Is it just me or do you also feel that java.net will never be a leading open source community without having its own irc server? Mozilla has one, Netbeans uses freenode, the list goes on and on. It's just a great way to do realtime collaboration. For example, in my case if we had a channel for JavaServer Faces, users could get in touch with developers right away. Also, if we had one for the JavaServer Faces EG, expert group members could chat about things in real time and resolve issues faster.

I filed a bug on this at java.net, which was closed due to lack of interest. Please vote for this bug!:

https://java-net.dev.java.net/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=149