Bonum Certa Men Certa

Freenode.net Becomes a 'Reddit Clone' and Freenode IRC is Back to Old Configurations After Flushing Down Decades' Worth of User/Channel Data and Locking/Shutting Out Longtime Users

Video download link | md5sum 8c867b7e71ba4c385076f14ad8a10079



Video errata: At least a couple of times I said "last year" when referring to earlier this year; that's what happens when there's a lack of preparation and no scripting/editing.

Summary: Freenode is having another go; after "chits" and "jobs" (among many other ideas) have clearly failed, and following the change of daemon (resulting in massive loss of data and even security issues associated with impersonation) as well as pointless rebrand as "Joseon", the domain Freenode.net becomes something completely different and the IRC network reopens to all

THE year 2021 has been craaaaaaazy for IRC. What a wild ride! IRC used to be uneventful; for decades it was "just there" with barely anything changing...

Recently, as we noted here 10 days ago, IRC grew in terms of the number of known (to netsplit.de) networks, based on some threshold/criterion (apparently about 50 simultaneous users). Based on this page, things have improved since then (89 or 90 new networks, not 88 as before), but Freenode remains unlisted because it shut out anonymous connections/sessions.

Freenode at netsplit.deSee the image on the right. Andreas of netsplit.de seems to have gotten fed up with Andrew Lee and cut off the network (writing it off as "legacy") some time around August or earlier.

Well, not many have noticed it, but last week Freenode became accessible to everyone again. Also, aside from some server names here and there, the "Joseon" branding got abandoned. For many like myself who forgot to change IRC configurations it became apparent that Freenode had sprung back to life and that connections could be made again unconditionally (except for limits like connections per IP address). Many like myself left it in the background, perhaps unaware, and therefore reconnected silently some time after 4:25PM on some arbitrary day last week. Within half an hour CrystalMath announced this in our IRC networks and over in my IRC client (XChat) I saw:

* VLIST=b WATCH=32 WHOX :are supported by this server
* There are 7 users and 2478 invisible on 16 servers
* 6 :operator(s) online
* 47 :unknown connections
* 6029 :channels formed
* I have 1023 clients and 1 servers
* Current local users: 1023  Max: 1023
* Current global users: 2485  Max: 2485
* *.freenode.net message of the day
*   Hello, World!
*  
*   Welcome to the
[...]


So it had about 2,000 registered users (before opening up Freenode to everyone, once again). Then there was an influx or returning IRC clients, such as mine, perhaps oblivious to what had actually happened.

CrystalMath, who has long maintained contacts at/within the new Freenode, told us that someone called "epony" had left. Apparently this person was advising Andrew Lee to limit network access; once that influence was gone the network reopened. I show some of the scrollback in the video above.

Within a few days there were already 6,000 users online and now it's over 10,000:

[11:36] [Users] There are 11 users and 10098 invisible on 16 servers
[11:36] [Users] 6 operator(s) online
[11:36] [Users] 33 unknown connections
[11:36] [Users] 13053 channels formed
[11:36] [Users] I have 4008 clients and 1 servers
[11:36] [Users] Current users on sunshine.freenode.net: 4008  Max: 4015.
[11:36] [Users] Current users on the network: 10109  Max: 10137



