Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Freenode Users Exodus as Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Boosted by Those Looking to Gain

Summary: Take a moment to study what actually begets the current split; the grievances don't merit a fragmentation, which the communities around Free software aren't likely to benefit from

THIS is the latest status report. It won't be the last. Many Free software projects and communities are still sitting on the fence, unable to decide (just yet) what to do. We too are among those and we're assessing the situation. I have seen and read Lee's side of the tale (complete with screenshots and photos). I have already read many resignation letters (since more than a week ago). On balance, I think neither side is "perfectly right"; I think that the scandal or alleged scandal is overinflated by those looking to fully control the platform while leaving Lee with scraps. If there are legitimate concerns (e.g. Oracle and OpenOffice.org), then branching or forking away is fine (LibreOffice). If that boils down to superficial nonsense (e.g. GIMP being a supposedly 'offensive' acronym), the forkers and disruptors (Glimpse) won't have a leg to stand on, at least in the long run...



"If people read Lee's side of the tale, they will see that there are allusions there to the FSF situation. Apparently there was concern about coups and takeovers."This post is mainly a rebuttal to false narratives, akin to headlines spelling the end of the FSF and telling us that everybody hates Richard Stallman (based on tweetstorms that are algorithmically curated).

If people read Lee's side of the tale, they will see that there are allusions there to the FSF situation. Apparently there was concern about coups and takeovers.

But here's the thing: many conveniently forget that the company which owns Freenode is a privacy company, not a surveillance outfit. At one point they rescued Linux Journal and they also donate to a bunch of Free (as in freedom) causes. For those who claim that Freenode's owner violates privacy there's this rebuttal showing that the supposed 'evidence' was in fact fabricated:

PIA snooping evidence fabricated
PIA snooping 'evidence' was allegedly fabricated



A lot of VPNs are faked privacy, but I never saw evidence of PIA itself lying about privacy. I saw the opposite of that. They've repeatedly proven, even in court, that they don't log. So their competitors are eager to find some 'dirt' and, failing that, manufacture some 'evidence'...

Since weeks ago (yes, we've been writing about the situation in Freenode for weeks!) we've been monitoring the situation and speaking privately to a number of people. Last week we felt morally compelled to shed light on some things, seeing that a boil-over was likely imminent and irreversible. Resignation letters were already being prepared and circulated privately for consultation.

"Last week we felt morally compelled to shed light on some things, seeing that a boil-over was likely imminent and irreversible."This is not what the Free software community needs and if the nature of the supposed scandal is too shallow, then let's try to reconcile rather than cause chaos to a lot of people (or projects that would rather code than coordinate migrations, change code that's hardlinked to Freenode and so on).

There are already problems associated with impersonation due to this whole chaos. This poses seriously severe security risks. As Gentoo has put it, "it has came to our attention that certain individuals have been using the situation to impersonate Gentoo developers on other IRC networks."

It's worth noting that Gentoo has not left Freenode. Alpine is leaving (because of its connection to longtime Freenode staff), Haiku is leaving, Xen is currently discussing the matter, and several other projects are in a sort of limbo, trying to get the facts right before (or to avoid) jumping the gun. So let's actually examine the facts.

"It’s worth noting that Gentoo has not left Freenode."Hackaday wrote about this yesterday, alluding to a "Staff Exodus" (this is correct, but the users aren't following).

We still see some insulting letters if not borderline (and veiled) racist ones. This new one plays along with the "us versus them" (classism and racism) narrative, alluding to Lee as "narcissistic Trumpian wannabe Korean royalty bitcoin millionaire" (he's an American and we lack evidence that he bears any resemblance to Trump). We keep seeing this framing in the same media that attacked Richard Stallman by distorting what he had written and then bragging that it caused him to resign.

As someone put it yesterday: "I am hopeful for this to be an end to gender and sexual orientation based harassment on the network while promotice a productive working environment for the open-source development (including libre and even "ethical") and job offerings!"

"For the time being, very few projects left Freenode entirely."Based on our understanding, some staff received abuse. This wasn't Lee's fault and, if anything, there were attempts to correct this. Rectifying such situations is hard because there's no resolution that can please everybody.

For the time being, very few projects left Freenode entirely. Many users stay where they are. Yesterday in IRC we peaked at around 90 online users (almost an all-time high). "The channel on Freenode is still active," PHP star "Remi" (or "Remi Repo") wrote, "but may be closed in the near future."

