See freenode now belongs to Andrew Lee, and I’m leaving for a new network. (kline.sh):
Some time ago, Christel, the former head of freenode staff sold
freenode ltd
(a holding company) to a third party, Andrew Lee, under terms that were not disclosed to the staff body. It turns out that this contract did indeed intend to sell the entire network and it’s holdings, a fact hidden from the of staff. Mr Lee at the time had promised to never exercise any operational control over freenode.In the past few weeks, we began to realise this had changed, and Mr Lee has sought to assert total legal control over the network, including user data. Despite our best efforts, the legal advice the freenode staff has obtained is that the contract signed by the previous head of staff cannot be fought with a reasonable likelyhood of success.
As a result, Mr Lee will shortly have operational control over the freenode IRC network. I cannot stand by such a (hostile) takeover of the freenode network, and I am resigning along with most other freenode staff. We know that many of our users and communities also do not want this, as you have made clear directly to Mr Lee in #freenode and through letters.
对此事的回应:
- An open letter signed by many community leaders: GitHub Gist
- amdj: GitHub Gist
- edk: GitHub Gist
- emilsp: GitHub Gist
- Fuchs: https://fuchsnet.ch/freenode-resign-letter.txt / GitHub Gist
- Jess: GitHub Gist
- JonathanD: GitHub Gist
- Md: My resignation from freenode
- mniip: https://mniip.com/freenode.txt
- niko: Freenode & Andrew Lee
- njan: Jeremiad.org - James (njan) Eaton-Lee's Personal Homepage
- Swant: https://swantzter.se/freenode-resignation
See Welcome to Libera Chat | Libera Chat:
We’re excited to announce the launch of Libera.Chat, and welcome you to a next-generation IRC network for free and open source software projects and similarly-spirited collaborative endeavours.
Most of our staff have joined us from freenode, and we intend to continue its legacy. It was a privilege to provide the FOSS world with a collaborative platform.
When freenode announced that it was joining with Private Internet Access in 2017, the domain name, as well as unspecified other “assets”, were sold to one Andrew Lee via a holding company. Staff were uncertain but assured that PIA was to have no operational influence.
In early 2021, that changed. New advertising was pushed onto the freenode website without warning. The head of staff at the time ultimately resigned rather than explain. In the time since, there have been changes to network operations for which we have received no explanation.
This was the writing on the wall. As a precautionary measure, we began laying the groundwork for what would become Libera.Chat. Our legal home is a non-profit association in Sweden, with all our staff holding equal stakes, and we will never accept corporate control.
Control of freenode infrastructure will soon be transferred to Freenode Limited and its agents. This means your data will soon be available to their personnel. We don’t know these people; neither do most of you. We can’t claim that this is a good or even acceptable outcome, and are loath to entrust your data to a third party, but it appears that we have run out of options.
Together we have built and participated in great communities with IRC, and hope to continue that journey with you on Libera.Chat. We have courageous ambitions for the future of IRC and the communities that we cherish. Please join us on this adventure.
kde-community 邮件列表上的以下议程讨论了此事:
https://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kde-community/2021q2/006888.html
Freenode 的工作人员建议社区拒绝继续使用 Freenode ,切换到其他自由的 IRC 网络服务(例如他们正在建设的 Libera.Chat 或者 Debian IRC 使用的 OFTC)。
Martix 和 Libera.Chat 的桥接工作正在进行中: