I once asked a guy who thought he was the dogs bollocks how he would build an online chat application. He started getting really enthusiastic about building a Java server with doodah framework business logic dongles attached to adaptors that rumbulated, he then went onto draw a diagram had a several lines with insert latest buzzwords interjected at certain locations.
The whole thing sounded like a 6 month project.
I said why dont you just implement the rfc for irc and connect to and ircd.