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Freenode hijacked
Free Software Projects Defenestrate The Freenode IRC Network
Freenode IRC staff resign en masse, unhappy about new management
Developers flee Freenode after 'takeover' by Korean crown prince
Freenode Debacle Prompts Staff Exodus, New Network
IRC Will Never Die
On freenode and its commitment to FOSS (Andrew Lee's May 19th response)
https://libera.chat/ (new network)
Freenode IRC operators now engaging in routine abuses of power
https://www.devever.net/~hl/freenode_abuse
There have been several allegations of this since the handover of the Freenode infrastructure to its new custodians, but I can now provide a first-hand account of one incident — because I am the victim of it.
A channel which I registered, ##hntop, has been taken over by Andrew Lee (rasengan) without my knowledge or consent.
...
Conclusions. In other words, it appears that a Freenode services admin, presumably rasengan,
- forcibly dropped the channel and reregistered it so as to put themselves in control of it, and render me no longer in control of it;
- clearly did this with the express purpose of frustrating an attempt by that channel's founder (me) to relocate it to another IRC network; and
- cover up the fact that I had sought to do so.
(Score: 4, Informative) by requerdanos on Monday May 24 2021, @12:17AM (2 children)
On Freenode, channels with a single "#" are official channels created br or representing whatever comes after the "#" (examples: #fsf, #trisquel, #mame). Non-official, non-representing-something channels are prefixed with "##" (example: ##hardware).
Though twitter and IRC are both communication media (to some extent), their usefulness is difficult to compare directly since IRC was created for real-time communication via chat, whereas twitter was created for microblogging, hashtagging, retweeting, and the like.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 24 2021, @02:20AM (1 child)
double-hash channels mean "You have to be a registered user to join," afaik. Nothing more. You have to log in with nickserv to join the channel.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 24 2021, @10:57AM
Nope, any channel on Freenode can be set to require a registered account to join, or to speak, among many other flags that can be set by channel ops.
The naming policy is exactly as requerdanos said: https://freenode.net/policies#channel-ownership [freenode.net]
Note: Aspects of the policy document appears to be actively being changed by the "new owners", but these two policies have not changed with the recent shenanigans.