> It's not inherent to the protocol, and it shows.
IRC extensions are supported by over 90% of clients already, and provide exactly that.
In contrast to XMPP is IRC actually renewing itself in production.
http://IRCv3.net/
EDIT: I can’t answer you right now (you are submitting too fast), so here is my answer inline:
> I’ll show the list of extensions both supported by every modern client, and each of the networks you mentioned:
> freenode: sasl, account-notify, identify-msg, multi-prefix, extended-join
> efnet: multi-prefix
> quakenet: none
> Hackint: invite-notify, cap-notify, chghost, echo-message, userhost-in-names, account-notify, server-time, account-tag, multi-prefix, extended-join, away-notify, tls, sasl
> Snoonet: away-notify, sasl, account-notify, invite-notify, userhost-in-names, multi-prefix, extended-join
> Mozilla: sasl, userhost-in-names, multi-prefix
> EsperNet: away-notify, sasl, account-notify, multi-prefix, extended-join, tls
> Also, support for extensions by server: http://ircv3.net/software/servers.html
> And by client: http://ircv3.net/software/clients.html
> Any more questions?