Bonum Certa Men Certa

Freenode Shrinks by Another Quarter and Gemini Continues to Grow (For Techrights at Least)

IRC is still around, but Freenode/IRC.com won't be an important part of that

Gemini Turntable
Gemini Turntable



Summary: Freenode continues to perish faster than we've imagined; it's a good thing that we've had contingencies set up; regarding the monopolised and increasingly centralised Web, we're still making baby steps towards weaning ourselves off it

THIS is a "bad news, good news" type of post.



Techrights at irc.techrights.orgFreenode commits to yet another self-harming move, maybe committing suicide by imposing registration on people who wish to enter Freenode (SSO/SASL). Moving people over to our self-hosted IRC network has therefore been a priority.

As someone said in our IRC channel some minutrs ago, "chat.freenode.net sum of channel populations declined from 86k to 64k after the sasl requirement."

Compare to Libera.Chat:

$ <$z.sorted awk '{a+=$2;} END {print a;}' 173198

"No need for a Web browser (or HTML) to follow Techrights."To quote the explation: "I just ran it on libera, libera sum of channel populations is now 173k (sum the output of /list -YES)"

The -YES is essential for bypassing warnings.

Sum of Channel Populations
/list -YES -> awk add up



date freenode irc.fn libera.chat 2020-03-29 311686 2021-05-19 27890 2021-05-20 279551 26736 2021-05-21 269785 36115 2021-05-21 48433 2021-05-23 247790 62421 2021-05-26 221557 25474 2021-06-01 154266 66038 2021-06-06 147001 76833 2021-06-12 128716 74654 2021-06-14 119065 77381 2021-06-15 57192 50806 80256 2021-07-15 87484 2021-07-18 86244 167157 2021-07-30 63968 63648 173198


Things aren't even fully settled yet.

We are not in Libera.Chat because we try to self-host everything, even Git. It's the way to go and people everywhere should advocate it. The Internet was originally created to distribute things around, not centralise everything the way Facebook, AWS, ClownFlare, GitHub etc. increasingly do.

When it comes to Gemini, which is self-hosted from home, we've convinced a number of people to rely less on the World Wide Web and use gemini:// when possible. Page requests in the past 30 days show growth:

Page requests (gemini://)Date
23582021/07/01
29602021/07/02
16412021/07/03
17552021/07/04
21872021/07/05
21942021/07/06
21222021/07/07
81282021/07/08
111972021/07/09
22432021/07/10
23332021/07/11
33442021/07/12
38082021/07/13
38702021/07/14
45032021/07/15
51832021/07/16
35862021/07/17
34892021/07/18
118022021/07/19
140192021/07/20
52742021/07/21
54632021/07/22
32882021/07/23
39712021/07/24
38972021/07/25
36142021/07/26
57462021/07/27
60722021/07/28
30812021/07/29
121462021/07/30


Total 145,554 (the above combined) with another day to go (2021/07/31). Over time more people adopt and at least partly embrace Gemini space as an alternative to the Web (over 1,500 unique IP addresses above). It sure gives us hope. It's a drop in the ocean compared to the Web (5 hits/second on average), but any progress counts. More importantly, the option (or alternative) does exist and it is viable. No need for a Web browser (or HTML) to follow Techrights.

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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
 
People Don't Just Kill Themselves (Same for Other Animals)
And recent reports about Boeing whistleblower John Barnett
Over at Tux Machines...
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Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
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Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
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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
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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
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decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
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Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
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Our Plans for Spring
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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
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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)
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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
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