What the fuck is their deal?
Anyone who prefers IRC-style internet chat to forum-style internet chat clearly doesn’t have enough social anxiety to be on the internet in the first place.
This is an opinion I have held since the 90s and I won’t be changing my mind any time soon.
I grew up using mIRC in the early 2000s. It was the foundation of my early internet experiences. I’m pretty used to chat-esque applications because of that I think. And yes, I do have social anxiety.