[SCHiM]

Yes, that's exactly right. But then you're not using _irc_ as a screening filter, but your applicants ability to research new things.

Which is not what the article says you should use this screening tactic for, since there is a large group of technical people out there that is irc-literate. Which implies that irc was not chosen, as you suggest to figure-out a persons autodidactic abilities, but rather because the author (kind-of-correctly) assumes that most technical people have at least a passing-relation with irc.