IRC = "Pay" Chat ?

[thelit]

Hello guys,

I wanna know your opinion about some IRC NetWorks that is not FREE. If you need a BotServ, you pay to the NetWork Admin. If you wanna use more than 2/3 connections you need pay too.
What you guys think about this ?
For me, IRC is chat, not comercy.
A Brazilian NetWork called BRASnet is a example of this and when you join the NetWork, the nick BRASnet (Global Noticer) open a query with you to make "spam" to sell products.
Where is IRC will go ? People want to make money with a simple Chat NetWork.

In my opinion, this is totally wrong.

Can I know your opinion ?

[Pills]

I find nothing wrong if that's the way the network was set up, or a model that the admins agreed upon.

Why SHOULD IRC be free? You're not using your own server to communicate; the only thing you actually pay for is the connection between your modem and your provider. Just because most networks were set up as free doesn't mean that all networks have to be or even should be.

[slushey]

Well I see it as two things.

1. An attempt to make a profit and pay for bandwidth.

But, hey, why not just go and not open one if you want someone to pay for it for you. So the second option is:

2. Who cares?

It's been done before. There were some small IRC Networks (~1,000 users) that used to make users pay to put an applet on your page. But then again, they were also paying for commercial software - ie. Conference Room.

On another point, I think software such as Conference Room should be free. IRC was maid to be freely distributed, nobody should change the rules.

[munky]

originally, video games were free to play, once you purchased them.
with the advent of mmorpg games, you now have to pay a monthly/yearly fee to play the games you purchased.

i see nothing wrong with charging for the use of a service, as it costs money to run that service. but they'll have a hard time making it into a large, successful network if they don't offer services that aren't already available for free on other networks.