About Evol IRC Network
A small IRC network with a long memory and a stubborn love for plain-text community.
Origin (the part we can actually prove)
On December 16, 2001, Evol split from AxeNet and registered evolnet.org. That’s the one clean historical anchor we have, and we’re not going to invent a fairy tale on top of it.
What “Evol” has always been about
Evol was built in the era when IRC wasn’t “retro”, it was just how people met online. The goal was simple: a place where channels could grow into regular hangouts, ops didn’t need an ego, and the network stayed stable enough that you could idle for hours without the world catching fire.
- Small-network energy: fewer gimmicks, more actual conversation.
- Operator restraint: moderation exists to keep things usable, not to win arguments.
- Simple tooling: standards-first IRC, friendly to old and new clients.
- Community memory: networks come and go, but the people are the point.
Then and now
Like a lot of early-2000s networks, Evol’s public history is scattered. If you were around back then, you already know how this goes: servers move, domains lapse, logs vanish, and what survives is mostly the relationships and the habits.
What we’re doing now is straightforward: keep Evol online, keep it clean, and keep it welcoming for anyone who still prefers communities that load instantly and don’t require an app, an algorithm, and a tracking pixel just to say hello.
Want to help rebuild the timeline?
If you have old screenshots, server lists, channel lore, or even a dated config snippet with real hostnames, we’d love to reconstruct a proper history page. Until then, we’ll stick to what we can verify and let the rest be community story.