I find these comments to be utterly stupid. Have you ever worked anywhere before? Can you possibly imagine non-engineers trying to use IRC for a collaboration tool? Even engineers can find the easy to use interface helpful. Look. I love IRC. I even ran an IRC server for a couple of years but insisting it is enough for most people is nonsense or people would have been using it in the office for collaboration for decades and it would be entrenched by now. There is a reason Slack and its competitors have blown up in recent years. It is a necessary niche. Now we are just waiting to see someone perfect the idea.