# irc.now company directory

## mission

irc.now makes IRC accessible to everyone.

## vision

a hosted IRC services platform. sign up, get a bouncer. upgrade, get a dedicated
bouncer with a custom hostname. host your own network. run bots with Lua scripts.
share images and pastes. one account, one SSO, everything connected.

## products

| subdomain      | name         | status   | description                                      |
|----------------|--------------|----------|--------------------------------------------------|
| irc.now        | landing page | live     | marketing site, docs, faq, content pages         |
| my.irc.now     | portal       | live     | account management, bouncer provisioning, billing |
| auth.irc.now   | keycloak     | live     | SSO and identity (realm: irc-now)                |
| status.irc.now | upptime      | planned  | public uptime monitoring                         |
| chat.irc.now   | gamja        | live     | web IRC client                                   |
| txt.irc.now    | pastebin     | live     | paste service                                    |
| irc.pics       | image host   | live     | image hosting                                    |
| bot.irc.now    | bot runtime  | built    | managed Lua bots with editor and live logs       |

## pricing

### bouncer

| plan | price  | networks  | scrollback | bouncer   | hostname |
|------|--------|-----------|------------|-----------|----------|
| free | $0     | 1         | 48h        | shared    | --       |
| pro  | $4/mo  | unlimited | unlimited  | dedicated | custom   |

### web client (planned)

free, no account required. chat.irc.now running gamja.

### pastebin (planned)

| plan | price          | pastes | expiry  |
|------|----------------|--------|---------|
| free | included       | 5      | 24h     |
| pro  | included       | unlimited | never |

### image host (planned)

| plan | price          | storage |
|------|----------------|---------|
| free | included       | 50MB    |
| pro  | included       | 1GB     |

### network hosting (planned)

| plan    | price   | users | servers | bots |
|---------|---------|-------|---------|------|
| starter | $12/mo  | 50    | 1       | 3    |
| growth  | $24/mo  | 200   | 3       | 10   |

larger deployments priced separately.

### standalone bots (planned)

$2/mo per bot. for channel ops on public networks who don't host their own.

### add-ons (planned)

| add-on        | price  | description                                        |
|---------------|--------|----------------------------------------------------|
| log search    | $2/mo  | full-text search across scrollback history          |
| extra storage | $3/mo  | 5GB pack for pastes and images beyond pro limits    |
| dedicated IP  | $3/mo  | avoid per-IP rate limits on shared bouncers         |
| team billing  | $2/mo  | consolidated invoice for a group, single admin      |

---

free accounts can cancel anytime. pro subscriptions revert to free at the end of the
billing period. payment via Stripe.

## strategy

build order is sequenced so each phase makes the platform more useful on its own.

1. **foundation** (done) -- workspace, keycloak, soju-operator, portal, landing page.
   users can sign up, create a bouncer, and pay.
2. **fill the gaps** (deployed) -- auth guard, dashboard wiring, stripe checkout, content
   pages, status page, ZNC decommission.
3. **observability** -- prometheus, alertmanager, grafana. metrics endpoints on all
   services. alert delivery.
4. **supporting services** (deployed) -- chat.irc.now (gamja), txt.irc.now (pastebin),
   irc.pics (image host), log search add-on.
5. **network hosting** (deployed) -- ergo-operator, ErgoNetwork CRD, net.irc.now,
   per-tenant DNS subdomains. starter ($12/mo) and growth ($24/mo) tiers with bot quotas.
6. **bots** (built) -- managed bot runtime (crates/bot), one mlua Lua 5.4 VM per bot,
   template scripts (linkbot, rsswatch, sed, watchdog), portal UI with script editor,
   live log viewer (WebSocket), KV browser. infra provisioning remaining.
7. **analytics** -- event tracking (signups, conversions, churn), grafana dashboards,
   per-user stats. first-party only, no third-party tracking.

## target audience

people who use IRC and want persistent connections without running their own
infrastructure. open source contributors, Linux users, developers, hobbyists who
are already on Libera Chat, OFTC, Rizon, or EFnet and are tired of missing messages.

not trying to convert Discord or Slack users. the audience already knows what IRC is.

## marketing voice

### rules

- all lowercase, always. exceptions: proper nouns (Libera Chat, OFTC, Stripe, Lua).
- short sentences. make a claim, stop.
- first/second person. "you", "your", "we". no corporate distance.
- IRC terminology without apology: nick, bouncer, scrollback, `/whois`, upstream.
- no exclamation points. no emoji. no superlatives ("best", "amazing", "powerful").
- functional, not aspirational. describe what it does, not what it "empowers" you to do.
- parentheticals and footnotes avoided. if it needs a qualifier, rewrite the sentence.
- no filler words. "just", "simply", "easily" are banned.
- contractions are fine. "it's", "you'll", "we're".

### do

- "your nick stays in the channel"
- "a bouncer holds your connections open"
- "point any client at it and connect"
- "text in, text out"
- "we store message logs only to provide scrollback"
- "sign up, create a bouncer, and connect"

### don't

- "never miss an important message again!"
- "powerful IRC bouncer solution"
- "seamlessly connect to your favorite networks"
- "empowering IRC communities worldwide"
- "comprehensive bouncer management platform"
- "Get started with our amazing free tier"

## design identity

three-font system:

- **Newsreader** (serif) -- display headings
- **Outfit** (sans, light weights) -- body text
- **JetBrains Mono** -- nav, labels, buttons, IRC messages, code, brand mark

palette: green on dark. monochromatic dark background with #5CA882 as the single
accent color. carries through links, active states, CTAs, and the brand dot.

brand mark: `irc.now` in JetBrains Mono 500 with a 5x5 green dot between "irc" and
"now".

dual theme: dark-first with a full light palette. subtle SVG noise overlay at 1.5%
opacity for texture.

component patterns are IRC-native: nick colors, channel sidebars, message grids,
terminal blocks, system messages. see `design/` for tokens and full specs.

## contact

- email: hi@irc.now
- irc: #irc.now on libera.chat
- entity: Magickly LLP (UK)