[11:37] [MOTD] Message of the day: [11:37] [MOTD] Hello, World! [11:37] [MOTD] [11:37] [MOTD] Welcome to the [11:37] [MOTD] __ _ [11:37] [MOTD] / _|_ __ ___ ___ _ __ ___ __| | ___ [11:37] [MOTD] | |_| '__/ _ \/ _ \ '_ \ / _ \ / _` |/ _ \ [11:37] [MOTD] | _| | | __/ __/ | | | (_) | (_| | __/ [11:37] [MOTD] |_| |_| \___|\___|_| |_|\___/ \__,_|\___| [11:37] [MOTD] AUTONOMOUS ZONE [11:37] [MOTD] [11:37] [MOTD] Connect to us on: [11:37] [MOTD] [11:37] [MOTD] Hostname: irc.freenode.net / chat.freenode.net [11:37] [MOTD] Plaintext: 6660-6669 [11:37] [MOTD] TLS/SSL: 6697,7000,7070 [11:37] [MOTD] Webchat: https://webchat.freenode.net [11:37] [MOTD] [11:37] [MOTD] By connecting to freenode you indicate that you have read and accept our [11:37] [MOTD] policies and guidelines as set out on https://freenode.net and agree to [11:37] [MOTD] be scanned for an open proxy. [11:37] [MOTD] [11:37] [MOTD] If you are looking for assistance, please try: [11:37] [MOTD] [11:37] [MOTD] #help - Help with general IRC and Services. [11:37] [MOTD] #chanhelp - Help with channels and channel services. [11:37] [MOTD] #IRC - Help with the IRC.com by freenode app. [11:37] [MOTD] [11:37] [MOTD] Checkout some of our communities and services: [11:37] [MOTD] [11:37] [MOTD] #freenode-bbs - BBS [https://bbs.freenode.net/] [11:37] [MOTD] #freenode-bbs-discussion - BBS Discussion [11:37] [MOTD] #freenode-jobs - Jobs [https://jobs.freenode.net/] [11:37] [MOTD] #freenode - Chat about freenode. [11:37] [MOTD] #anonchan - Chat anonymously. [11:37] [MOTD] [11:37] [MOTD] Type /join #<channel> [11:37] [MOTD] [11:37] [MOTD] Thank you for using freenode! [11:37] [MOTD] End of message of the day


Freenode: We think we're RedditBut this is where it gets really weird. About 10 minutes before recording the video someone brought up (in IRC) the bizarre turn taken by the Freenode.net domain (for World Wide Web or HTTPS). I spontaneously show the changes in the video above; it seems to be in an experimental state, Lee is clearly involved in this (posting as "root", as usual), and it's already going in a direction that's guaranteed to alienate most of the ordinary (traditional, old timers) tenants of the network. It's not about software, it's already kind of edgy, and it's not too clear what target audience they have in mind.

Perhaps there's a new "business plan". Freenode becomes just a social control network, which happens to have an IRC network 'on the side'... with integration to come.

