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Last remaining 1000+ user community channel seized by Freenode staff

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Re: Last remaining 1000+ user community channel seized by Freenode staff

#21

Post by dec0dedab0de »

rodiger wrote: post #5

Can someone provide some background? What started this?

There have been many stories on HN, but as far as I know the basic story is like this.

Someone bought the freenode domain name

The group of people that ran freenode get in an argument with that person

All of the previous administrators leave to start libera

the new owner of freenode installs his own administrators.

Channels start switching to libera

freenode bans any one discussing libera

freenode seizes channels that are in the process of migrating, because they consider libera competition.

Re: Last remaining 1000+ user community channel seized by Freenode staff

#22

Post by GekkePrutser »

Libcat99 wrote: post #2

freenode is dead. Everything it stood for is dead. Staff tout free speech, but they apparently only mean troll speech since anyone speaking against them or announcing new homes is getting channels stolen and users banned. It's disgusting.

What I don't understand is why they double down on this destructive behaviour. It's a really excellent way to piss off those that hadn't left yet (and as such must have been leaning towards their side!), nothing else.

But really what they're doing is the opposite of responsible and fair management. I don't want a network to be run like this.

Re: Last remaining 1000+ user community channel seized by Freenode staff

#23

Post by fsloth »

rodiger wrote: post #5

Can someone provide some background? What started this?

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/freenode-irc-has-bee...

Abbreviated: A LLC has enough papers to prove that they own Freenode, and they have more money than the Freenode past volunteers to spend in court fighting over this. Hence the Freenode volunteers decided to abandon Freenode.

Lesson: Even though you are a fully volunteer organization, always maintain an explicit paper trail that holds in court who owns and what, or someone will at some point simply come up with some documentation to their advantage and claim what you've built as their own.

Re: Last remaining 1000+ user community channel seized by Freenode staff

#24

Post by GekkePrutser »

andai wrote: post #10

Seriously, what's the matter with this guy? I thought he was just really naive but I can't see an explanation for doing something like this that isn't malicious.

Even if you include malicious explanations, I still struggle to see this leading to something that will benefit him.

Re: Last remaining 1000+ user community channel seized by Freenode staff

#26

Post by _fat_santa »

blakesterz wrote: post #4

I've only been 1/2 following along with this, I'm not sure I get it now. Freenode staff now has total control over every single change on Freenode? Won't that drive everyone (literally everyone) away? What's the Freenode staff's goal here? I'm not a Freenode user and have no interest in this at all, just wondering as a somewhat interested outsider.

I wonder the same as an outsider. If you drive away all your users what do you really have at the end? Maybe they thought they were a monopoly and could act with impunity, though that seems like a foolish assumption

Re: Last remaining 1000+ user community channel seized by Freenode staff

#27

Post by rossdavidh »

andai wrote: post #10

Seriously, what's the matter with this guy? I thought he was just really naive but I can't see an explanation for doing something like this that isn't malicious.

...and stupid. Or, we should consider the very real possibility, mentally unwell.

Re: Last remaining 1000+ user community channel seized by Freenode staff

#28

Post by SaberUK »

inshadows wrote: post #8

The thing is, most people will just stay, and the freak behind Freenode will have numbers to back up his claims, that his "community" is strong. Who knows how many of those users just keep running irssi in screen or have it configured on bouncer, checking it once a year when they need to ask question. Maybe over long time, the numbers will shift. But most people just don't care about the platform they chat through.

The evidence suggests that is not the case. Freenode has already lost almost half of its users in the last month and the projections suggest that Libera Chat will overtake freenode in user count in just over a week and that freenode will drop to the third largest network by user count in about a month. These projections have been pretty optimistic for freenode over the last few weeks too, the reality of the situation has shown freenode lose users faster than the projections forecast.

https://netsplit.de/networks/top10.php

https://isfreenodedeadyet.com/

Re: Last remaining 1000+ user community channel seized by Freenode staff

#29

Post by tyingq »

Freenode: Current global users 49980

Libera: Current global users 32769

Freenode's decline in users over the past month: http://www.hinner.com/ircstat/Socip_F_2.gif

Comparison showing Freenode decline and Libera rise: https://netsplit.de/networks/top10.php

Probably won't be long before Freenode is effectively dead.

Edit: Also see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27502059 for a projection and more stats.

Re: Last remaining 1000+ user community channel seized by Freenode staff

#30

Post by dec0dedab0de »

andai wrote: post #10

Seriously, what's the matter with this guy? I thought he was just really naive but I can't see an explanation for doing something like this that isn't malicious.

The only thing I can think of is that freenode and libera are in it together, and they're creating drama to make people talk about IRC again. I joked on another thread that he is just being a wrestling heel at this point. It's either that or it's a purely emotional response with no rational plan.

Edit: if it is all a bit of performative art, then it's brilliant. I have logged into public IRC maybe 10 times in the last 15 years, and now I'm seriously considering going back.

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