Didn't David Gerard just ask today what should be done about IRC?
Boggles the mind that people aren't responsible for any and all words spoken in there or actions that spawn from there. I.e., if people told the blocking admin, "Blocking Jeff would be good," in any wording, who did it ought to be named. Why get a free pass? Note it on their permanent record on-wiki as individuals of dubious judgement.
Those IRC channels need to be either fully public and logged, with all Wikipedia policies applied to them, or disowned from the project, cast off into a no-man's land, and removed from references on-wiki.
Regards, Joe http://www.joeszilagyi.com