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Are there articles available that sums up "this Freenode drama"? I've just seen the headlines, and haven't really bothered before now that I see they are acting

Are there articles available that sums up "this Freenode drama"? I've just seen the headlines, and haven't really bothered before now that I see they are acting up as (even bigger?) assholes.

cptskippy 5y ago
Hackaday had a good write-up: https://hackaday.com/2021/05/20/freenode-debacle-prompts-staff-exodus-new-network/ https://hackaday.com/2021/05/20/freenode-debacle-prompts-sta...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
bennyp101 5y ago
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/freenode-irc-has-been-taken-over-by-the-crown-prince-of-korea/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/freenode-irc-has-bee... seems to have a pretty simple summary
- tzs 5y ago
  All quotes below are from that Ars article. > Contract or no contract, staff and developers of Freenode maintain that it wasn't actually possible to sell the network—the staff is all volunteers, and the infrastructure itself wasn't owned by Dahlskjaer in the first place. So who did own the infrastructure, and where did they stand on all of this? > Freenode has been the world's largest IRC network since 2013, with roughly three times as many users as its closest competitor, IRCnet. ... > A week after Lee's effectively public announcement of ownership and de facto dictatorial operation of Freenode, the staffers who resigned from Freenode created Libera.chat as a replacement. Is there something wrong with IRCnet? Usually when the largest X does something that gets a lot of users to leave they go to X's largest competitors since those are already up and running and experienced. In this case, though, it seems like the brand new Libera.chat is where most are going.
  - danaris 5y ago
    The reason they're going to Libera.chat is because the former Freenode staff set it up—moving to another existing IRC network would mean, essentially, abandoning your own house and coming to someone else's and asking to be allowed to set up in there, while what they're doing is trying to build their own new house.
    - CydeWeys 5y ago
      > while what they're doing is trying to build their own new house. I'd say they're just trying to rebuild their old house. Once all the dust settles in a few months, I expect Libera Chat will be pretty much the same as FreeNode was, with all the same channels being run by the same people, with the exception that I'll have to register a new account with NickServ.
      - rubin55 5y ago
        That latter aspect, registering your account with NickServ does seem to sucks somewhat.. Apparently there have been some bots active which have registered a whole bunch of nicks which previously existed on FreeNode. #libera is full of people (including myself) who are asking if staff can do something about this nick squatting. Understandably that will take time and I've simply registered another nick, but man, you get attached to a 15+ year old nick you've been using on OFTC, FreeNode and a bunch of other ye olde IRC networks..
      - danaris 5y ago
        > I'd say they're just trying to rebuild their old house. I guess that gets into a semantic (or even existential) question: if it's in a different place, and the original house is still there (if damaged and usurped), even if it is built identically, is it the old house, or a new one? But yes, that's also a perfectly reasonable way of analogizing Libera.chat, as I understand the situation.
        CydeWeys 5y ago
        A house is the wrong analogy. We're talking about communities of people here, not a building. (This is another good example of why analogies rarely clarify, and usually just end up in a discussion over how accurate the analogy is.) A better analogy would be: Let's say you've been going to the same book club for 15 years now, but the cafe you've been meeting at has closed. So the group picks a new cafe and the book club continues. Not much has really changed; it's still the same people, meeting up regularly for the same person.
matheusmoreira 5y ago
Some untrustworthy entrepreneur bought Freenode. Network staff quit in response and started Libera. The new Freenode staff then proceeded to give users every reason to migrate to Libera.
- sampo 5y ago
  > Some untrustworthy entrepeneur bought Freenode. In 2017 > Network staff quit in response and started Libera. In 2021
  - Macha 5y ago
    In 2017 said entrepeneur and then freenode head of staff downplayed what happened to the public and the rest of the staff. Otherwise this drama would have occured in 2017.
  - macksd 5y ago
    The recent resignation letters indicate they have become aware of how much technical control the owner has and intends to exercise. Edit: that said, I was unaware of the statements from Lee that are linked to by an arstechnica article linked elsewhere in the comments. Honestly really not sure who to believe. For all I know (which is nothing first hand) this could be another group sabotaging things to boost their own new network over personal disagreement. Which I'm not suggesting is the case, but as someone not personally involved, all I see is conflicting hearsay.
    - rubin55 5y ago
      Totally agree with that. But that "other group" needs about the highest level of ops you can get (i.e., staff level). When your new Andrew-approved staff then starts de-opping ops in ~700 channels, sets up a new #freenode-services channel where you can beg to get your ops back, where they first tell you NO because the channel that was previously yours violates some new instated FreeNode policy which prohibits referencing via topic (and including talking about?) other networks like Libera.. That's when people on all sides pack up shop and leave.
SSLy 5y ago
https://gist.github.com/joepie91/df80d8d36cd9d1bde46ba018af497409/ https://gist.github.com/joepie91/df80d8d36cd9d1bde46ba018af4...

