[warrenm]

If IRC was stateful (ie, it would "remember"/deliver offline messages when I sign-on again (at least buffer them for some configurable period)), I'd be onboard with using it for almost everything

But it's not

That's what made Slack so appealing early on - IRC-like communication with history

[oddly]

Maybe you know already, but you can use an IRC relay to act as pseudo client, connect to that and then read back on messages. You’ll have to find a place to host it though. For example, “The Lounge”.

Edit: typo

[warrenm]

Yeah, you can ... but that's a bolt-on/additional service that, quite frankly, IRC ought to Just Do™ at this point

It's 2022, not 1988 :)

[Gud]

I just keep my irssi running on a Vultr VM.

[warrenm]

I used to do that

Too much hassle, imo