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Show HN: IRC.com – A Scriptable Web IRC Client

5 points by rasengan 1y ago

Hi HN, Long-time IRC obsessive here (some of you may remember me from the privacy wars and the freenode drama). My commitment to the protocol never died, so I built IRC.com, a browser-based IRC client where everything lives in user-editable JavaScript. The core ships with just a protocol shim and window manager; the rest is scriptable. Out of the box it feels like a normal IRC client, but if you want to automate channel ops, invent new commands, or redesign the UI, the power is yours. I’d love your feedback, bug reports, and feature ideas... especially from fellow IRC lifers! I'll be adding support for other networks soon once we are out of BETA and have I lines (or webirc auth) in place with other networks. And above all, I hope you enjoy! Cheers, Andrew

sen 1y ago
> remember me from the privacy wars and the freenode drama ... the drama you created by doing a hostile takeover of Freenode and effectively killing it? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenode#Ownership_change_and_conflict https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenode#Ownership_change_an...
Doxin 1y ago
I cannot emphasize enough how OP is a power hungry maniac that decided to blow up a ~30 year old community of ~90k people in an attempt to seize power. This guy does not deserve any of your time or attention.
- rasengan 1y ago
  tl;dr — Christel asked me to keep freenode alive in 2017, I paid every bill, including the former staffers legal woes, from that day forward, and the volunteers who later founded Libera registered their new domain weeks before any of the "hostile take over" headlines. Straight timeline with docs linked so you don’t have to trust my prose: 1. April 12, 2017 - christel’s posts about freenode changing hands. Companies House lists me as director from April 1, 2017; Christel removes herself shortly after. [1] 2. LWN’s May 2021 timeline notes staff had accepted the 2017 sale [2]. 3. libera.chat registered April 23, 2021, three weeks before any "hostile-takeover" fake news [3]. 4. HN obviously noticed the WHOIS date the same day [4]. 5. Staff minutes show plans for a Freenode-branded web client but admit they have no developers on staff [5]. 6. May 18, 2021 The narrative flips as former staffers like post coordinated resignation letters (and begin e-mailing open source projects) claiming I’d just seized control [6]. 7. The Register runs "Freenode staff resign en masse" hours later [7]. 8. Vice repeats the story but concedes the 2017 sale is real [8]. Hackaday traces the dispute straight back to that sale [9]. What actually happened The transaction came first (domain, bylaws, infra). I locked the DNS after staff pointed users at their new network, Libera. Until then, since 2017, everything has been paid out-of-pocket. No user data has ever been monetised (and has been deleted). Ex freenode Staffers Legal Troubles from OldCoder Robert "OldCoder" Kiraly’s 23 page 2019 statement names Fuchs among other former freenode staffers in a number of alarming allegations [10]. They’re allegations only, but I still paid counsel so the volunteers (Fuchs included) had representation. [11] IRC.com Rather than wait for the mythical volunteer developers like the former staffers were, I, a developer, shipped a modern IRC client. Judge the platform for what it is, not falsehoods being spread without facts. Call me whatever you want, but do it on the paperwork, don't just read coordinated resignations or LulzSec member's fiction. Because a few people wanted to maintain their meritless position in a DEVELOPER's community that I was not only a part of but also financially contributed thereto quite significantly [12], the community was severely fractured. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/e364lu/private_internet_access_and_the_freenode_irc/ https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/e364lu/private_inter... https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/e364lu/comment/f92a4yv/ https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/e364lu/comment/f92a4... https://archive.is/Sn7hU https://archive.is/Sn7hU [2] https://lwn.net/Articles/857140/ https://lwn.net/Articles/857140/ [3] WHOIS libera.chat [4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27213996 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27213996 https://archive.ph/bSbXD https://archive.ph/bSbXD [5] https://techrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/lee-side.pdf https://techrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/lee-side.p... https://archive.is/46nLz https://archive.is/46nLz [6] See resignation gists. [7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/19/freenode_staff_resigns/ https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/19/freenode_staff_resign... [8] https://www.vice.com/en/article/freenode-open-source-korea-crown-prince-takeover/ https://www.vice.com/en/article/freenode-open-source-korea-c... [9] https://hackaday.com/2021/05/20/freenode-debacle-prompts-staff-exodus-new-network/ https://hackaday.com/2021/05/20/freenode-debacle-prompts-sta... Note: It reports on an Ariadne Connill, who admitted to forging IRC logs. [10] https://haggishell.com/fibers/misc/190912-freenode.pdf https://haggishell.com/fibers/misc/190912-freenode.pdf https://archive.is/OsPkt https://archive.is/OsPkt [11] It was a bit disheartening to see Fuchs take the position against me after I had helped him with legal issues. [12] https://foundation.gnome.org/2013/09/23/interview-with-andrew-lee-of-private-internet-access/ https://foundation.gnome.org/2013/09/23/interview-with-andre...
  - Doxin 1y ago
    look man, I get the choice between believing you, someone I barely know, or three people I've known for 15+ years. It's a whole load of he-said she-said, but it's you against roughly the entire freenode staff at the time, some of which I know very well indeed. Shouting fake news does not make it so. It wouldn't be the first time you're caught in a lie with your pants down.
    - rasengan 1y ago
      > some of which I know very well indeed. I can't do anything for those who do not know how to read and are simultaneously friends with them it seems. ;)
dhrm1k 1y ago
wait, how did you get irc dot com?

