Bonum Certa Men Certa

Techrights Statement on IRC

IRC further
In its official capacity (or Web site), Freenode has said nothing since a week ago



Summary: Freenode needs to explain what the hell happened this week and why communities that make up the network weren't informed or consulted

YESTERDAY was the most turbulent day in IRC since we started using IRC in early 2008. There are many of us who are involved in running Techrights (IRC, hosting, Daily Links, research and so on), and no doubt yesterday's events in Freenode had a profound effect on our ability to communicate, to produce articles, and to code (we had to change a lot in code in many machines, then do extensive testing).



"Freenode needs to get together and formulate a statement about yesterday's events. Otherwise, we cannot be sure such impulsive and erratic decisions will be made again (with zero prior consultation with communities that actually made Freenode what it is)."IRC is a universal protocol that is very old and widely supported by a large number of software clients. It's nowhere near its peak of 2003 (about 10 million online users, according to Wikipedia), but many geeks still use it. Freenode says (in IRC.com* and in Freenode.net) that it wants to take IRC to the next level, but what was done yesterday without prior warning and with barely a coherent explanation is inexcusable. Those of us who still had some trust in Freenode, including the FSF, lost most or all of that trust. Freenode needs to get together and formulate a statement about yesterday's events. Otherwise, we cannot be sure such impulsive and erratic decisions will be made again (with zero prior consultation with communities that actually made Freenode what it is).

Freenode isn't the enemy. It really isn't. But "unfortunately," as an associate of ours put it yesterday, "sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice." Our channels are all available at irc.techrights.org (default port numbers). The "Techrights" (#techrights) channel in Freenode dropped from about 85 users (before Tuesday's chaos) to just 54 at this moment. We are not leaving Freenode (we have been there for a very long time and have a bridge set up), but we certainly deserve an explanation from Freenode management and we certainly anticipate one. In the future we plan to do some in-depth articles about Freenode, but they're not a priority at this time (we have fallen way behind our publication plan/schedule) and right now would not be an appropriate time to contribute to infighting, seeing the existing disarray (aftermath of a de facto D-R exercise on a live/production environment). We have almost a thousand lines of notes, which would take a long time to digest and organise, fact-check etc.

"However, the inherent value of Freenode isn't something that can be measured in terms of money (like how much it can be sold for) because it's not a product to be sold and passed like a corporation or a commodity."Andrew Lee is not a malicious person; but he put himself in a situation where he can only attract (to work with him) rather irresponsible people, whose actions tens of thousands of people now pay a high price for. Instead of coding and producing the Free/libre software that runs the world they're busy trying to put out fires.

IRC.comWe're still trying to reassemble all the pieces (some things still aren't working properly) and make up for a lost week, maybe catching up with missing time and backlog some time in the coming weekend. The past month in general has been hectic. We wrote about Freenode woes a long time before it became public. That was almost 6 weeks ago (we actually learned about it back in April). We foresaw this and tried hard to prevent/mitigate disaster. The intention was to avoid destruction and to keep people focused on what they were doing. The productivity loss, put on a financial scale, is unbelievably high (tens is not hundreds of millions). However, the inherent value of Freenode isn't something that can be measured in terms of money (like how much it can be sold for) because it's not a product to be sold and passed like a corporation or a commodity**. ______ * We've included a screenshot of IRC.com on the right. ** The same is true for Techrights; we could cause enormous financial damage to corporations like Novell, but that does not mean any gain for us.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
 
Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
By Sami Tikkanen
New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
Links for the day
Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
Links for the day
Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Our Plans for Spring
Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
This is totally normal, right?
USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
Not joking!
The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
Not About Linux at All!
nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
Links for the day