I doubt it will help. As BloxMaster points out, the forum itself is not that active and it has been like this for some time now. We've tried a few things in the past, for example a steam group, but its plain obvious, people are doing the forum next to actually having a life and just don't have time to chat anymore. The only way to get activity in the IRC chat, is if there are things organised to take place so people feel the need to gather around in an IRC chatroom.
I don't have time to organize this kind of events, so honestly I think this will not last long. I will not be joining this discord chatroom myself for the simple reason that I just don't have enough time. I am on IRC due to that I am still active as a remixer for SlayRadio (C64 remixes) and there are bi-daily shows there. My IRC account allows me to be in several rooms at the same time and my bouncer means that I remain active even while my pc is turned off, so I can read the chatlog and see when the channel was active when I come back and if it happens to be active as I am behind the pc, actually join in the chat. Also if someone mentioned my name on IRC I do get a notification of it either while I'm behind my computer or when I come back.