I haven't been on IRC much in a long time. Part of the reason is that #hedgewars is largely talking about anything but hedgewars. (And also, I haven't really been playing much lately. Let's face it, development stalled a long time ago.)

Why not create separate channels? One for general, off topic, finding a game (lobby used to be a thing, not sure if it still is), etc. It would take a few moments to do. Then direct chat to the appropriate channels.

It works for Wesnoth...