[Zak]

I've used IRC for a long time and still do, but I do think Discord has a nicer UX for most use cases. In particular, building communities around clusters of channels ("servers") and support for rich media (yes, some old people might call that a downside) increase the appeal for most people. It's also a lot more work to have a persistent connection on IRC (bouncers).

My main problem with Discord is that it's someone else's centralized, for-profit company and has no apparent barriers to enshittification[0]. As Reddit recently demonstrated, it's probably a mistake to build communities on top of something like that.

Matrix is a good candidate for a modern successor to IRC. It's not quite as slick a UX as Discord, but it addresses the main advantages Discord has over IRC.

[0] https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

[dunefox]

Matrix would be my choice as well but good luck getting people to use the uglier alternative. Discord is great.