Well, I've seen it first-hand. The irc server cluster I've been uninterrupted on since the early 00's has dwindled from 25-ish to 2. I think the userbase has shrunk from tens of thousands to a couple hundred. We might as well pretend IRC no longer exists. Do wish that it would.
most people (and not just young) nowadays are too used to the convenience features provided by services like discord. persistent/saved chat history, media upload and inline previews, etc.
i believe i'm younger than many here, and i honestly find irc hard to use in some cases despite being tech savvy enough.
Lack of FOSS server software should be a red flag. But the gen Zers largely have a distaste for FOSS -- could not be convinced of the wisdom of using Gnu Octave in school rather than MATLAB.
Official Debian repos only have a Bitlbee plugin for Discord. But that’s only useful to those willing to make the boot-licking compromise of corporate centralisation.
But yes, you are likely spot on. The Tyranny of Convenience is in force and convenience is being prioritised above principles.
The core issue with a lot of FOSS software is the GUI is often created by dev types who have no idea how to design a functional UI. If anything they are often the types who actuvely push against good UI in favor of :q! Bull shit no one can ever figure out.
But the gen Zers largely have a distaste for FOSS
this is not a generational thing at all. we foss people are the minority, and a very small one. unfortunate but that's the reality we're in.
Anyone want to visit my gopher server?
As someone who's used IRC for probably a decade, I mean... kinda?
Realistically a bunch of stuff happens on Discord and whatnot instead now, which sucks because centralizing things on proprietary platforms is a bad idea anyway, and then it's Discord.
https://lemmy.world/post/21969100