response 9 of 13:

Jul 12 17:26 UTC 2006

Before the current software and network installation, Grex used to have
IRC installed.  I was a bit of an IRC-head in those days, and 
so I tried Grex's old version of IRC.  Performance-wise, it was 
dismal, so whenever anyone asked in party about IRC on Grex, my 
recommendation was that no one should expect to become a Grex 
member for the IRC service.
 
With the new Grex hardware/software/net connection, I'd imagine
that IRC from Grex would now be pretty decent.  However, I don't
know anyone on IRC to talk to any more, so I'm not likely to be 
able to give it a decent evaulation.
 
I think IRC should continue to be restricted to validated users;
there are lots of malicious IRC users in the world and a free
anonymous IRC service is going to be too tempting.