Forums General Discussion The End Is Nigh!

There've been stories of IRC and/or internet chat in general dying from one place or another pretty much every month for the last 5 years. And every time they've been completely wrong. I'll believe it when I see it and not a moment before.

Anyway, the findings that report are based on are of typically around 2,500 American users aged 18 and above between 2000 and 2003.

2,500 is a fair sample audience I guess, but the other two points completely destroy any and all relevance such findings have relating to the fate of IRC. As the other report (that holds the stats that are used in the report you linked to) says, the growth of adult internet users in America has increased by 46% in the time over which the surveys were taken, so the fact that chat room use has apparently increased by 21% in that time isn't all that shocking really. Hardly a 'plateau' for internet chat. If you were to take other countries into consideration who perhaps are far more likely to have seen accessibility to the internet and therefore internet users greatly increase between 2000 and 2003 then I'm sure it would paint a much more accurate and healthy picture of the state of IRC and general internet chat.

Excluding those under 18 has removed a vital demographic that would almost certainly have changed the stats for chat and instant messaging beyond recognition. In the report it says:

So three quarters of under-18's in America use the internet but their online usage isn't factored in. Doesn't that strike you as a major oversight?

Anyway, as always a misleading report picks and chooses which figures to use to make an 'interesting' article without reference to the shortcomings or pointing out the localisation of the survey to a small peice of America.



I have doubt. Lots of it. Explain (with figures please) why I should have little doubt that IRC is 'stumbling'.