Ariadne Conill has set up a network where we can better focus on the Web site while putting aside lesser savoury aspects of IRC -- aspects that include spam and abuse (inevitable when dealing with protocols like IRC that aren't restricted)

Summary: We've added to the pool of IRC servers out there; there's hope that IRC can be expanded in terms of adoption and use, with pertinent communities and sites taking control of their communications instead of relying on third parties

Techrights.org is turning 15 in a few months (TuxMachines.org turns 17 in 3 days) and it has presence in IRC. There are 4 channels since more than a decade ago. TuxMachines also has a channel, but without a corresponding one in Techrights.org, only in Freenode.net (where we've been for over 13 years).

"There are further benefits such as uptime if we can keep two IRC networks in conjunction (so Techrights.org works fine when Freenode.net has spam/downtime issues, and vice versa)."Why are we doing this?

Simple. Last year we decided it would be useful to self-host the channels; for that, it helps to have our own IRC network and daemon. There are further benefits such as uptime if we can keep two IRC networks in conjunction (so Techrights.org works fine when Freenode.net has spam/downtime issues, and vice versa). In the "clown computing" universe they call it multiclown.

Several people are currently present in both IRC networks. At this very moment, for instance, #techrights at Freenode.net has 84 online users, whereas #techrights at Techrights.org has 17 online users. There's a bridge (hosted by a VPS) connecting the two and logging can be deduplicated. We recently heard that the FSF might consider implementing something similar. It's beneficial not just because it enhances self-governance^* but also because it acts as a sort of gateway to people outside the local network (through Freenode.net one can reach about 60,000 users and user retention improved in the past week, as shown below). As a side note, Freenode.net launched a BBS service. Now we're talking business! Or nostalgia...

Just to be very, very clear: Techrights does not endorse everything that gets spewed into IRC channels; it never did! By the very nature of IRC messaging and logging, there's no moderation (even all the spam makes it through!). Yesterday there were day-long spam attacks on Freenode.net and on the Open and Free Technology Community. IRC.Techrights.org was not affected. Sometimes being small means being not much of a target for attacks. ⬆

Freenode.net is barely losing users anymore

____ ^* Today in the news we see what happens to Nigeria's government after outsourcing its communications to a for-profit American company [1, 2, 3], in effect losing control of its very own voice. Nigeria, with about 211,400,708 citizens, has therefore blocked Twitter, nationwide.