One has still yet to convince me of anything IRC has over XMPP.
I think you should be able to use whatever suits your needs and preferences. The key is removing friction for the potential users. Friction can be overcome by incentives e.g. what it is in for them to jump through a few hoops. As just one example the more totalitarian and risky that laws become the less that people will object to a little initial friction. This can also weed out lower quality members.
IRC, XMPP, SSH, Self hosted forums, Radio Mesh ... bring it all!
I think you should be able to use whatever suits your needs and preferences. The key is removing friction for the potential users. Friction can be overcome by incentives e.g. what it is in for them to jump through a few hoops. As just one example the more totalitarian and risky that laws become the less that people will object to a little initial friction. This can also weed out lower quality members.
IRC, XMPP, SSH, Self hosted forums, Radio Mesh ... bring it all!