IRC aka Internet Relay Chat

IRC otherwise, known as Internet Relay Chat is something which I've used before and ran servers for over the years.

Good things about it is that you have a number of features at your disposal with any of the limitations or 'paid features' which I tend to see on quite a few other chat systems like Chantango or XAT with one of them charging money for every little incremental feature and so, not being so personally preferable to me.

I'll probably be setting up a new IRC Server soon as it not only has a lot of the paid features which XAT has but, is also not so glitchy as the software has been tested and patched by a community of people as opposed to an admin who seems more interested on rolling out new paid features..

Has anyone here used IRC or ran an IRC server before and if so, I would like to hear your opinions on it.