You hit the nail on the head when it comes to why people don't use IRC anymore. Missing messages because you're not online is simply unacceptable to today's audience, and running a bouncer is too technical for most folks. Using a shared bouncer like IRCCloud isn't feasible since they get abused and the entire provider often gets banned.
I still use IRC (For nearly 30 years now!) and am in a channel that is still highly active with regulars, but I certainly don't fault anybody for not wanting to use it. I run a bouncer not just so I don't lose messages (I leave my computer on 24/7 with mIRC running, so it's not like I'd miss anything), but so I can hide my IP address.
It's actually kind of appalling from a security perspective to expose users' IP addresses. I'm genuinely surprised that the major IRC networks still don't hide them. Sure, it'd break things like DCC, but would prevent DDoS attacks against fellow users.
There’s client addons to log all messages (even highlighting deleted and edited ones) and chat exporters literally anyone can run, mod bots that log every deleted and edited message to special channels, and probably more with Discord too.
(also don’t forget umode +x and vhosts/cloaks exist on most competent networks to hide your IP/hostname)
> Missing messages because you're not online is simply unacceptable to today's audience
It's my favorite feature. I want to chat with friends, not have a second job I need to catch up with.
> It's actually kind of appalling from a security perspective to expose users' IP addresses. I'm genuinely surprised that the major IRC networks still don't hide them. Sure, it'd break things like DCC, but would prevent DDoS attacks against fellow users.
Hostname cloaking is a pretty standard feature these days, you just generally have to ask for it to be turned on which is a bit odd. Doesn't break DCC either because DCC negotiates what your IP is directly with your client afaik. NAT is generally the thing that breaks DCC.
Unreal at least makes it pretty easy to cloak IPs via server config, so there's no window before registering for a vhost where your info is available to normal users: https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Cloaking
I still use IRC (For nearly 30 years now!) and am in a channel that is still highly active with regulars, but I certainly don't fault anybody for not wanting to use it. I run a bouncer not just so I don't lose messages (I leave my computer on 24/7 with mIRC running, so it's not like I'd miss anything), but so I can hide my IP address.
It's actually kind of appalling from a security perspective to expose users' IP addresses. I'm genuinely surprised that the major IRC networks still don't hide them. Sure, it'd break things like DCC, but would prevent DDoS attacks against fellow users.