FreeNode is big, but Discord / Facebook / Twitter are far larger, by orders of magnitude.
The main issue with FreeNode users is that they're "elites" so to speak. They're the old guard, the ancients. Pissing off 1000-children is different from pissing off 1000-grandparents: the grandparents have connections and powerful friends so to speak.
Given the "age" of these FreeNode communities and users, I bet that the typical FreeNode user has more internet-influence than the typical Twitter user.
I've used IRC for thirty years (edit: typo 20) and been part of immeasurable communities. The whole world runs on ideas I typed on IRC.
On the one hand, I'm being facetious but on the other hand I'm telling the truth and I prefer there is no record of it. I helped boot strap fake internet money when there was no market, too many projects to name, too many technologies from IRC DCC bots, to running an ebook ftp personal fileserver ad for years...
IRC is the protocol I love most and how I talk to _my_ friends, they live around the world. This is not the first time and makes my 5th IRC move DALnet-EFnet-Chatchannel-Freenode-Libera
I don't use twitter I think it's stupid. I've said this before and been downvoted into oblivion.
IDK ya'll HN is weird like it forgot how the internet really works. It's disappointing really.
Discord/Facebook/Twitter users are discussing gaming and pop culture. IRC users were discussing how to build OSS software and communities.
Obviously its not as absolute as that, and Slack and Discord are both making inroads into what was once IRCs territory of coordinating small groups of remote thought-leaders, but looking at the raw numbers doesn't tell the whole picture of IRC's influence and importantce.
Freenode, OFTC, and probably others that I can’t think of off–hand are a bit different from general–purpose IRC networks. They are geared strictly towards providing a place for users and developers of open source and free software to talk about the software. I’m sure you could distract yourself from your studies by going to #nethack or #erlang or #emacs, but most of the conversations being had there are much more productive than any discussion of pop culture.
First, discussion of pop culture is not inherently unproductive, especially if you are in a creative industry. Being productive about over-engineering an automated deployment cluster isn’t inherently more valuable than learning about the rise and fall of trends or the animation style of popular shows and games.
One of the biggest channels on freenode/open projects back in the earlier lilo days was #bay-oh, which, while populated with a bunch of proto-devops people, was almost wholly social.
Even purely social interaction is productive and valuable, the career success of many people after the first dot com crash relied on being friends with everyone they knew from Ironport or whatever.
The main issue with FreeNode users is that they're "elites" so to speak. They're the old guard, the ancients. Pissing off 1000-children is different from pissing off 1000-grandparents: the grandparents have connections and powerful friends so to speak.
Given the "age" of these FreeNode communities and users, I bet that the typical FreeNode user has more internet-influence than the typical Twitter user.