IRC does not even have offline messages, unless you pay / host a bouncer. Which you first have to know about.

I'm not sure if any client has solve this, but what about image / video / file hosting? You can't just drag 'n drop a image into a chat. You have to host it on a 3rd party site and link it.

I do wonder how server management is now adays. In Discord you can host your own server with a few clicks and make it easy to adjust permissions and controls invites. I would assume IRC is also lacking behind. But would love to hear more about the current state.

Discord has invite links, where people without the app or account can quickly join. In IRC you have the IRC:// link, but that does not work for people who don't have a client installed. Then you can do a web client link, but that is not optimal for people who already have their favorite client set up :)

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hofrogs 11 hours ago | parent | next [-]

In Discord you can't "host" your own "server". You can create a room (internally called a guild, misleadingly referred to as "server" in ui and by a lot of people) on THE discord server, their server, and that room can be split into channels. But the room and the server belongs to discord.

	▲	Mashimo 11 hours ago \| parent [-]
		You are correct. I used Discord terminology where a "server" is a group of channels.

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plastic-enjoyer 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

First and foremost, IRC is a protocol. Everything you name here are mostly issues that are not a protocol problem, but client and service issues which can be solved.

	▲	Mashimo 8 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		But are they solved? In a single combined client. Otherwise it's not really an alternative. It does not matter if it's technically a protocol. Users don't care about if it's a protocol, IRC clients had over 10 years to catch up.
	▲	TulliusCicero 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		What a uselessly pedantic response. Are they solved, in practice, in the real world? For users in general? No? Then what's the point of discussing it right now?