SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the deleting-your-most-valuable-asset dept.
Yesterday I got this global notice on Freenode IRC network:
We are moving past legacy freenode to a new fork. The new freenode is launched. You will slowly be disconnected and when you reconnect, you will be on the new freenode. We patiently await to welcome you in freedom's holdout - the freenode.
If you're looking to connect now, you can already /server chat.freenode.net 6697 (ssl) or 6667 (plaintext). It's a new genesis for a new era. Thank you for using freenode, and Hello World, from the future. freenode is IRC. freenode is FOSS. freenode is freedom.
When you connect, register your nickname and your channel and get started. It's a new world. We're so happy to welcome you and the millions of others. We will be posting more information in the coming days on our website and twitter. Otherwise, see you on the other side!
I didn't notice it until I was disconnected and reconnected today and found myself cancelled on the network. Since there is no blog post mentioned in the system notice, I went looking and I found a summary of this week's drama from Hugo Landau.
Freenode commits suicide, is no longer a serious IRC network
The old services database (registered nicknames, channels, etc.) is apparently gone. All of your registered nicknames and channels are gone. Anyone who wishes to continue to use Freenode (though at this point I honestly can't imagine why anyone would want to) must re-register their nickname.
In short, it seems there was no effort whatsoever to migrate the services database when migrating from Atheme to Anope. Not only that, this transition happened suddenly with, as far as I am aware, zero warning. Freenode has simply dropped all nickname and channel registrations without warning.
Even my channel ##hntop which was previously seized personally by Andrew Lee is no longer registered. It's literally open season for anyone who wants to impersonate someone else, steal their nickname, or take over someone else's channel.
What a strange move, to delete all users and channels and make no effort to move them to a new system, and not explain themselves publicly in a blog post!
Earlier Soylent coverage: Freenode Hijacked (Part 2)
(Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Wednesday June 16 2021, @05:17PM (15 children)
https://gist.github.com/prawnsalad/4ca20da6c2295ddb06c1646791c61953 [github.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday June 16 2021, @05:48PM (14 children)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 5, Interesting) by progo on Wednesday June 16 2021, @05:55PM (12 children)
As far as I can tell, this started over a year ago when someone with a vision used legal maneuvering to take over Freenode's DNS, and never incorporated his "company" and his vision with actual Freenode staff. The staff gave up on Freenode and started Libera.chat in May 2021.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @06:12PM (1 child)
Don't forget the corrupt Christel "selling" freenode to Lee... I quote that because it wasn't her's to sell and just because she wanted to resign as a staffer does not give her the authority to initiate this.
This corrupt individual should not be permitted near anything FOSS again
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @11:19PM
We should create a registry of offenders, maybe round them up?
jk, but I do get a kick out of the "valid" versions of cancel cultue when in reality it is just freedom of association and people need to take their lumps and move on, human nature isn't gonna change anytime soon
(Score: 3, Interesting) by canopic jug on Wednesday June 16 2021, @07:35PM (9 children)
Techrights has been one of the many projects which has been inconvenienced by the disruption of Freenode and therefore written a lot about it:
(Partial list)
The Freenode fiasco is not as simple as it seems but the gist is that while the new owners are not going out of their way to be harmful, they don't really appear to know what they are doing and are extra clumsy, so the net effect looks really bad and is about the same anyway. One of the few good things which may possibly come of the fiasco is that more people and projects will host their own IRC networks rather than voluntarily putting on the shackles offered by the SJWs at Libera.chat and elsewhere.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @08:08PM (4 children)
What SJW nonsense is happening at Libera? Enforced pronouns? Banned topics?
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @08:43PM (3 children)
Apparatchiks from the ADL in every channel, all channel background graphics set to the fag-flag, looking to report dissenting viewpoints as "White Supremacy Domestic Terrorists" or some shit. Then all the pudgy burger-farting FBI agents* will kneel for their black bulls and raise their fists before summary executions.
* What happened to them anyway, besides the woke bullshit? Didn't the FBI have like fitness standards or something?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @11:23PM (2 children)
Masks off eh? Would it shock you to know that the US was founded on woke values? Wasn't perfect, and in fact had lots of problems we're still deaing with today, but the urge for freedom and justice was there.
Do you have a problem with supporting freedoms for all? Or should some people only count as 3/5 of others?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @11:48PM (1 child)
Come now, let's compromise. 4/5.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @11:56PM
And Pi == 3, because math is hard.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Wednesday June 16 2021, @10:08PM (1 child)
>while the new owners are not going out of their way to be harmful, they don't really appear to know what they are doing and are extra clumsy, so the net effect looks really bad and is about the same anyway.
A pattern which happens often enough to have a name:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke%27s_three_laws#Grey [wikipedia.org]
I take no position on the Freenode situation.
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Sunday June 20 2021, @05:56AM
l0de had an interview with Lee [youtu.be], or someone posing as Lee, and there were some choice quotes [linux.org.ru]resulting from that showing that Lee has gone around the bend:
That first one seems to prove malice. However, I'll point out that malice and incompetence are not mutually exclusive. It's just that in the case of Lee's actions against Freenode, the latter were much more visible first.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17 2021, @04:46PM
Every single comment I see defending Lee always ends up telling on itself by not being able to resist saying bizzare shit about Trans people or SJWs. It's insane. The techright's posts have all been insanely biased as well. The massive list of projects that jumped ship from freenode didn't happen because they're all run by SJWs or overreacting. ffs.
I had a 19 year old account on freenode and am sad to see it hijacked by some whackadoodle with too much money. Kind of hilarious how he couldn't resist proving all his detractors correct with his manic and destructive behavior.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17 2021, @08:35PM
hahaha! i copied the gemini link from here (in firefox) and pasted into athena.
then i was thinking why doesn't it work?
in reality it loaded so fast, my brain was anticipating a staggered load with asset collection from multiple domains. lol
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday June 16 2021, @06:09PM
If you think of it as a hostile corporate takeover, you won't be far wrong. The people taking over are hostile to former management, users, customers, onlookers, observers, and they even kick puppies. I certainly can't see how they hope to profit, which is where the hostile corporate analogy falls apart. They're basically burning freenode to the ground.
A MAN Just Won a Gold Medal for Punching a Woman in the Face