[PaulDavisThe1st]

You could run a quassel server somewhere. If you're already running a server somewhere for something else, adding quassel to the mix is pretty easy. Then use quassel as your IRC client.

I've been doing this with IRC for about 3-4 years now, and it means that I'm "always online" as far as IRC is concerned (except for server maintainance stuff). To a reasonably approximation, I never miss anything.

[smichel17]

I feel like this and most of its sibling comments are missing the context of the thread: I agree with the viewpoint that "not always online" is a feature. The problem is the lack of "some things available when returning from offline".

From this perspective, the "always online" approach just makes IRC like Discord et al, where you receive everything and have to choose what to read when you get back.

Snapchat is the closest, with its "messages disappear after 24h by default, but can be saved by members of the group".

[PaulDavisThe1st]

"i'm going offline but i want to hear about X, Y and Z when i get back" is a level of interaction with a messaging system that i personally find hard to imagine.

With Quassel at least, private messages show up elsewhere, tagged messages will generally be color-coded for easy identification. I suppose that people who participate in busier messaging systems than #ardour on libera.chat may need the sort of thing you're referring to, but it is so foreign to me that it's beyond my imagination.