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IRCnet is one of the largest IRC networks in the world, the smallest of the so-called "Big Four." It currently has around a hundred thousand users.
IRCnet was formed as a European fork of EFnet after a policy disagreement in July 1996 about how much power system operators should have. IRCnet formed with the basis that there should be a set of rules defining what sysops could and could not do, this viewpoint was opposed by many of the US-based EFnet server.
The idea had existed for some time when a major US IRC hub which was the main connection with the European IRC servers disconnected the link without warning. This resulted in a group of European admins declaring their independence. All the European EFnet servers joined IRCNet and they were later joined by the EFnet servers in Japan and Australia.
As the new network included the world's first IRC server (tolsun.oulu.fi), they decided to adopt the name IRCnet which up to that time had been used as a generic name for an IRC network. Prior to this name they were known as the "European EFnet".
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