# IRC

Standing (still-up). Founded 1988-08-01.
Site: [irc.org](https://irc.org)

Jarkko Oikarinen, August 1988, Finland. Still the place where some of the actual work happens.

## Why it lasted
- It is a protocol, not a company, so there is no acquisition to survive.
- Every chat app that replaced it eventually needed a 'go back to IRC' crowd for the rooms that matter.
- Freenode exploding in 2021 just moved the same people to Libera. The protocol shrugged.

## Near deaths
- AIM, MSN, Slack, Discord: each one was the death of IRC in a press cycle.
- The Freenode hostile takeover was the closest the network came to a real funeral. Libera was up the same week.

## What would finish it
- A federated chat that is as simple to self-host and as boringly reliable. Matrix is trying. The old rooms are still on IRC.

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