[palata]

I used IRC for 15 years, and then was quite into Matrix (and their bridging) for a while. I used Matrix for 2 years, until I realised that almost all of the channels I used were on IRC.

Moving back to IRC, I realised how heavy Matrix seems to be.

I understand IRC is very old and lacking a few features, but Matrix seems like a completely overkill solution. It seems so complex that the only way to write a third-party client is by using the official libs, and even that seems so hard that they keep suggesting that Element is the only good alternative (while acknowledging that it still has pretty big UX issues, after all those years).

Also I remember reading from one of the leads that performance was not their main concern. They would rather work on academic features than make sure the protocol is very efficient. That's a problem for me.

At this point I am not sure if Matrix can succeed...

[matricaria]

I still wonder if I’m doing thing wrong, if so, please tell me.

For me, IRC just doesn’t work. I can’t receive messages when I’m offline. I can’t read what other wrote while i was offline. These for me are just plain red flags.

I also can’t search if somebody else asked the same question before.

There is no good mobile (iOS) app. I tried Palaver, it’s ok but every other chat app is much better.

Lastly, IRC is really hard to set up and log into. And I would call myself pretty tech savvy. This just eliminates it from ever becoming mainstream.

[progval]

If the networks you are connecting to don't support persistence / chat history (most don't, because of the technical and legal complications), then you need to either setup a bouncer (pounce, Soju, ZNC), pay someone to host it for you (chat.sr.ht, IRCCloud), or find a free host you feel you can trust (plenty of results when googling "free IRC bouncer")

[panick21_]

If you restrict yourself to features that IRC has, then there are lots of clients that are fine.

Also, Matrix Client-Server API is just HTTP calls, it isn't really that hard.

But using the SDK gives you things like encryption and other features.