Ummmn, throughout high school, I always get the files off IRC, after learning about bit torrent, and played with it, I started switching to BT about two years ago as my primary source of file leeching
Guess what, now I have a change of heart again, I figured why BT it when you can get the file off IRC in a school computer lab and save it onto for example, your IPOD and bring it home.
to download an anime, a popular one such as Naruto, via BT my experience tell me is about 1 hour, via IRC, is about 15 minutes
However, in IRC, there are queues, and you run the risk of getting BANNED. In BT, theres the time when you wait for the swarm to build up
So, BT or IRC?

In my opinion, i find them to be almost equal, with irc there is the possibility that the file being downloaded might get corrupted during the download process, but you can get more constant, faster (sometimes) speeds, but on bt, it's harder to download a corrupt file or bad data, as it automatically redownloads the part for you if it failed the hash check, but speed on the other hand is more depend on the seeders (though sometimes i can get better speeds on bt than irc). So if i had to choose, i wouldn't be able to.

i do sometimes use irc and bt together to get anime, like if the queue on irc is extrememly long, i'd download with bt until i can get into queue, then use irc to finish the remaining parts.

I've never gotten files off IRC, so I'll go with BitTorrent by default. ^_^

Well, downloads are much faster on IRC, and since I serve files in most of the channels I visit I hardly have to wait in queues (One of the privileges of being voiced), however I like BT's "hands off" interface - All you gotta do is click on a torrent link and leave, while in IRC you need to open the client, connect to a server, connect to a channel, and either type a bot's command to download from it or enter a fserv, search the file and type the command to start downloading.

Not to mention that in IRC you need to do that for each file you want, while in BT there are plenty of "filebundles", such as all the episodes in a series, ready to be downloaded with one click.

So my vote goes for BT, just because of it's convenience.

I mainly use IRC, cos it's so much faster usually. Then there are the files you just can't get off IRC, or too much queue for them. Then I use BT. The good thing about BT, you don't have to observe it at all, when IRC-bots might suddenly disconnect you for whatever reason you might come up with.

not all the irc channels have archive bots, so its easier to use bt, yes,
however for a new release, you either be the first few to rape that bot, or you would wait for a period of time,

It depends. Lately, my bt slowed down pretty much. It's downloading with 1-20 kb/s and that's real slow. So sometimes I choose IRC because it's faster. But some bots are limited to 40kb/s, so it's not that fast. As you said, the queues are pretty long and so I always have to wait for the new episodes.

IRC is faster for me, while BT is more convenient and easier-to-use.

I like IRC because BT is so impersonal. You can chat to other people and stuff. But I usually use IRC for manga, and BT for anime. The queues for anime just take wayyyyyy too long to empty.

i prefer BT b/c it has less hassle and far more easier to use..

Quote by sadotsuI like IRC because BT is so impersonal. You can chat to other people
and stuff. But I usually use IRC for manga, and BT for anime. The
queues for anime just take wayyyyyy too long to empty.

I beg to differ, I would say after 6 hours of anime release, you should not have to wait to get the file

I prefer BT- simple to use.

For now, I don't care for IRC. I'm somewhat clueless when it comes to figuring out how to grab files. Plus my first experience with IRC was insulting. I got harassed by a bunch of members for being a newbie when I was in the chat area and I never bothered to go back. Maybe I'll try IRC again someday if my options in getting new releases are gone.

I primarily use BitTorrent for downloading anime music, and IRC for downloading manga and music. I normally don't even use my IRC client unless I really can't find the file on BitTorrent and on Direct Download. IRC's GUI just doesn't make me want to use it...^^o

IRC is where I get my single files, but for large sets, I use BT.

i use IRC only when i can't find it from BT,

I always use bt... I hate going on irc... I think is so long just to do a search... IRC is good when you're up to date but don't fall behind because you can search and wait for hours

I use BT because its soo much eaiser plus im on dial up and well i dunno hw it all works but i guess on IRC if i get disconnected id have to go thru the whole process and most likely re d/l from the start again so yeh i dont bother but if i had ADSL or cable well that might be a diff story

I've always leaned away from IRC, i despise the system and never quite learnt my way around it (nor bothered to sit down and explore it either, go figure)- so I say bt...

i don't really like IRC. bittorent is easier to understand. if there was a choice between IRC (even though i know how to use it) and BT i would pick BT.

Quote by VoicesI always use bt... I hate going on irc... I think is so long just to do
a search... IRC is good when you're up to date but don't fall behind
because you can search and wait for hours

there are search engines for xdcc

I, um, mostly use Usenet newsgroups to get stuff. BT otherwise. Usenet is rock-solid reliable, and with yenc encoding DLs are very fast, usually maxing out downlink speed. Usenet is a good way to keep up with new anime releases, but due to articles expiring after a period of time (depending completely on your news server) you can't go and, say, download all of Scrapped Princess whenever you want. There's also issues with "completion" but parchive/par2 have alleviated that problem completely for me...no more "please repost part XX" posts for me in a LONG time. I usually queue up all my downloads before I go to sleep and they are easily finished by morning.

IRC...well, I got pissed at IRC for so many servers insisting I needed to run identd to connect. WTF. I understand that is not the case so much anymore, but I haven't been back for a while. I used it a lot in '92-'98 though.

In IRC I get Gundam SEED Destiny for 11-30 minutes while in BT I get it for 6-9 hours... ;

Of course, IRC isn't perfect. So you may get a split bot or corrupted files. But still. Less than an hour ain't bad. >>;

i would say bt. since im using a router, for some reason the connection is abit unstable, so if i got dc during the dl in irc, i would hav to queue again -.-

I prefer IRC bots definitely. I always get much higher and much more consistent downstream speeds on xdcc than anything I get on BT. Even the torrents with the thousand plus seeds don't go nearly as fast as I can on IRC.

But for a few minor things that are less than 20 megs, I may use BT.