[SamWhited]

I still use IRC, or sometimes even a handful of XMPP (Jabber, for grep-ability) rooms (although for the most part it's better for 1:1 chat with friends, and text messages through a bridge) partially for ideological reasons but also partially because I can't use the more "modern" alternatives. My particular reasons don't matter, but a few I've seen in the past include (focusing on Slack as an example, but most of these apply more broadly):

  - My laptop doesn't have a GUI (networks using open protocols like XMPP and IRC don't lock you into a single client, so someone will have developed a good CLI one)
  - My laptop runs NetBSD, Illumos, etc. and Slack et all don't provide clients for it and the web clients aren't very good, break on whatever browser I use, etc.
  - Work only allows certain software on the laptops, IRSSI is approved because it's been on the list the enterprise folks haven't updated since the 80s, but Slack isn't
  - For legal reasons I can't sign Slack's EULA (eg. I am in arbitration or part of a lawsuit, or work for a company that's part of a lawsuit with them, etc., disclaimer: I don't actually know how this works, not a lawyer, etc.)
  - My laptop is old and Slack's client doesn't run well on older hardware (again, using a network that uses IRC or XMPP lets you use any client you want)
  - Work uses IRC (yes, it's still pretty common) and I don't want 10 different chat systems on my machine so I just use IRC at home too
  - Work has certain security, privacy, or procedural requirements that Slack et al don't meet, but an enterprise chat based on IRC or XMPP etc. does (eg. using end to end encryption might be easier, a private network using IRC or XMPP can be configured to only use connections that are perfect forward secret, or do external certificate based auth, use end to end encryption, etc.)
  - etc.

Most of this boils down to the clients not working for one reason or another, but IRC and XMPP have literally dozens (maybe hundreds) of clients to choose from. Some better, some worse, but you'll almost certainly find one that works for you.

If you want to join us for some Go (golang, for grep-ability) related chat, there's a room on my XMPP server at "[e-mail]" (one day I'll move that to a nicer looking domain, I think I still own gopher.chat) that gets a bit of traffic, or there's #golang on Freenode. Please avoid their community Slack and ask others to do so as well because I and a number of other contributors can't or won't use it and miss out on a lot of good discussion :(

[shantly]

IRC and XMPP are relatively easy to set up servers for, too. I looked at Matrix a little while ago and it's a serious PITA by comparison, so far as going from zero to achieving client-talking-to-server. Of course the company behind it appears to make their money selling hosting, so....

[SamWhited]

yah, the protocol is pretty crap too (for chat anyways, maybe it has other applications but they push it for chat pretty hard core). Don't get me wrong, IRC and XMPP have their problems, but I'd avoid Matrix at all costs. I was really hopeful it was a good alternative at first (before I get accused of bias for joining the XMPP Standards foundation for a while), but in the end I picked XMPP and I try to work to make that better instead (while still using IRC for group chats due to network effect and my deep love of IRSSI).