I just want to point out that while the services you point out had very a very large number of users on "1994 server hardware", IRC servers operate on 3 or more year old OTS hardware and free software, so your point of "scales well" is not proven. They are almost using 1994 server hardware now.
The problems you see are due to the fact that everything that an IRC network uses is donated, from the bandwidth and the server hardware to the time it takes to maintain the network topology in a state that can handle the 100,000 connections.
IMO IRC scales extremely well, and most of the problems you see on DALnet are likely due in large part to people abusing the network. Lag and splits? Get rid of the spambots and the DDOS idiots, and they will go away.
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I just want to point out that while the services you point out had very a very large number of users on "1994 server hardware", IRC servers operate on 3 or more year old OTS hardware and free software, so your point of "scales well" is not proven. They are almost using 1994 server hardware now.
The problems you see are due to the fact that everything that an IRC network uses is donated, from the bandwidth and the server hardware to the time it takes to maintain the network topology in a state that can handle the 100,000 connections.
IMO IRC scales extremely well, and most of the problems you see on DALnet are likely due in large part to people abusing the network. Lag and splits? Get rid of the spambots and the DDOS idiots, and they will go away.