What with all the people interested in skinning every application on their computer, and downloading other programs simply to have something else to look nice, I wonder why there aren't any skinnable standalone IRC clients, or a skin plugin for an existing one. I started out on ICQ (good ol ICQ 99b and six digit numbers) and used it so much for a couple years that I can still remember my numbers and passwords, but once I discovered IRC, I never looked back.

The basic interface doesn't look too much different than it did in the old telnetting days. There's a lot that could be improved. Right now, your options in mIRC are basically in changing font and background for the chat window. xChat is a little better, with the username indenting and usermode icons, and I like how Chatzilla can group messages, but both those little apps leave something to be desired for someone used to more features and options.

I spend the vast majority of my time online looking at an IRC window, I guess I am just ready for it to look nice.