I hang out on the EmacsChannel and other channels practically every working day. The current "Give £7 for seven" program gives me a T-shirt for £21. That’s a lot of money, but then again, I love IRC. 😄
#IRC #Emacs
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@kline explained:
Some time ago, Christel, the former head of freenode staff sold `freenode ltd` (a holding company) to a third party, Andrew Lee, under terms that were not disclosed to the staff body. It turns out that this contract did indeed intend to sell the entire network and it’s holdings, a fact hidden from the of staff. Mr Lee at the time had promised to never exercise any operational control over freenode.
In the past few weeks, we began to realise this had changed, and Mr Lee has sought to assert total legal control over the network, including user data. Despite our best efforts, the legal advice the freenode staff has obtained is that the contract signed by the previous head of staff cannot be fought with a reasonable likelyhood of success.
As a result, Mr Lee will shortly have operational control over the freenode IRC network. I cannot stand by such a (hostile) takeover of the freenode network, and I am resigning along with most other freenode staff. We know that many of our users and communities also do not want this, as you have made clear directly to Mr Lee in #freenode and through letters.
Going forward!
We are founding a new network with the same goals and ambitions to support foss and likeminded communities: libera.chat.
I’ve replaced all the Freenode stuff with Libera in my IRC config and logged on for the first time in … many weeks, or months! It feels weird. No strange powers on the tag(emacs) channel!
– Alex 2021-05-20 05:30 UTC
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Over on Mastodon…
@brennen said:
i’ll have been on irc for *a quarter century* here in a few months, and it’s been the genesis of and remains the connecting thread in many of my longest and truest friendships.
@technomancy said:
honestly this outcome is much better than I ever hoped when I heard a few years ago that freenode had been purchased by a VPN company. I have been hugely impressed by the ability of the volunteer staff to resist the takeover and protect the users and projects against corporate interests. that kind of resistance takes a vibrancy and dedication I didn’t know that the network possessed.
@djsundog said:
this is my favorite take on the whole affair. they handled the whole thing amazingly well.
@brennen said:
that forking an important network out from under bad actors is *possible* clearly demonstrates exactly why meaningfully open systems are so good and necessary.
@djsundog said:
a couple dozen skilled operators with a strong coalition and a firm desire to listen to the mandates of their users are a powerful force for real.
– Alex 2021-05-20 05:58 UTC
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The Panic Over Freenode Isn’t Justified and Its Reaction Mostly Disproportionate, by Dr. Roy Schestowitz for *Tech Rights*, which led me to Freenode IRC staff resign en masse, unhappy about new management, by Thomas Claburn for *The Register*.
The Panic Over Freenode Isn’t Justified and Its Reaction Mostly Disproportionate
Freenode IRC staff resign en masse, unhappy about new management
This makes me want to run my own, non-federating IRC server!
– Alex 2021-05-30 15:56 UTC
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Will the real IRC please stand up? Freenode’s forest fire leaves ashes – and fresh growth, Rupert Goodwins, for *The Register*: “The Freenode community - both volunteer staff and channel users - know and live the ideals of open … Their mutual trust was such that when the ethics of their organisation were imperilled, they could move as one to create and populate a new system. And because the system was built on an impeccable old-school open protocol, they could build and move in a very short time.”
Will the real IRC please stand up? Freenode’s forest fire leaves ashes – and fresh growth
– Alex 2021-06-01 12:03 UTC