Last toot on the entire IRC v platform discussion I kicked off here:
If you believe IRC is problematic because it has issues with a messy nick registration process, you don't get persistent chat history and you can't post images/videos/media into a channel...
please uninstall xchat and maybe give a different client or self-hosted solution like thelounge a chance. You perception of IRC's experience is rather limited because of the client you chose, not because IRC sucks.