If the goal was to make IRC mor prominent and accessible, I think it would be cool if BM had it,s own IRC webchat interface. You enter the webchat and it automatically takes you to the correct server and coatroom. Heck, it could even try to automatically give you the nick that matches your family name. Once in, you could use all the customary IRC commands and such. It would make things very simple for new users to simply click a link and find themselves in the BM chat room with a sensible nick.
