Summary: Freenode is now down to just 13,194 online users, which makes it the 6th biggest IRC network. Months ago it was #1 with almost 6 times as many users as those below it. The graph above shows what the latest blunder has done (another massive drop in less than a week, with a poem and the all-time chart at the very bottom).
Freenode is FOSS
So said the BOSS
ROOT gave a TOSS
Wanted us to trust the ToS
Onboard came the edgy
It seemed kind of sketchy
Database down with the wedgie
IRC.com is fund-hedgy
No more anon access
Users and channels gettin' nervous
A "RITUAL DEFAMATION" thesis
But self-harm being the Nemesis
One common concern when things go "live" is that any random bot out there can execute queries, pumping up RAM and CPU usage, as happened when we used MediaWiki and WordPress
In short, it's not too clear what Microsoft has just done except dumping GitHub - i.e. mostly a Web site that loses a ton of money (it always lost money) - into some mysterious new bucket