An open letter from Atheme's developers and community
For nearly as long as Atheme.org has existed, we’ve worked hand in hand with freenode to create an amazing environment for free and open-source software to prosper. Atheme members contributed to freenode’s previous IRC daemon, hyperion, and continued that commitment to the community with our work on charybdis — the base for ircd-seven — as well as with our work on Atheme IRC Services, the services package which has served freenode well for over a decade.
During this time, many Atheme members worked with freenode directly; contributing to freenode’s own development projects, working with them to customize Atheme’s functionality for their needs, even directly supporting the network as freenode staff members. While Atheme’s own development team has changed over the years, we’ve always been strong partners of freenode — even until the end, on the 21st of May, multiple Atheme members reinforced this commitment by serving as staff, and even as the head of development, for freenode.
We’re thankful for the freenode of old, and we’re glad for the many shared years of freenode and Atheme’s continual growth together. However, recent events have clearly shown that the freenode of old is no longer the freenode of today.
