I've been an IRC user for the past... 7 years now? In all honesty; I like the idea. And all the reasons you guys are giving "Flaming, spamming, hassle, headache, control"... all those things; Those are things bad ops don't know how to take care of. Being fluent in mIRC code, There's ways to beat spam. There's ways to beat flaming. There's ways to beat anything and everything.
Most IRC's around today are skiddies that download an IRCd, Anope or another handle for irc-services and expect everything to just go and work. Well, they're retarded. There's a reason Efnet and Gamesurge and Quakenet have survived; They aren't idiots.
I'll get off of my soapbox now.
EDIT: And the problem every community faces is "HW 1 G3T 0N IRKSCS?" No matter how many guides on CONNECTION TO THIS NETWORK THROUGH THIS CLIENT you put up, It will never be enough.