> there are people to chat with on IRC.
> If the question is "Are there still people that use IRC?", then "Yes.".
That's a reasonable interpretation of the question. Even so, a lot of IRC communities have moved to Discord and such to lower the barrier to entry in participation.
The underlying question is more likely "Are the people I would chat with still using IRC?" which can only be answered if you know who the people you want to chat with are.
weird question.
it's a chat interface. there are people to chat with on IRC.
Is that a valuable thing to you? Who knows.
If the question is "Are there still people that use IRC?", then "Yes.".
I know it's probably a 'mover-and-shaker' HN thing, but not everything needs to be rephrased to compare against value/time.