Freenode is dead, use Libera Chat!

IRC (internet relay chat) is a simple internet chatting protocol created in 1988. It has powered online communities and collaborative projects for decades and is still the go to chatting software for many.

Freenode is the IRC network that countless projects use and is probably the most well known IRC netword to date. Since it's creation in 1995, Freenode has always been led by unpaid volunteers and members of the community. Channels were managed by the community and everyone understood Freenode existed for the benefit of the user and their freedom, not as a business. However Freenode has recently betrayed even their own name. The former head of staff sold the Freenode holding company to a third party without disclosing any contractual agreements to the volunteer staff. Now the staff are being removed from their positions by ambiguous legal threats leaving the third party in operational control of Freenode - so it's basically a hostile corporate takeover. Of course this conflicts with the principles of the Freenode volunteer staff, so naturally those that weren't removed by force resigned in protest.

Luckily, IRC is a FOSS protocol so nothing is stopping the former Freenode volunteer staff from rebuilding the community on a new IRC network. This is exactly what they've done with Libera Chat! And this time they've taken precautions against such a corporate takeover, stating:

"Our legal home is a non-profit association in Sweden, with all our staff holding equal stakes, and we will never accept corporate control."

I say let Freenode burn, Libera Chat will rise from the ashes.

Check it out here: https://libera.chat/ Context: https://fuchsnet.ch/freenode-resign-letter.txt