IRC is still around and nothing has really surpassed it yet imho. We keep re-inventing the wheel.
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Eh, everything that tries to "improve" on IRC makes everything more complicated. I have a thelounge installation running that's connected to our small IRC network. When I want people to chat I drop them a link to it (maybe with a room name) and it drops them right in. thelounge has some improvements to stock IRC (pictures, videos, and links visible in chat), but some of the more advanced functions still demand an account (e.g. there is an inbuilt persistent buffer, but that one is only visible to accounts). I have it running under thelounge.wilderland.ovh and it will drop by default into the #welcome channel.
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IRC still exists, the closest FOSS IRC client to mIRC is KVIrc.
The closest thing to a modernized IRC is Matrix.
There's no way a single one of my friends would try irc. They call me a crazy grandpa for using Firefox.
Bitchat maybe? Or that one in js, I think meteorchat?
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Ironically something like zoom might be right.
I can't say for sure they have persistent chat, but maybe something like bigbluebutton could work?
irssi with bitlbee connected to your msn and xmpp
I'd all but forgotten my old stomping grounds.
PeerSuite doesn't require an account and optionally lets you save chat logs in an encrypted file.
Email is lowest common denominator ofc.
These are the things to study and learn. We are in a world where there are many mother tongues, moving to a world where there are many chat apps.
SimpleX
DeltaChat
Scuttlebutt
I assume everyone has a phone number, so services like Telegram, Whatsapp, Signal are something most people have and if not it's trivial to setup?
My two anecdotal stories, my improv group organises through WhatsApp, and that has a very diverse group of people, many ages, many backgrounds. My school also organises events through WhatsApp.
discord can be used without an account - until they kick you out demanding your phone number.
on matrix too you can have a guest user that works somewhat similarly, but most rooms don't have that enabled I think. I am not too surprised about that, no idea how could that be effectively moderated. it also needs client support but element web supports it
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