Upheaval at freenode

Posted May 26, 2021 3:24 UTC (Wed) by pabs (subscriber, #43278)
Parent article: Upheaval at freenode

Freenode are now routinely hijacking channels that indicate they moved to Libera. When they do it looks somewhat like this:

<-- ChanServ (ChanServ@services.) has left #foo
--> freenodecom (freenode-placehol from ~com@freenode/staff) has joined #foo
* OperServ gives channel operator status to freenodecom
* freenodecom gives channel operator status to freenodecom
* freenodecom has changed the topic to: This channel has moved to ##foo. The topic is in violation of freenode policy: https://freenode.net/policies
<freenodecom> This channel has been reopened with respect to the communities and new users. The topic is in violation of freenode policy: https://freenode.net/policies
* freenodecom removes channel operator status from foo-chan-op
* freenodecom removes voice from foo-chan-op
* ChanServ sets mode +i on #foo
* ChanServ sets mode +m on #foo
* ChanServ sets mode +p on #foo
* ChanServ sets mode +c on #foo
* ChanServ sets mode +f on #foo ##foo
* ChanServ removes ban on ...
* ChanServ removes ban on ...
<freenodecom> The new channel is ##foo
<-- freenodecom (~com@freenode/staff) has left #foo

The new channels just have ChanServ and one freenode staff member in them.

Upheaval at freenode

Posted May 26, 2021 3:55 UTC (Wed) by jamesh (guest, #1159) [Link]

Among many others, this has happened to the #wikipedia and #ubuntu channels.

Upheaval at freenode

Posted May 26, 2021 4:16 UTC (Wed) by pabs (subscriber, #43278) [Link]

A related global notice:

-rasengan- [Global Notice] In the recent policy enforcement, some channels were erroneously included. We greatly apologize for the inconvenience. Please contact us in #freenode-services or contact-us@freenode.net. Thanks for your patience and choosing freenode!

Upheaval at freenode

Posted May 26, 2021 4:17 UTC (Wed) by laf0rge (subscriber, #6469) [Link] (3 responses)

we just had that happen to #osmocom, too.

I think that kind of action now really disqualifies what is left of freeonde.

I dout it is a violation of their poilicy to begin with.

Even if there was a related policy, it would obviously be highly questionable. Anyone is free to move their channels / meeting points / ... anywhere, and informing their users about such a move (using factual language without any accusations, defamations, ...) is nothing but a service to the users / members of that community.

Upheaval at freenode

Posted May 26, 2021 5:27 UTC (Wed) by jamesh (guest, #1159) [Link] (2 responses)

They're claiming that these notices in channel topics were spam. There is a mention in the policies document that "inappropriate advertising" is off-topic, so presumably that's their justification.

Upheaval at freenode

Posted May 26, 2021 6:36 UTC (Wed) by flussence (guest, #85566) [Link] (1 responses)

It should be clarified here that the policies document was rewritten in a hurry *after* Lee's power trip began, to retroactively justify it. The original version clearly stated abandoned channels would remain untouched for 60 days after last activity before releasing them. i.e. the sort of responsible behaviour you'd expect on a FOSS IRC network.

Worth reading the github diffs for that; the new version has some telling omissions besides that one.

Upheaval at freenode

Posted May 26, 2021 7:14 UTC (Wed) by jamesh (guest, #1159) [Link]

They don't seem to be using abandonment as the excuse for today's channel hijackings. The "inappropriate advertising" language was in the policies before the recent changes, but I don't think anyone would have interpreted them to allow this kind of thing.

Upheaval at freenode

Posted May 26, 2021 5:05 UTC (Wed) by pabs (subscriber, #43278) [Link]

Some folks are going to challenge the hijacking:

https://twitter.com/laurenceb/status/1397409061348331521

Upheaval at freenode

Posted May 26, 2021 6:10 UTC (Wed) by pabs (subscriber, #43278) [Link]

"just seized over 700 channels on freenode because they mentioned libera.chat in their topic."

https://mastodon.sdf.org/@kline/106299403921451814 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27286628

Upheaval at freenode

Posted May 26, 2021 6:24 UTC (Wed) by flussence (guest, #85566) [Link]

The network is walking dead. I don't think I've ever seen someone destroy internet infrastructure out of petty greed with such sheer bandwidth, and that includes everything Yahoo ever did.

Without a hint of irony: I encountered script kiddies (actual kids at that) in the early 00s that had much higher competence and maturity than Lee is displaying. He obviously didn't gain the riches he used to buy this name through legitimate means because he clearly has no clue what he's doing, has no people skills whatsoever, and isn't even a convincing liar.

I'll just be over here hoarding popcorn for the coming day when they get vaporized in court (the holding company's under UK jurisdiction, this is *all kinds* of Computer Misuse, and Lee is practically assaulting hornet nests with a cricket bat at this point).

Upheaval at freenode

Posted May 26, 2021 14:09 UTC (Wed) by fuhchee (guest, #40059) [Link] (1 responses)

That's not hijacking, that's garbage collection.

Upheaval at freenode

Posted May 27, 2021 12:35 UTC (Thu) by immibis (guest, #105511) [Link]

After 60 days it is garbage collection.

Upheaval at freenode

Posted May 26, 2021 14:27 UTC (Wed) by jandrusk (guest, #152440) [Link]

So are they claiming the fact that the topic is moving to Libera in violation of their policy? What a joke.

Upheaval at freenode

Posted May 28, 2021 17:27 UTC (Fri) by kurtseifried (guest, #57307) [Link]

I assigned CVE-2021-1000189 https://json.distributedweaknessfiling.org/CVE-2021-1000189 for this previously, hoping for more of a "here's a potential exposure/risk" but I've since updated it as this has clearly turned into a major problem that needs to be dealt with.