ive read that discussion on the gdf and i think that the idea is simply brilliant. irc is a synonym for free speach and as long as the recording industry does not convince irc admins to close the channels it is unbreakable. IMHO 'permanent nodes' are a very poor choice as they're central entry points to a decentral network which can be shut down even if they just return ips. if that was really the only way for the network to be scalable, than it would be a very poor kind of decentral network. i much prefer the idea of having several pong caches on irc, thereby even implementing a limewire-like grouping feature. i hope you will go on with irc support, it is the way to go.

PS: Is it possible to visit other channels than #gnutella/chat and #gnutella/cache ? I had problems trying the /list command.