Goodbye Freenode | Ned Batchelder

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2021-06-13 12:30:04

For the last month or so, the IRC world has been embroiled in drama over the new ownership of Freenode. For me, it culminated yesterday when I was banned from Freenode.

I’m not going to try to recap what happened in detail, but I can give you my overall perspective on it. The new owners started on the wrong foot, and then mishandled every subsequent interaction. At every turn, people feared the new owners and staff were going to do something malicious. Then something bad would happen, people would say, “look: malice!,” and the new staff would say, “it wasn’t malice, it was a mistake!” Then it would happen again.

A month ago, when the new trends were becoming clear, the operators of the #python channel (including me) decided to move #python to the new Libera.chat network being run by the old Freenode staff. But we also stayed in the Freenode channel to let people know where everyone had gone.

Yesterday, after a heated debate in the Freenode channel where I was accused of splitting the community, I got k-lined (banned entirely from Freenode). The reason given was “spamming”, because of my recurring message about the move to Libera. Then the entire Freenode #python channel was closed. So much for caring about the community.