Internet Relay Chat Trolls Are Not Expressing Opinions, They Are Saboteurs
For the record
Recently, the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channels that we run turned 18, the network being freenode in 2008, then techrights in 2021 onwards. Our public logging of IRC goes back to 2008 and not a single day has been missed since 2008, so that's 18+ years of complete logs. Transparency helps study our history.
Over the years we have had to deal with plenty of abuse in IRC, probably culminating in 2009 (it got really bad back then), then again around 2022/23. Things have been mostly uneventful in 2024 onwards, without a “Code of Conduct”, “Code of Conduct Committee” and all those draconian enforcement mechanisms that can be threatening and uninviting. We welcome open debates, though we try to limit political discourage to #techpol ("pol" as in politics - an abbreviation) and it seems to have worked OK. Around 2008 or 2009 we also created a "social" channel for off-topic (lesser technical) discussions and this helps in many ways - it's keeping us focused, amicable, troll-free.
It's not difficult to recognise Internet trolls in IRC and limiting their abuse isn't censorship, more so when their primary or sole purpose is to undermine if not destroy communities (it's not a difference in belief/opinion, it's just sabotage). Internet Relay Chat turns 38 in a few weeks. This is 1980s technology. It still works well and suits our collaboration needs.
Some days ago someone suggested that we adopt Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP, Jabber). In a prior job I maintained an XMPP server, but it can be a lot of hassle and probably not worth the extra trouble. Similarly, Matrix is just a bloated counterpart; all the social control media platforms are slower and cumbersome compared to BBS-like IRC. We continue to insist that newer is not always better and newer has the burden of having to prove that it is objectively better in every way than what currently gets used or was widely used. █