"In effect, moving from IRC to Slack means replacing an open protocol with decades of open source client software development and a robust distributed system for a single point of failure"
Are you tripping balls? Robust? Have you ever dealt with netsplits or ddos attacks? IDGAF if IRC is distributed. The reality is that in practice I that sit on freenode, quakenet, ozorg, efnet networks and in the last 12 months since using slack I have had less issues with slack than any of these networks.
As for 'an open protocol with decades of open source client software development' - that's really sweet, would you like a medal for "most effort/try's hardest"? In TWO YEARS they have been outstripped in features and usability by not just slack but hipchat and likely others. I don't think it would even be eligible for "most improved"!
Biting the hand that feeds IT