Recent Techrights' Posts

They Say That People Are Afraid of or Worried About "Hey Hi", But the Worriers Should be the Fools Who Invested in It
At the end of the day nobody should worry more than those who invested their money in this bubble
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 10, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, September 10, 2025
Xubuntu Site Compromised
Let's hope it is not a security breach
Links 10/09/2025: Retaliation at Facebook and Microsoft Reveals Almost 100 Security Holes
Links for the day
Gemini Links 10/09/2025: Annihilation of Self, The Future Eaters, and Leaving Academia
Links for the day
Harassment evidence: franceinfo's Clara Lainé report on Ubisoft prosecution
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 10/09/2025: Microsoft Layoffs in "RTO" Clothing and Windows TCO, GitHub TCO
Links for the day
Blaming Everything on China
TikTok works for China. GAFAM works for fascists.
People Get Tired of "Hey Hi" (AI), Unlike the Subservient Money-Obsessed Media That Gets Paid to Pretend This Bubble Still Matters
"crash will be way bigger than dot.com burst in 90s. and that was Internet, actually transformative technology, not this expensive AI toy with direct dependency on the energy input which is not scalable"
Brett Wilson LLP Accepts That the Serial Strangler From Microsoft Filed a Case That Also Implicates My Wife (Everything is Connected)
They used to pretend that there were two separate cases
10 Reasons to Disable (or Enable) UEFI Secure Boot
Tomorrow the "trusted corporation" Microsoft will see a certificate expire
Gemini Links 10/09/2025: Hospital and Large Feeds
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 09, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 09, 2025
The Bluewashing of Red Hat is Being Completed, Many Staff Understand They'll be Made Redundant
Jim AllowHurst (Whitehurst) is meanwhile promoting Microsoft's agenda from within other companies
Throwing Away "Old" Computers (Mozilla and Other Climate Deniers)
Mozilla is not leftist
statCounter Sees GNU/Linux Exceeding 10% in Bulgaria This Month
What can Microsoft still do to stop GNU/Linux?
Dark Patterns
Microsoft saying "security" is like a Convicted Felon in the White House saying "law and order".
It's Almost Fall (Autumn)
To "Facebook prison" you are bound
Bruce Schneier About "Secure Boot"
Bruce Schneier isn't a fan of "Secure Boot"
Links 09/09/2025: Microsoft Mass Layoffs Again and "RTO" (Timed Like It Serves as a Distraction From the Mass Layoffs)
Links for the day
RMS Told Microsoft to Stop 'Secure Boot' (He Even Went There to Say That), But They Didn't Listen
Dr. Stallman (RMS) assumed that speaking to sociopaths would work
What Richard Stallman Told Me About 'Secure' Boot in 2012
"if the user doesn't control the keys, then it's a kind of shackle"
Those Who Helped Microsoft Weaponise "Secure Boot" Against GNU/Linux and BSDs Are Fleeing
Microsofters doing what they do best: they evade accountability
Simple is Better, Simplicity is Power
That is "the advantage of having commodity GNU/Linux systems," an associate notes
Much Ado About Nonsense
Microsoft Lunduke is still all dramatisation and sensationalism
Current Events in France
It needs to dump Microsoft and other GAFAM (US) giants, move to Free software
Further Media Cut-downs
media reporting about the media being cut
Links 09/09/2025: US-Korea Tensions and Meta Whistleblowers
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/09/2025: Moon Eclipse and ROOPHLOCH Reports
Links for the day
Links 09/09/2025: “Torrents of Hate” and Political Crisis in France
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/09/2025: "Dedigitizing" and Forgejo on FreeBSD
Links for the day
Google News (Not Just Google Search) Lets Itself by Gamed by One Slopfarm - to the Point Almost Half of "Linux" News is Bot-Produced Plagiarism (LLM Slop With Slop Images)
That says a lot about what Google thinks of quality, even in Google News
Bill Gates-Funded Media Inadvertently Refutes the Microsoft Lie That in 2025 Microsoft Had Just Two Waves of Layoffs
There were about 12 rounds of layoffs so far in 2025
Official SUSE Blog Still Uses LLM Slop (Bots) to Make Fake Articles (Marketing)
The company is all about sound bites
Companies Realise That Slop Doesn't Work as Advertised, Accordingly Dump It
"Hype dims as a country-wide survey of US corporations shows a sudden drop-off in AI use among firms with more than 250 employees."
Microsoft-Funded Lawsuits Against Critics of UEFI 'Secure Boot'
Remember that no company (or law firm) ever survives collaborations with Microsoft
From theregister.co.uk to theregister.com (US) to The Register MS (Run by Microsoft Operatives) and theregister.ai
The best way to break this racket (or cycle of hype and harm) is to break the chains of funding
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Culture of Censorship Necessitates More Speech
The OSI bans dissent or people who merely point out that the OSI is abusive
How to Reach Us Discreetly (Other Than Encrypted E-mail)
We're still managing to maintain a 100% source protection record. We soon turn 19.
LLMs Are Vastly Worse Than a Waste of Energy and the Externalities Are Huge
Worse than just higher power bills for everybody
LLMs Versus Search (Not Replacing Search But Engaging in DDoS Attacks Against Web Sites That Permit Searching)
The state of the Web isn't just bad; it's utterly terrible
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 08, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 08, 2025
It's Only the Second Week of September and Already Two Waves of Layoffs at Microsoft, Slopfarms and Microsoft-Funded Sites Spin It as "AI Investments" Rather Than Commercial Failure
A very large third one expected next week
The UEFI 9/11 - Part IX - Shunning Old Computers (in 2023 the Certificate Was Updated/Overridden, Underlying Aim May Be Herding/Forcing People to Get TPM and Other 'Novel' Restrictions)
the "upgrade treadmill"