I sure hope so! ...Not only because "yay, more people on the matrix network"...but because it would bring even more devs and designers (and content writers for documentation!), which would bring continued improvements to the ecosystem of servers and clients/apps as well as the matrix protocol itself! (Obviously, massive shout outs to all who do this tough work already, but more eyes/hands makes the bucket of bugs shallow, right?) Plus, not unlike the spike in activity in 2016/2017 around the fediverse - primarily Mastodon, where nontrivial numbers of people started their presence on the fediverse away from FB, etc. - i hope lots more homeservers start appearing for folks to host their own matrix homeservers (or at least host it for/on behalf of their communities and such). And, if any spike in activity does not in fact occur, that's ok too...things seem to be growing slow and steady anyway for the matrix network. ;-)
Running a Matrix homeserver is still quite a pain in the ass, especially because there is no real automatic way to purge old history. Join a busy room once and pay for it in megs or gigs of text stored in your DB forever.
Just using a matrix.org account instead is antisocial at this point because of the resources you're taking from the project, whereas paying for a hosted homeserver might not be something everyone can afford. IRC instead only requires a bouncer in the worst case, and even if you stay on channels for years you won't accrue as much history as a Matrix room can generate in a few days. I find that easier to maintain and store.
I do run my own Matrix homeserver and I intend to keep doing that and paying for it, but Matrix has more rough edges than IRC at the moment IMHO.
Edit: Ah, sorry, this was actually meant in reply to parent. But gonna leave it in.
This does not apply to state events. I still had hundreds of MBs of those after purging :( I think it's not impossible to manage this, just a pain in the ass :D
> ...Matrix has more rough edges than IRC at the moment IMHO...
You might be right. Yet, I'm still hopeful for the matrix network and protocol. Also, irc has had a bit of a head start, having had the benefit of decades of eyes looking at it, and hands helping to improve it. Then again, 2 or 3 decades from today, I might be the one holding onto my matrix network world when someone else on a forum discusses the merits (warts and all) of some new protocol for communications scenarios (not limited to chat). :-)
> the opportunity to grab users from freenode and put them onto matrix...
While i certainly prefer matrix network, I have no desire to grab any users that don't wish to move to the matrix network if they don't want to. I merely made positive, hopeful comments that if users are abandoning freenode, that matrix network is an option, and that the matrix network can benefit from the influx...but the new users may akso benefit...but i'm not forcing anyone, nor am i trying to use morality. Of course freenode irc users can simply find or establish an alternative that leverages irc. I used and enjoyed irc since 1992, but i simply prefer matrix network and protocol (warts and all); and in fact i reserve the right to have that opinion. That's all.
