Back in 1998, on the DALnet network, on one of the then popular Russian-language channels, to a newcomer’s question “What is IRC?”, One person answered that
IRC is mania, it is fear, it is longing, it is desire, it is the first program launched on a computer. IRC - these are sleepless nights, this is unfinished work, this is the absence of any education except the ability to knock on the keys!