Okay how's this me & tentomon created a temporary IRC chat just to see how it plays out. If it's bad I'll lay off the suggestion, if the test turns out good I'd suggest to look into IRC.
My thoughts are that it is worth at least giving it a try. Just like teamspeak is unofficial and ran by a member of the community, an IRC channel can be too. So I have made a channel called #MapleRoyals on irc.rizon.net. I think it is a worthwhile experiment just to see what people think of it. Maybe we'll get nobody, maybe we'll get 100 people. Only way to find out is to try it! I am making it clear that it is UNOFFICIAL.
Or some dicks like to play God with the server every few months? If one of the functions of the IRC is for updates during downtime than it's unnecessary. If it's for a social environment go for it, but as community run (like you guys said). Most of the community uses skype for that though.
Just my two cents here. @Original Poster, I suggested IRC about sixmonths ago and was willing to dedicate a channel to the network on my IRC server. see: http://royals.ms/forum/showthread.php?t=5663 Not many people thought it would be useful, and they are probably right. The chatbox on the forum is probably the best use for it as well as the facebook and teamspeak server. As much as I love irc, its neither a growing nor dying art right now and it's best not to go into working the forum around getting an irc client embedded.
I don't have an problems with players using an unofficial IRC chat to talk to each other, but the only use I can see for it is for players to chat to each other on the very rare occasions when the website and forum go down. When the forum's up, it's the place to go to if you want to get your questions answered, particularly if you need GM/Admin help. (The forum chatbox itself is just for chatting, though, and if the game's up and running smoothly, you typically won't see much being said in the chatbox.)
I am netadmin on my server, but I am technically a services administrator for the network. We have several Janus links with multiple other servers. My server specifically is Rhea.US.Pegasusirc.net port 6667. Our main channel is a Janus link with 8 other networks #Lounge.
There has been minimal interest in the IRC channel. I think that players already have sufficient ways of communicating with one another, i.e. the forum and various skype groups. I think most guilds have a skype group. And it is not needed as a way for GM's/admins to communicate problems with the server to players either. - When the forum is up, they can use that - When the forum is down, they can post on the facebook page. You do not need to have liked the facebook page to read it, so it won't result in revealing your identity. You also don't need to be able to talk to admins on the facebook page (but you can if you don't mind revealing your real identity), as when the server is down, they are almost certainly putting their efforts into fixing it, not talking to the players about it. So in conclusion, we do not need an IRC server.
