I have to disagree. I used to use irc in the way this article recommends. I then tried hipchat and slack, which really changed how I communicated because of their persistent nature. Now I use irccloud to get the same UX for irc. It&#x27;s simply way more useful.<p>Mailing list emails are a pain, and it is a delusion to think that they are somehow a more permanent record or something than irc logs. A project should be generating documentation if there needs to be a permanent record. Mailing list emails are a very poor substitute for persistent chat, and they are a very poor substitute for documentation.<p>Also, the title is considered cliche.