the Great Split (IRC, 1996)
loreops cultureISP & telecom
The 1996 schism that divided the original IRC network into EFnet and IRCnet, largely along an American and European line, after long-running disagreement over server linking policy, nickname handling and who decides.
The split is the field's cleanest study of governance failing before technology does. The protocol worked; what broke was the human process for admitting servers and settling disputes, in a design where every server operator holds real power and no mechanism existed to bind them. Every federated system since - mail, social protocols, package registries - meets the same problem, and IRC met it first and loudest. The consequence lasts: instead of one network there are many, and the split is why a user must ask not just whether someone is on IRC but which one.
Also known as: efnet ircnet split, the great split, irc schism