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I've recently joined an IRC server, Freenode. I use the program known as Irssi (which I pronounce as 'Rrr-see') and it has my full recommendation. The program itself is excellent 'normie-repellent' but I cannot say the same for other clients. I use it with tmux which allows me to re/detach the session, which is particularly useful with a server that is on 24/7 so I do not jam up the chat logs with my constant leaving and joining. Plus I get to read what people have said which usually interesting.
There are a lot of channels on Freenode! It was surprising to me! I am hardly in any but the ones I do participate in, they have members that actually know what they are talking about, to a degree which terrifies me. I prefer to find things out by myself as I have been doing that for a really long time, but with a community stupid mistakes are noticed and they make really helpful suggestions. Occasionally someone can introduce you to a concept that you have never even knew existed. It is amazing! I truly and honestly wish I have been using IRC before this point. There are channels and users that have been using Freenode for over 20 years. To me, that is just mind boggling.
However, this brings me to my next point... People! People have opinions... people do things... It is just my luck that there seems to be some kind of Freenode-ending drama, shortly after I join. From what I gather... the bossman of PIA, Andrew Lee, convinced someone who owns Freenode ltd to sell it to them and now PIA bossman believes that he owns/controls Freenode's server and wants the data Freenode has and is using lawyers to get it.
Because of this development, Freenode (volunteer) staff resigned en masse and they now participate in something known as libera.chat, which is Freenode without the Andrew Lee.
It's just funny to me that shortly after I join Freenode, I experience my first and last Freenode drama which results in me leaving Freenode, possibly forever. Fair warning to newbies: Libera.Chat/Freenode does not exactly cloak your IP/Hostname on first arrival, if you care about that sort of thing. Some channels save logs which probably include your IP/Hostname, for all to see.