News [Announcement] the official #asuswrt IRC channel will be moving to the Libera network

[RMerlin]

Hi everyone,

Following the recent incidents involving the Freenode IRC network, I've decided to move the #asuswrt IRC channel to the newly formed Libera network, which is run and managed by former Freenode admins.

Libera Chat

A next-generation IRC network for FOSS projects collaboration!

libera.chat

I don't want to get involved in the drama that led to the split between Freenode and its administrators (so I'll leave it to you to do your own research there), but I also do not feel confident in the future of Freenode following these events, so I've decided to move.

 

[Moabdave]

I'm involved in two other projects where freenode was the chat forum of choice, and have recently left. I don't know what happened there; and I don't want to know. I have enough drama in my life as it is. But I am curious given I'm 3 for 3 of projects I'm involved with bailing on freenode in the past month or so, what's left over there?

 

[L&LD]

At the risk of sounding dumb, what is an IRC channel? And dumber? Why is the Freenode IRC network important at all when we have this forum here?

 

[Hazel]

At the risk of sounding dumb, what is an IRC channel?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat

 

[L&LD]

That really sounds like 20-year-old technology. Why is it important today?

 

[Hazel]

That really sounds like 20-year-old technology. Why is it important today?

I think it might be (way) older even. I don't use IRC myself, but I guess because it's realtime, it's basically a predecessor of modern online collaboration platforms, developed somewhere right after Moses finished his tablets. So it's old and reliable. And apparently, like any other so called 'social' medium kept, running on drama fuel (not including the project channels where it's put to good use, of course).

 

[RMerlin]

I'm involved in two other projects where freenode was the chat forum of choice, and have recently left. I don't know what happened there; and I don't want to know. I have enough drama in my life as it is. But I am curious given I'm 3 for 3 of projects I'm involved with bailing on freenode in the past month or so, what's left over there?

The short version is, the person who owns the company behind Freenode took some unilateral decisions that angered all of its long-time volunteer administrators as they weren't consulted, and felt like he was trying to wrest control out of their hands. It led them to massively resign together, and start a new network where they wouldn't have to relinquish control to a single entity, and keep it 100% community-managed rather than having everything dictated by a single individual.

If you do a search for Freenode-related news published over the last two weeks you will find more detailed accounts.

 

[RMerlin]

That really sounds like 20-year-old technology. Why is it important today?

Because it's far more dynamic than a forum. Different usage type.

The IRC channel is nothing new. We are averaging around 90 users online these past few months, the channel has existed for over 5 years.

 

[Moabdave]

That really sounds like 20-year-old technology. Why is it important today?

It is. IRC is one of the (if not the) first chat forums devloped for the internet. It's older than the World Wide Web, and back in the day had to be accessed via mainframes and terminals. But while primitive, it still has some advantages over more modern chat protocols for some applications (the big one being it's decentralized) and is still in use. Because IRC is decentralized, two users would have to know which server the other uses to connect, and freenode and dalnet are probably the two most popular "globally known, anybody can use them" servers still around today.

 

[Dutchman01]

More and more projects are migrating freenode to irc.libera.chat, also freenode admins seems to have hijacked some projects because of testing Libera

see; Major open source projects abandon Freenode following hostile takeover | TechRadar
and irc #xigmanas have been hijacked by the Freenode staff! - XigmaNAS

I think it was smart to move RMerlin. glad you did.

 

[5stringdeath]

At the risk of sounding dumb, what is an IRC channel? And dumber? Why is the Freenode IRC network important at all when we have this forum here?

You kids get off my lawn!

 

[heysoundude]

That really sounds like 20-year-old technology. Why is it important today?

woah, never thought I'd see an "OK, Boomer..." on here lol

 

[heysoundude]

developed somewhere right after Moses finished his tablets.

OLDER! Dinosaurs were still walking around, before their transition to crude oil

 

[rlj2]

Ive been on irc since around 1990, still prefer it over the other newer forums.. And its where you will find most the old school developers.

 

[laracroftonline]

why not open a discord server?

 

[RMerlin]

why not open a discord server?

Because I have no interest in voice chat applications. IRC makes it easy to idle in while doing something else.

 

[Jack Yaz]

Because I have no interest in voice chat applications. IRC makes it easy to idle in while doing something else.

Voice is optional, i frequent plenty of text only discord channels. I still drop by IRC from time to time, started using it back when SwiftKit for Runescape was still a thing!

 

[laracroftonline]

Because I have no interest in voice chat applications. IRC makes it easy to idle in while doing something else.

You don’t have to add voice channels.

 

[RMerlin]

You don’t have to add voice channels.

Then what's the point over a decentralized system like IRC that has worked fine for 30 years, that can easily be used with a bouncer while you're offline, and has gateways to other networks (we have a Telegram <-> IRC gateway in our channel)?

 

[heysoundude]

Voice is optional, i frequent plenty of text only discord channels. I still drop by IRC from time to time, started using it back when SwiftKit for Runescape was still a thing!

There's Telegram for group chats as well. the entware people use that- a good place to bone up on your russian ;-p