For real time chat, even in my heyday of living on IRC dalNet in the 90s, I always preferred smaller channels than those filled with hundreds or more. Just like Discord today, it does become chaotic.
I only use Discord for gaming or gaming guild chat, and I’m resistant to use it for other purposes.
That being said, if there was a Geekhack IRC channel, I could see myself using that. Hah! 😉