"Hello irc community! I want to make a suggestion. As you know , irc is losing people because of msn. I think if you create a irc client with msn incorporate , with a lot of smiles , graphics , colors , people will use irc again! I miss that old times with a lot of people on irc , please make something like that!"
--ribery (newbie)
Found this in the new features suggestions, but though it would be more appropriate to respond here.
I'm sure this topic must come up ad nauseum. :P
I think it's more a matter of, as new competing services hit the net, people will gravitate towards the ones they like the best. I'm sure the same thing happened when the first IRC network split. It doesn't mean anything is dieing off and needs to be fixed to compete.
What IRC does better than IM's is group chats.
What I like about IRC is that you don't need to run any proprietary software bloated with unnecessary features and adware and don't need to sign up for anything before you can use it.
What I like about IM's is the very good away system which tells you who's on and if they're at their computer or not without needing to message them first. mIRC includes some of this with it's notify list which I make liberal use of.
Perhaps one of the things that probably makes IRC not work as well as IMs, is the vast number of networks to choose from that all basically do exactly the same thing. With IM's, you install the software and connect and your friends do the same. With, irc, you have to tell your friends what network to get on and pick a server and maybe a channel so you can find each other.
I don't know, but is there really a need to have that many networks? IRC, to me, seems like it was designed so that everyone could use the same network and just have different channels for different topics and opinions on rules etc, etc. I think mIRC kind of deals with this by installing with a default network selected to make things easier for new users.
I certainly wouldn't mind seeing those things I like combined into one application. I can see how status messages could be shared through an IRC network very easily through the CTCP: "/CTCP list,of,online,friends STATUS Went out for coffee or something.", "/CTCP friends STATUS Online/Offline", "/CTCP friends STATUS Changed my nick to something else.", etc, and have the Notify list automatically pick that information up so you can see your friends status without having to be on a the same channel to see their nick change or whois them to see their away message. You'd control who see's your status with your notify list then and have an invisable option that disables the feature on a global or per user basis and have a menu for common messages, etc.
Certainly, someone could design a full blown IM application that worked over an IRC network for those that want all those features.
