The thing is, my experience is different, but of course similarly anecdotal. I essentially got my entire professional network and career on IRC, and that includes contacts all over the modern tech stack and adjacent interests, being on just two IRC "servers". And I could connect many other people in the same way.
On Discord, there seem to be just more barriers against this. Getting someone into a new place doesn't just require hopping into a new channel with a single /join command, but an entire new "server" with a new crowd. There's more inhibition against that.
The thing is, my experience is different, but of course similarly anecdotal. I essentially got my entire professional network and career on IRC, and that includes contacts all over the modern tech stack and adjacent interests, being on just two IRC "servers". And I could connect many other people in the same way.
On Discord, there seem to be just more barriers against this. Getting someone into a new place doesn't just require hopping into a new channel with a single /join command, but an entire new "server" with a new crowd. There's more inhibition against that.