Bonum Certa Men Certa

Destroying Freenode Was Not the Objective, But That's Just What Happened

Killing Freenode: Alright Gentlemen We Need A New Idea to destroy communities: Ruin their IRC network; Ban anonymous access, require registration
Just because enemies of Free software stand to benefit from it doesn't mean they did it



Summary: Killing Freenode was certainly not what Andrew Lee wanted, but Lee will be remembered as the person whose takeover basically led to the end of Freenode; it's in disarray

THIS Web site joined Freenode in earlier months of 2008. I still remember that day. Keith and I needed to set up ChanServ and a bunch of other things; many Free software groups were already on Freenode, so it was like a natural choice. I initially used XChat, but in later years I'd experiment and use a variety of other IRC clients. Freenode was like a default choice in some of them. Back then, one could say "Freenode is FOSS" and almost suggest that "Freenode is IRC".



"The way things are going, our plan of having two networks in tandem has been undermined by the SSO requirement."But sadly that's no longer the case. Many communities got scattered to several other networks and some left IRC altogether. The new maladministration of Freenode has managed to harm IRC as a whole, not just Freenode.

Last week (apparently around Wednesday) Freenode decided to put an end to anonymous access, which means it's unfit for purpose; they also reject registration with 'throwaway' E-mail accounts, so basically it's like a phishing expedition exploiting the old reputation of Freenode to make a catalogue of people. And considering the top-level ownership of current Freenode (notorious Kape and some 'casino' entity on top of it) it would be reckless to supply them with any such data. We cannot recommend that people follow through and feed their SSO. We cannot advise EPO whistleblowers to use today's Freenode under any circumstances. We heard from a PIA client (Ryan from our IRC channel) that even PIA now routes traffic through some dodgy entity, possibly a honeypot, at least for American clients.

KapeThankfully, by now we've come to the point where over 95% of communications happen in our self-hosted network and not any other network (there is a #techrights channel in several other networks but hardly any activity).

The way things are going, our plan of having two networks in tandem has been undermined by the SSO requirement. There's no parity among the networks, albeit a bridge remains in place.

We're not sure what to advise people who still use our channel (#techrights) at Freenode; but we certainly don't advise giving them any personal information at this stage.

This rapid destruction of Freenode has certainly benefited several companies which loathe Free software communities, but we dare not conclude this was planned or intended. It's just very unfortunate and we need to find ways to move on. Self-hosting has once again proven its advantage; people should be in control of their communities and projects rather than outsource to companies like Microsoft (GitHub), which will inevitably do something similar to what Freenode did in 2021. Those are ticking time bombs because they don't truly care about communities. They're just "numbers" or some "commodities" to them.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has Un-cancelled the Best People, Just in Time for the Big 4-0
Mr. Oliva should have been there all along (since 2019)
Most "Modern" Technology Makes You Slower and Dumber
Because proprietary software makes you worse off
"What Comes After Free Software?" Wrongly Insinuates We've Reached the Goal (Prison is Not the Goal)
The oil tycoons use similar tactics against environmentalists, giving them fake "wins"
Making More Work Space
I learned the hard way that less is more in circumstances where more means distraction
MAHA is a Lie, Public Officials Never Valued Citizens' Health (They Still Value Private Businesses, Their Sponsors)
Reject demagogues
New Techrights Turns 2
Today starts the third year of the SSG-based Techrights
What Scares Them the Most is Independent News Sites That They Cannot Control and Censor
Wikileaks was a good example of this
If You Don't Control Your Online Platform, Then Someone Else is Controlling You
be (or become) independent
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Has a Policy on Racism and Sexism
In then future we'll show the misogyny and racial slurs
Links 22/09/2025: Murdochs Might Join Fentanylware (TikTok) 'Investors' (Masters), United Kingdom Recognises Palestinian Statehood
Links for the day
 
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part II - UK SLAPPs for Americans, SLAPPs for Profit
Brett Wilson LLP has a track record of this kind
Mayday: Optus emergency calling crisis
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 23/09/2025: Massive Data Breach, Slop Versus Productivity, and Vista 11 Update Breaks Things Again
Links for the day
Code of Censorship
Extortion is peace
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has a New Press Kit for the Weekend After Next Weekend (40th Anniversary)
miles better than social [sic] media [sic] quips, moderated by narcissists and oil tycoons.
Microsoft Had Two Waves of Mass Layoffs This Month (That We Know of) and It'll Get Worse for Microsoft Soon
Will the axe fall again by month's end?
Gemini Links 23/09/2025: Happy Equinox, Photronic Arts, and Perception Cognition
Links for the day
Lessons We've Learned After 17 Years of American Hosting
GAFAM is "all-in" with the "Trump agenda"
Back to Normal Now, We Plan to Do More In-Depth Series (or Multi-part Stories)
Articles (or series thereof) that contain philosophy are important to us
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 22, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 22, 2025
Microsoft Media is Panicking Amid Mass Layoffs Every Month, H-1B Fees, and "Seattle’s Tech Scene in Trouble"
In "late stage Microsoft", copyleft becomes proprietary
The Next Wave of IBM/Red Hat Layoffs Being Discussed Already
Red Hat is sort of disappearing the way Tivoli did
Oracle Started This Year With Slop. Then It Stopped.
Passing fads are like this
Distros That Run on PCs Made 20 Years Ago and Don't Use Systemd
Betas for now
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part I - Abusing British Women on Behalf of American Men Who Abuse American Women
Transparency is important to us, so we've decided to make this series
Slopwatch: Google News and the Evident Slopfarm Infestation
This is what people get about Linux when they query Google for Linux
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Esperanto Music History and Apps For Android
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: More American 'Censorship' (Retaliation for Journalism), Cheeto "Might Be Losing His Race Against Time"
Links for the day
The Blob Slop
Give me more words, give me some text
The 50-Pound Note Experiment and the "War on Cash"
Britain is actually seeing a rebound in cash payments, and it's not a temporary phenomenon
Slopwatch: Blaming the Victims for Microsoft's Failures and Plagiarising Phoronix
That's what Google has been reduced to: slop and slopfarms
Links 22/09/2025: Breaches, Windows TCO, and Arrests
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Rabbit Hole and DeGoogling Fairphone
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: Russian War Planes Invade NATO Airspace While Dihydroxyacetone Man Escalates Attack on Free Speech Because of Critics
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 21, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, September 21, 2025
Links 21/09/2025: "Hey Hi" (Hype) Under Fire, Fakes Identified; Tesla Burns Family
Links for the day
Google's Software is Malware and Malware in Mobile Devices
Originally posted by Rob Musial
Links 20/09/2025: Hegemony Coming to a Close, Luigi Mangione Ruled Not Terrorist
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/09/2025: "Charlie Kirk Was a Hateful Piece of Shit" and Slop Code Attempted by Microsofter
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 20, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 20, 2025