I've been using IRC regularly for the past six to nine months, in large part
due to the growing ZF community on the
Freenode #zftalk channel (unfortunately,
I simply don't have time to be in that particular channel any more, but you
can generally find me in #zftalk.dev), but also to keep in contact with
other peers, friends, and colleagues.
One difficulty, however, is keeping productivity high while staying on IRC.
To me, the ultimate client would provide me notifications when somebody
mentions my name or a watch word - allowing me to read the channel at my
leisure, yet still respond to people in a timely fashion.