@nprofile1q... Ten years ago? Odd, I've seen a functional IRC-Minecraft chat bridge as recently as six and a half years ago... though that involved a very isolated community I want nothing to do with anymore, full of coders of its own, so they might have done it themselves for all I know.
@nprofile1q...@nprofile1q... Thing is, 5.5 isn't actually new. It's a relabeling of what was most commonly called "5e 2024", complete with insistence on "compatibility" with 5.0/"5e 2014". Basically, it's WotC relenting and realizing *again* that edition numbers are like labels on wrenches.