Turmoil at the freenode IRC network

Posted May 26, 2021 22:09 UTC (Wed) by randomguy3 (subscriber, #71063)
In reply to: Turmoil at the freenode IRC network by zblaxell
Parent article: Turmoil at the freenode IRC network

I guess that could be seen as archiving the channel, in some sense? It seems like a strangely aggressive thing to do, though, if you don't *want* a channel's community to move.

Turmoil at the freenode IRC network

Posted May 26, 2021 23:28 UTC (Wed) by flussence (guest, #85566) [Link] (1 responses)

It's in line with Lee's apparent attitude that he bought several thousand users like they're trading cards for him to use as he pleases, though.

Turmoil at the freenode IRC network

Posted May 27, 2021 0:02 UTC (Thu) by bentley (subscriber, #93468) [Link]

I think this is pretty in line with silicon valley VC tactics though: spend money to obtain users, and then pivot to start monetizing the users. It seems that Lee maybe wanted to start using Freenode to advertise his companies? Whatever the plan was, it looks like it backfired spectacularly.

Turmoil at the freenode IRC network

Posted May 26, 2021 23:33 UTC (Wed) by idra (guest, #36289) [Link] (3 responses)

It's the other way around, previous channel owners locked the channel before leaving for good, as a way to indicate their users that the community has moved.

The hijacking bot removes the restrictions and set things to pretend the channel is still alive and well...

Turmoil at the freenode IRC network

Posted May 26, 2021 23:59 UTC (Wed) by Trelane (subscriber, #56877) [Link] (2 responses)

No, e.g. https://www.gentoo.org/news/2021/05/26/gentoo-freenode-ch...

Turmoil at the freenode IRC network

Posted May 27, 2021 0:23 UTC (Thu) by idra (guest, #36289) [Link] (1 responses)

Yes, channels were hijacked, but the "invite" only part was intntional pre-hijacking, in many cases.

These instructions circulated: https://gist.github.com/nurupo/91b0ebc7f85059b57ea7108a25...

Turmoil at the freenode IRC network

Posted May 27, 2021 1:38 UTC (Thu) by zblaxell (subscriber, #26385) [Link]

freenodecom enters channel, changed topic, deops original ops, then mode +i +m set, then ban list cleared, in that order, in the same second.

Yes some channels got out before the bot came, but the ones cleared by the bot left the channel closed.

Turmoil at the freenode IRC network

Posted May 27, 2021 10:07 UTC (Thu) by immibis (subscriber, #105511) [Link] (1 responses)

The bot "locked" the channel, and then redirected it to a ## version of the same channel, which is an unofficial channel not run by the actual project team.

Freenode is saying: fine, your team can leave, but we are making this channel unofficial and keeping your users!

Turmoil at the freenode IRC network

Posted May 27, 2021 20:43 UTC (Thu) by JanC_ (guest, #34940) [Link]

They did the same with many channels that never left Freenode but just referred to an alternative sister channel, and even at least one project that weren’t actively planning to move their official channels but (to stop the many questions about a move) just had a link to a web page where they said they would decide whether to stay or move once the dust settled.

Freenode stealing & blocking these channels pretty much forced all these channels to move.