The entire point of running a channel on a public IRC network like freenode is to enable ad-hoc collaboration and communication. In fact I'd argue that that is

The entire point of running a channel on a public IRC network like freenode is to enable ad-hoc collaboration and communication. In fact I'd argue that that is the entire point of IRC as a whole. A guide for running a secure and private IRC channel on freenode seems like a non-sequitur. First of all, it only takes one user connecting to your channel without SSL to render your encrypted connection worse than useless. Secondly, if security and privacy are of utmost concern, then you should be running your own IRC server(s) in-house, thus allowing you more complete control and the ability to issue k-lines etc.