I have no idea what the hell happened to you, but as far as I am aware, IRC is a chat room. I have used IRC for damn near 10 years and there is nothing horrible about it. I go there, I chat with people, and I move on with my day. It's 4-ch but not as slow.
Maybe it's because I am not going on IRC crawling through the deep dark underlayer for the latest video of 10 year olds dressed up as furries yiffing. Maybe that has something to do with it.