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I have no special knowledge, but I think it goes roughly like this: - a few years ago, the previous head-of-staff ('christel') became an employee of Andrew Lee
by mjw1007 5y ago
I have no special knowledge, but I think it goes roughly like this:
- a few years ago, the previous head-of-staff ('christel') became an employee of Andrew Lee's company
- sometime last year they left the company and also stopped being active as a staff member
- the rest of the staff elected a new head ('tomaw')
- Andrew Lee didn't recognise tomaw as christel's successor (and maybe tried to appoint his own choice of successor)
So I think it isn't so much about anything Lee has done, so much as the fact that he's no longer taking a hands-off role, as (the staff apparently think) he promised.
Also perhaps that his claim to be in a position to take charge is based more on his ability to pay for lawyers than a solid legal foundation (it's clear that he bought something, but not so clear what, and not clear that it was the seller's to sell).
I think the underlying problem is that freenode's previous parent organisation was dissolved in 2013, apparently without setting up an official successor.
https://web.archive.org/web/20130322063238/http://blog.freenode.net/2013/03/bye-bye-pdpc/ https://web.archive.org/web/20130322063238/http://blog.freen...
- ryanlol 5y ago> - Andrew Lee didn't recognise tomaw as christel's successor (and maybe tried to appoint his own choice of successor) Is this really correct? As far as I understand tomaw tried to claw back freenode assets from rasengan which initiated this whole mess.
- XQtN2s7Mo 5y agotomaw did no such thing, staffers tried to operate the network as normal. But after publishing a blog post about how freenode developers will start to collaborate with oftc developers, tomaw started receiving threats.
- tootie 5y agoSeems he hasn't done much of anything and it's more that he rubbed everyone the wrong way. And is being opaque in his decision-making to the point that the volunteers believe he's being dishonest. I get it, but it still seems like an overreaction.
- Aeolun 5y ago> it still seems like an overreaction Maybe if he’s your actual boss and you are being paid. Free isn’t enough to deal with this kind of shit (when you can set up and own your competing server in a few seconds).
- Doxin 5y agoThe problem is that the guy doesn't own freenode. No single person owned freenode outright at the time it was ostensibly "sold" to him. Of course this isn't stopping him essentially staging a coup by ejecting the original volunteer staff and replacing them with a staff of his choosing. Freenode is a community project that is in the process of being co-opted by a shady organisation.
- varjag 5y agoHe'll have to pay the new staff, pay for new compute resources, and regain the community trust. Good luck with that.
- Doxin 5y agoPaying the staff isn't something that happened before, so I dunno about that. I am assuming none of the donors are daft enough to keep donating compute to this new "freenode". The community seems to be moving over to irc.libera.chat so regaining their trust seems rather unlikely at this point.
- detaro 5y agoIf you assume that none of the donors are daft enough, why would you at the same time assume people would become staff for free? (I'd guess there will be some for both though)
- Doxin 5y agoBecause there are a lot of bored power-hungry 13 year olds on the internet. Even when talking about an old-timey protocol like IRC.
- JohnJamesRambo 5y agoSounds like the start of many religious schisms.