They are studying the situation. Totally understandable.

We've noticed that the very same people who worked super-hard to cancel both Stallman and Torvalds campaign against Lee. "I have been on IRC since at least 1993," said this person. "Currently my main public networks are OFTC and Freenode."

His project/product is associated directly with the Linux Foundation, whose position on this one can imagine (albeit it's not a monolith).

"We deserve better fact-finding, not a frantic rush to weapons like pitchforks."The media has been extremely unhelpful so far, egging people on and falling back on click-bait instead of bothering to listen to both sides. It's so comfortable to judge from a distance and ruin things, but what if this ruin is based largely on misunderstanding and groupthink. Consensus isn't the same as truth or justice. 2 months ago an angry, hateful mob offered us predictions of doom and gloom for the FSF. And where is the FSF now? Bigger Board than before, more pro-Stallman (RMS) than before, RMS giving public talks again, and many people (individuals) donating to the FSF. The petition in support of RMS exceeded 6,700 signatures, today it's at 6,702, and the defamatory hate letter didn't age well. At all! "VHS is dead – long live BETAMAX!" Yeah, how about that in the 1990s?

Market Research Telecast chose the headline "Freenode is dead – long live Libera Chat!"

In effect they're lying to people, hoping to bring about a particular outcome. Freenode is still here and much of the controversy is still misunderstood. We deserve better fact-finding, not a frantic rush to weapons like pitchforks.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Slop Nihilism is Funded by Big Oil
Eventually human civilisation will destroy itself
Professor Eben Moglen Recovering From Open Heart Surgery
From his public pages (this is not secret)
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 17, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, September 17, 2025
Slopwatch: Fake Articles, Fake Text, Fake Images, Negative Slant on "Linux"
Google News has lost its value; the signal-to-noise ratio has fallen off a cliff
Gemini Links 17/09/2025: Relax-and-Recover on Proxmox and New Smolweb File Transfer Service
Links for the day
Fact: EFF Got Corrupted by Corporate Money. Microsoft Lunduke (Political Noise): The Issue With EFF is, It Kills Babies.
Microsoft Lunduke - as usual - finds a way to make it about abortions
Pacing Publication Up a Bit
The news cycles have gotten rather light and slow
Links 17/09/2025: Power Outages, Digital Controls, and Attacks on the Mainstream Media (by Insecure and Corrupt Dictators)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/09/2025: Flashing LineageOS and ROOPHLOCH
Links for the day
Links 17/09/2025: Long COVID Study, "Exposing Pegasus", and Chatbots Exposing Sensitive Data
Links for the day
Links 17/09/2025: Secret Settlement for Internet Archive and Google’s LLM Slop Summaries Attracting Lawsuits
Links for the day
The True Cost of 'Generative Models'
Funded and promoted by the companies that profit from the waste
'Big Slop' Attacks Contemporary Information/Knowledge and Creative Works, 'Big Copyright' (Cartel) Attacks the Old
Someone at IA will hopefully "blow the whistle" on what they actually agreed
Why We Find It Difficult to Trust Rust
A comparison between C/C++ and Rust
Watching the OSI: Our Series Will Carry on Irrespective of the Chief's 'Resignation'
the OSI isn't even the real guardian of the term "Open Source"
Just What LibreOffice Needs? Another Language? (Rust)
what's all this concern about memory safety?
Many Microsoft Managers Are Leaving
"Hey hi" chaff or chaff about "hey hi" cannot eternally distract from the difficulties inside the company
There Are Red Hat (IBM) Layoffs, But Google News is Infested With Slopfarms
It contributes a lot to misinformation and it encourages plagiarism
Tomorrow, Microsoft's Tim Anderson's 'The Register MS' Offshoot Will Have Been Inactive for 2 Months (There's Also a Slop Problem)
We've already caught The Register MS using LLM slop for articles
Microsoft's Chief Legal Officer Leaves Microsoft After Nearly 30 Years
And not retiring
Even Windows Users Are Having Problems With "Secure Boot"
When it comes to security - Microsoft strives for the very opposite
Another Competition Crime of Microsoft, Long Facilitated and Advocated by a Bad Actor, Who is Funded by a Third Party to Commit Extortion Against People Who Have Correctly and Repeatedly Warned About It for Over 13 Year
