49 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
49 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
% Libreboot IRC now operating exclusively on Libera Chat
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% Leah Rowe
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% 19 July 2021
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Libreboot IRC now operates exclusively on Libera Chat. The old Freenode channel
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has been *abandoned*. You can find instructions for how to connect, here:\
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<https://libreboot.org/contact.html#irc-chatroom>
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This decision was already made, several weeks ago, but I decided to wait a few
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weeks before officially announcing it. Instead, I've been announcing it quietly
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on IRC. Enough people have left the Freenode channel that I feel comfortable
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making this announcement. Announcing it a few weeks ago would have been risky,
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because Freenode has become infamous for hijacking channels and impersonating
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their community when they try to move. This decision by the new Freenode staff
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made me act carefully.
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If you wish to learn more about the events that took place, simply look up
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Freenode, Libera Chat and Andrew Lee online. I have no interest in any of them.
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Long story short, the old Freenode staff feared a hostile takeover by Andrew
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Lee, the owner of Freenode, who they believed was taking a more authoritarian
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stance over the network. As a pre-emptive defense, the staff all left in unison
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and formed a new network, named Libera Chat. Most projects have moved there now
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and Freenode is a *ghost town* these days.
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I'm not on Libera's side. I'm not on anyone's side. I only care about Libreboot,
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and I've concluded that Libera Chat is the superior choice for Libreboot's IRC
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needs, going forward. My reasons are as follows:
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* Libera staff is the old Freenode staff. They did an excellent job running
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Freenode, and they've never caused me any problems.
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* Most other Free Software projects that I care about have already moved off of
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Freenode, and most of them to Libera IRC. I prefer to use just one IRC server
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I was initially neutral about the Freenode/Libera *civil war*. I was planning
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to have my projects exist on both networks, and bridge them, but I concluded
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that Freenode is unworthy of my time.
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What turned me against Freenode was:
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* I don't like that they started hijacking channels when their owners left
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Freenode. This is wrong. I initially tried to rationalize it, because so far,
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the new Freenode staff haven't wronged *me* personally, but this was selfish.
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* Freenode reset its ircd, purging the entire database. This meant that nicks
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and channels had to be re-registered. This was completely unnecessary and
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demonstrates a complete disregard for the operational security of the users
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on the network
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What else is there to say?
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