I concur, a hosted thelounge client instance brought me back to IRC after a decade of absence, giving me Log history and recoverable state. If the expectation is to go on public record (vs. private p2p chat) only user experience decides for group chat, not the underlying technology. Though IRC can't replicate threads, that is the only nitpick. In high volume channels replies to old questions are fine and the dynamic caused by seemingly disjoint replies can be learned.