Are these limitations in the protocol, or just in the network, especially freenode? If someone were to run a paid, $5-a-month to run a channel with over 20 users IRC network, would they be able to address the difficulties of freenode and EFNet before it? Would SILC fix anything?
All of the complaints about IRC relate to service interruptions, channels with a high # of people slowing the server, security, etc. You can fix those things by running a private network, but not for free.
