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This is a very contentious topic but looking into the relatively recent Freenode vs Librem.chat debacle I think signifies how important privacy is to the common

This is a very contentious topic but looking into the relatively recent Freenode vs Librem.chat debacle I think signifies how important privacy is to the common IRC user.

e63f67dd-065b 3y ago
I don't think that's the right conclusion to draw at all from the Freenode debacle. A pretty significant amount of the channels stayed on Freenode after Andrew's takeover, until Andrew kicked them off himself with the mass Libera purge. There were many communities still on a wait-and-see approach -- at least until Andrew was revealed to be semi-insane (Emperor of Korea, digital territory, alt-right conspiracies, etc). Yes, the open source privacy crowd is a big chunk, but there were just as many social communities. Don't you remember the olden days of sex channels and all their drama? The roleplay, alt history, sci-fi, and just general random niche hobbies that populated the IRC landscape. IRC was, above all, a social space, it just so happens that many of these communities died or migrated to discord over time. Those that remain are those who are most attached to privacy/open source/etc, all the rest are gone.
lolinder 3y ago
I don't remember privacy being a significant part of the discussion about the Freenode takeover and the subsequent founding of Libera.chat. My memory is that the hostile takeover was a big problem for some, and the majority of the exodus happened when Andrew went crazy and started hijacking channels and banning people en masse.
- sScTE9qEMCxEk34 3y ago
  Privacy was an enormous part of the argument for even starting Libera. > I believe that his intentions are malicious, and that he should under no circumstances gain control over the network, nor access to its user data. Just from the first "explainer" I remember (https://gist.github.com/joepie91/df80d8d36cd9d1bde46ba018af497409/53beb33570025020c3e7efa2b80dc936bc5b02fe https://gist.github.com/joepie91/df80d8d36cd9d1bde46ba018af4...)

This is a very contentious topic but looking into the relatively recent Freenode vs Librem.chat debacle I think signifies how important privacy is to the common IRC user.

e63f67dd-065b 3y ago

I don't think that's the right conclusion to draw at all from the Freenode debacle. A pretty significant amount of the channels stayed on Freenode after Andrew's takeover, until Andrew kicked them off himself with the mass Libera purge. There were many communities still on a wait-and-see approach -- at least until Andrew was revealed to be semi-insane (Emperor of Korea, digital territory, alt-right conspiracies, etc). Yes, the open source privacy crowd is a big chunk, but there were just as many social communities. Don't you remember the olden days of sex channels and all their drama? The roleplay, alt history, sci-fi, and just general random niche hobbies that populated the IRC landscape. IRC was, above all, a social space, it just so happens that many of these communities died or migrated to discord over time. Those that remain are those who are most attached to privacy/open source/etc, all the rest are gone.

lolinder 3y ago

I don't remember privacy being a significant part of the discussion about the Freenode takeover and the subsequent founding of Libera.chat. My memory is that the hostile takeover was a big problem for some, and the majority of the exodus happened when Andrew went crazy and started hijacking channels and banning people en masse.

sScTE9qEMCxEk34 3y ago
Privacy was an enormous part of the argument for even starting Libera. > I believe that his intentions are malicious, and that he should under no circumstances gain control over the network, nor access to its user data. Just from the first "explainer" I remember (https://gist.github.com/joepie91/df80d8d36cd9d1bde46ba018af497409/53beb33570025020c3e7efa2b80dc936bc5b02fe https://gist.github.com/joepie91/df80d8d36cd9d1bde46ba018af4...)