Oh, God. Every time I try to use IRC I turn off my computer hours later wondering what just happened to my time.

Do people ever use IRC productively? I'm curious how that would work.

I use IRC channels to ask arcane mysql, asterisk, and other tech questions, on the freenode channels. It's kind of hit or miss. However, a couple of times I have found good help on the #asterisk channel, and ended up talking with someone via private message who I recommended that my customer just pay to do the work instead of me.

Actually, many of the technical channels on Freenode are quite good.