Clarification:
I know he’s Big Brother’s lackey, but lately I’ve been really lacking communication, apparently I’ve fallen for this hook.
I haven’t been able to find any real-life communication for years now, but I’ve been increasingly reluctant to risk communicating while Big Brother is watching. There are good alternatives to Discord?


Is most IRC’s chatroom active nowadays? I have been meaning to try other alternatives to Discord but always find them to be very hit and miss
It really depends on the channel, but sadly, mostly no. I am in one cool one that is part of the tildes network, and I am in lots of ones on libera, but they are less active than they were 20 years ago. There are still many people on there, and it is a good vibe. Especially if you want to chat about programming or FOSS stuff.
If you try it and like it, it is worthwhile to configure a always-on connection that you can detach and reattach to - which is how discord and everything modern works. IRC being old means it is an extra thing to do, bit well worth it! Some people never go that route though.