5 points by rasengan 1y ago

sen 1y ago

> remember me from the privacy wars and the freenode drama ... the drama you created by doing a hostile takeover of Freenode and effectively killing it? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenode#Ownership_change_and_conflict https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenode#Ownership_change_an...

Doxin 1y ago

I cannot emphasize enough how OP is a power hungry maniac that decided to blow up a ~30 year old community of ~90k people in an attempt to seize power. This guy does not deserve any of your time or attention.

rasengan 1y ago
tl;dr — Christel asked me to keep freenode alive in 2017, I paid every bill, including the former staffers legal woes, from that day forward, and the volunteers who later founded Libera registered their new domain weeks before any of the "hostile take over" headlines. Straight timeline with docs linked so you don’t have to trust my prose: 1. April 12, 2017 - christel’s posts about freenode changing hands. Companies House lists me as director from April 1, 2017; Christel removes herself shortly after. [1] 2. LWN’s May 2021 timeline notes staff had accepted the 2017 sale [2]. 3. libera.chat registered April 23, 2021, three weeks before any "hostile-takeover" fake news [3]. 4. HN obviously noticed the WHOIS date the same day [4]. 5. Staff minutes show plans for a Freenode-branded web client but admit they have no developers on staff [5]. 6. May 18, 2021 The narrative flips as former staffers like post coordinated resignation letters (and begin e-mailing open source projects) claiming I’d just seized control [6]. 7. The Register runs "Freenode staff resign en masse" hours later [7]. 8. Vice repeats the story but concedes the 2017 sale is real [8]. Hackaday traces the dispute straight back to that sale [9]. What actually happened The transaction came first (domain, bylaws, infra). I locked the DNS after staff pointed users at their new network, Libera. Until then, since 2017, everything has been paid out-of-pocket. No user data has ever been monetised (and has been deleted). Ex freenode Staffers Legal Troubles from OldCoder Robert "OldCoder" Kiraly’s 23 page 2019 statement names Fuchs among other former freenode staffers in a number of alarming allegations [10]. They’re allegations only, but I still paid counsel so the volunteers (Fuchs included) had representation. [11] IRC.com Rather than wait for the mythical volunteer developers like the former staffers were, I, a developer, shipped a modern IRC client. Judge the platform for what it is, not falsehoods being spread without facts. Call me whatever you want, but do it on the paperwork, don't just read coordinated resignations or LulzSec member's fiction. Because a few people wanted to maintain their meritless position in a DEVELOPER's community that I was not only a part of but also financially contributed thereto quite significantly [12], the community was severely fractured. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/e364lu/private_internet_access_and_the_freenode_irc/ https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/e364lu/private_inter... https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/e364lu/comment/f92a4yv/ https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/e364lu/comment/f92a4... https://archive.is/Sn7hU https://archive.is/Sn7hU [2] https://lwn.net/Articles/857140/ https://lwn.net/Articles/857140/ [3] WHOIS libera.chat [4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27213996 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27213996 https://archive.ph/bSbXD https://archive.ph/bSbXD [5] https://techrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/lee-side.pdf https://techrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/lee-side.p... https://archive.is/46nLz https://archive.is/46nLz [6] See resignation gists. [7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/19/freenode_staff_resigns/ https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/19/freenode_staff_resign... [8] https://www.vice.com/en/article/freenode-open-source-korea-crown-prince-takeover/ https://www.vice.com/en/article/freenode-open-source-korea-c... [9] https://hackaday.com/2021/05/20/freenode-debacle-prompts-staff-exodus-new-network/ https://hackaday.com/2021/05/20/freenode-debacle-prompts-sta... Note: It reports on an Ariadne Connill, who admitted to forging IRC logs. [10] https://haggishell.com/fibers/misc/190912-freenode.pdf https://haggishell.com/fibers/misc/190912-freenode.pdf https://archive.is/OsPkt https://archive.is/OsPkt [11] It was a bit disheartening to see Fuchs take the position against me after I had helped him with legal issues. [12] https://foundation.gnome.org/2013/09/23/interview-with-andrew-lee-of-private-internet-access/ https://foundation.gnome.org/2013/09/23/interview-with-andre...
- Doxin 1y ago
  look man, I get the choice between believing you, someone I barely know, or three people I've known for 15+ years. It's a whole load of he-said she-said, but it's you against roughly the entire freenode staff at the time, some of which I know very well indeed. Shouting fake news does not make it so. It wouldn't be the first time you're caught in a lie with your pants down.
  - rasengan 1y ago
    > some of which I know very well indeed. I can't do anything for those who do not know how to read and are simultaneously friends with them it seems. ;)

dhrm1k 1y ago

wait, how did you get irc dot com?