We must always go back to the core issues
3 More Reasons to Replace Mozilla Firefox With LibreWolf
Thankfully there are de-enshittified versions of Firefox
USA Not a Place for Free Speech
In America, as in the US, the attacks seem more enhanced or advanced these days
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 16, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 16, 2025
Links 17/09/2025: Google Layoffs in "Hey Hi" (AI), Perplexity Hit With More "Hey Hi" (Plagiarism) Lawsuits
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/09/2025: Reclaiming Things in a Digital Age and Moon Phases in CGI
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Google News is Slop, Google News is Plagiarism, Google News is Dying
Google is off the rails
Links 16/09/2025: "The Censorship Alarm Is Ringing in the Wrong Direction" and ASRock Does Microsoft E.E.E. on GNU/Linux
Links for the day
Serious "Breach of Confidentiality of Personal Data" in Europe's Second-Largest Institution, the EPO
Yes, the same EPO that routinely uses "data protection" and "GDPR" as a pretext for hiding or covering up its corruption and white-collar crimes (it even uses that as an excuse for refusing to obey courts' orders)
Adrienne Rockenhaus Says Her Husband Was Arrested for Running Tor and Denied Basic Rights in the United States
the US seems to be getting "russified" in its approach towards Tor
This is What Happens When Microsoft Canonical Lets Decisions on Ubuntu be Made by a Youngster From the British Army (Where He Did Mass Surveillance)
"Is Ubuntu Compromised?"
Back Doored Windows Giving GNU/Linux a Hard Time (Under the Guise of 'Security')
Is this complication intentional? Most likely, yes
Links 16/09/2025: Science, Security, and Conflicts
Links for the day
Gemini Links 16/09/2025: Command-line Options in POSIX Shell and Introducing Acre 0.9
Links for the day
Microsoft 'Secure' Boot Versus Dual Boot With GNU/Linux
they're meant to assume everything is OK
Links 16/09/2025: While Oracle Pretends to be Rich It's Firing About 70 MySQL Workers, "Oracle's Revenge" (Faking Demand With "AI")
Links for the day
Microsoft Has Just Published a New Web Page About "Secure Boot Update Process" (Microsoft Also Admits Issues; PCs Can Stop Booting)
Why was this page issued and published only hours ago?
Microsoft Lunduke: I Spread Hate and Then I Receive Hate
Cry us a river, Microsoft Lunduke
"Use Wayland" Isn't a Bugfix for X (X11 is Still Necessary)
They tell us X is "dead" and we must all be herded into Wayland ASAP
"Disable Secure Boot and Fast Boot. Wipe and Start Over."
At least they didn't say, buy a new computer...
The Oracle Ponzi Scheme
Oracle isn't doing well, but it's nowadays fashionable to say "clown" and "hey hi" to prop up one's stock, even based on nothing at all
The New Head of OSI is an "Hey Hi" (AI) Obsessed Person
when Bryant says "AI" that doesn't mean AI
Taking Out the Battery, Opening Up Your Computer, Just Like a "Normie" Would
At this stage, any person who still says "enable Secure Boot" is misguided or persuaded by companies that sell rootkits
Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers and Slopfarms Still Infesting Google News (Fake 'Articles' About "Linux" Spreading FUD)
searching for "Linux" today yields a lot of FUD
"Governments, local authorities, schools and hospitals can lead by example by procuring only Free Software"
Crossposted from Tux Machines
Cindy Cohn Leaving the Electronic Frontier Foundation While Its Co-founder John Gilmore, Whom She Apparently Helped Oust, Will Celebrate 40 Years of the Free Software Foundation, Inc.
EFF has been busy hoarding GAFAM money, whereas the latter is where all the real activism is done
The Reach of Techrights Has Broadened
We nowadays cover a broader range of issues
"Google is Googlebombing KDE's Project Banana"
So is Google googlebombing KDE's Project Banana? You decide.
Complicating Things for No Actual Benefit, Just Added Risk and More Difficulties Adding GNU/Linux and BSDs
Watch what it's like for people who wish to use BSDs
Some Very Large IRC Networks Are Growing
IRC will turn 38 next year
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 15, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 15, 2025
Links 16/09/2025: Autumn Party, RPG Planet, and Optical ROOPHLOCH
Links for the day