Are there articles available that sums up "this Freenode drama"? I've just seen the headlines, and haven't really bothered before now that I see they are acting up as (even bigger?) assholes.

cptskippy 5y ago

Hackaday had a good write-up: https://hackaday.com/2021/05/20/freenode-debacle-prompts-staff-exodus-new-network/ https://hackaday.com/2021/05/20/freenode-debacle-prompts-sta...

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

bennyp101 5y ago

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/freenode-irc-has-been-taken-over-by-the-crown-prince-of-korea/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/freenode-irc-has-bee... seems to have a pretty simple summary

tzs 5y ago
All quotes below are from that Ars article. > Contract or no contract, staff and developers of Freenode maintain that it wasn't actually possible to sell the network—the staff is all volunteers, and the infrastructure itself wasn't owned by Dahlskjaer in the first place. So who did own the infrastructure, and where did they stand on all of this? > Freenode has been the world's largest IRC network since 2013, with roughly three times as many users as its closest competitor, IRCnet. ... > A week after Lee's effectively public announcement of ownership and de facto dictatorial operation of Freenode, the staffers who resigned from Freenode created Libera.chat as a replacement. Is there something wrong with IRCnet? Usually when the largest X does something that gets a lot of users to leave they go to X's largest competitors since those are already up and running and experienced. In this case, though, it seems like the brand new Libera.chat is where most are going.
- danaris 5y ago
  The reason they're going to Libera.chat is because the former Freenode staff set it up—moving to another existing IRC network would mean, essentially, abandoning your own house and coming to someone else's and asking to be allowed to set up in there, while what they're doing is trying to build their own new house.
  - CydeWeys 5y ago
    > while what they're doing is trying to build their own new house. I'd say they're just trying to rebuild their old house. Once all the dust settles in a few months, I expect Libera Chat will be pretty much the same as FreeNode was, with all the same channels being run by the same people, with the exception that I'll have to register a new account with NickServ.
    - rubin55 5y ago
      That latter aspect, registering your account with NickServ does seem to sucks somewhat.. Apparently there have been some bots active which have registered a whole bunch of nicks which previously existed on FreeNode. #libera is full of people (including myself) who are asking if staff can do something about this nick squatting. Understandably that will take time and I've simply registered another nick, but man, you get attached to a 15+ year old nick you've been using on OFTC, FreeNode and a bunch of other ye olde IRC networks..
    - danaris 5y ago
      > I'd say they're just trying to rebuild their old house. I guess that gets into a semantic (or even existential) question: if it's in a different place, and the original house is still there (if damaged and usurped), even if it is built identically, is it the old house, or a new one? But yes, that's also a perfectly reasonable way of analogizing Libera.chat, as I understand the situation.
      - CydeWeys 5y ago
        A house is the wrong analogy. We're talking about communities of people here, not a building. (This is another good example of why analogies rarely clarify, and usually just end up in a discussion over how accurate the analogy is.) A better analogy would be: Let's say you've been going to the same book club for 15 years now, but the cafe you've been meeting at has closed. So the group picks a new cafe and the book club continues. Not much has really changed; it's still the same people, meeting up regularly for the same person.

matheusmoreira 5y ago

Some untrustworthy entrepreneur bought Freenode. Network staff quit in response and started Libera. The new Freenode staff then proceeded to give users every reason to migrate to Libera.

sampo 5y ago
> Some untrustworthy entrepeneur bought Freenode. In 2017 > Network staff quit in response and started Libera. In 2021
- Macha 5y ago
  In 2017 said entrepeneur and then freenode head of staff downplayed what happened to the public and the rest of the staff. Otherwise this drama would have occured in 2017.
- macksd 5y ago
  The recent resignation letters indicate they have become aware of how much technical control the owner has and intends to exercise. Edit: that said, I was unaware of the statements from Lee that are linked to by an arstechnica article linked elsewhere in the comments. Honestly really not sure who to believe. For all I know (which is nothing first hand) this could be another group sabotaging things to boost their own new network over personal disagreement. Which I'm not suggesting is the case, but as someone not personally involved, all I see is conflicting hearsay.
  - rubin55 5y ago
    Totally agree with that. But that "other group" needs about the highest level of ops you can get (i.e., staff level). When your new Andrew-approved staff then starts de-opping ops in ~700 channels, sets up a new #freenode-services channel where you can beg to get your ops back, where they first tell you NO because the channel that was previously yours violates some new instated FreeNode policy which prohibits referencing via topic (and including talking about?) other networks like Libera.. That's when people on all sides pack up shop and leave.

SSLy 5y ago

https://gist.github.com/joepie91/df80d8d36cd9d1bde46ba018af497409/ https://gist.github.com/joepie91/df80d8d36cd9d1bde46ba018af4...