Formatting is pure fluff - it's convenient to have bold/italic/spoiler/code tags, and it is possible to implement them in a TUI without degrading anybody's experience. Link tags are not really necessary and a lot of clients don't even have them.
The image upload thing, though, the convenience there is being able to just upload an image directly into the client, rather than having to deal with some external service. That's it. There isn't much preventing this from being implemented in an IRC client.
Character limits are silly and should be removed - enforce them with a moderation bot if you really have to.
Just because most modern chat services are Electron trash does not mean we should throw out every bit of convenience learned. IRC (clients) could stand to gain better text formatting and file sharing options - things that make life easier for users, and in most cases don't really affect how the actual protocol works.
The image upload thing, though, the convenience there is being able to just upload an image directly into the client, rather than having to deal with some external service. That's it. There isn't much preventing this from being implemented in an IRC client.
Character limits are silly and should be removed - enforce them with a moderation bot if you really have to.
Just because most modern chat services are Electron trash does not mean we should throw out every bit of convenience learned. IRC (clients) could stand to gain better text formatting and file sharing options - things that make life easier for users, and in most cases don't really affect how the actual protocol works.