So do I =) To be fair, I first tried registering on db0 instance and start this community here. But my account was rejected for some reason (probebly me not able to pass registration process LOL).

Website (https://www.shroomery.org/) and Forum (https://www.shroomery.org/forums/) still around.

Historically irc has been used for many things. Chat is just one of its main purposes, but there is virtually no limitations what you can use it for especially with upcoming IRCv3 (https://ircv3.net/)

USENET (NZB) is different from IRC (XDCC), USENET has more content but useally paid, IRC is completely free and can be easier to automate.

There is a clone at https://gitee.com/clone_github/torzu