Freenode IRC resign en masse after takeover by Korea’s crown prince

Freenode has been the realm’s finest IRC network since 2013, with roughly thrice as many users as its closest competitor, IRCnet. Closing week, the gigantic IRC network became as soon as taken over by Korean Crown Prince Andrew Lee—a traipse that the network’s workers has it appears to be like unanimously labeled as a “adverse takeover,” even supposing Lee himself claims these are finest “rumors” and “simply untrue.”

In the foundation blush, or now not it’s tempting for an out of doorways observer—any individual who is now not already mindful of the historic previous of the network’s ownership and management—to shrug and mumble “well, who is conscious of.” Lee lays out various hundred words of clarification in a weblog put up for the time being featured on Freenode’s front web page—most of which sounds realistic.

Nonetheless the one quiz Lee by no way addresses—let by myself answers—is why no now not up to 14 separate workers participants would give up en masse, all disagreeing with the account he tells.

A dubious contract

In 2017, Christel Dahlskjaer—who became as soon as, on the time, head of Freenode workers—created an organization, Freenode Ltd., which she without extend sold to Lee. Dahlskjaer and Lee suggested Freenode workers and users that the incorporation became as soon as finest done as principal paperwork in present to sponsor a conference and that day-to-day operations would stay unchanged.

Contract or no contract, workers and developers of Freenode tackle that it wasn’t genuinely conceivable to sell the network—the staff is all volunteers, and the infrastructure itself wasn’t owned by Dahlskjaer in the critical location. In line with resigning Freenode developer Aaron Jones, nevertheless, “Andrew has more money than us, and so we are going to not fight this.”

Even even supposing the contract in quiz became as soon as signed in 2017, staffers didn’t originate objecting till this one year, when operational adjustments began exhibiting without their withhold watch over or consent.

A unilateral option on selling

In February 2021, Dahlskjaer placed the emblem for Shells—a Lee-owned firm providing cloud-primarily based completely mostly virtual desktops—prominently on Freenode’s front web page. By itself, this would possibly perhaps appear innocuous—FOSS tasks opt up sponsorships and selling the total time. Nonetheless staffers, who had been supposedly peaceable on high of things of the network, weren’t consulted about the affiliation—and besides they did now not approve.

One clarification for staffer’s virulent disapproval is Shells CTO Set up Karpelès. Karpelès is the founder of the defunct Mt. Gox bitcoin alternate, which lost nearly 850,000 bitcoin (for the time being fee a staggering $33.4 billion-with-a-B US greenbacks) to attackers who exploited an enormous safety flaw. Karpelès became as soon as stumbled on responsible in a Tokyo court of deliberately tampering with files to quilt up the alternate’s somewhat a few losses, even supposing he became as soon as stumbled on innocent of outright embezzlement.

As broken-down staffer Aaron Jones explains in his prolonged letter of resignation—which links to same announcements from other departing excessive-profile staffers—this wasn’t the fitting deliver with the fresh ad. In line with Jones, sponsorships are in overall finest stumbled on at freenode.fetch/acknowledgements—making the outstanding Shells emblem in the upper correct of Freenode’s front web page more of a departure from the norm than it’s miles going to appear.

Jones goes on to mumble that Dahlskjaer became as soon as both unable or unwilling to fresh the surprising fresh ad to staffers, choosing to resign as a replace. (Lee claims that Freenode workers “harassed” Dahlskjaer into resignation; Jones and other departing staffers order this characterization.) Freenode workers elected Tom Wesley (aka tomaw) to replace her.

Escalation in April

Initiating keep in April 2021, Lee’s stammer of withhold watch over continued ramping up:

• Staffers created a weblog put up outlining adjustments in leadership and asserting a alternate to newly developed help-pause ircd tool Solanum. In line with Jones, Lee summarily removed the put up—and manually edited the web sing material’s constructed-in historic previous to originate the impact that it had by no way existed.
• Later in April, a Freenode take a look at network—in exhaust to opt up prepared for the infrastructure shift to Solanum—became as soon as shut down without dialogue. Wesley (tomaw) performed the shutdown and refused to mumble why; Jones and others imagine Lee became as soon as on the help of the shutdown, ragged threat of applicable force to create Wesley comply, and issued related gag orders to OFTC workers.
• Lee registered the channel #freenode-board without discussing it with workers—and, in response to Jones, without real authority (since finest legit community contacts are allowed to originate channels in Freenode’s essential namespace, and Lee became as soon as now not an legit Freenode contact).
• Shane Allen (aka nirvana), an associate and employee of Lee’s, bragged about “turning” tomaw, and he attempted to bribe outstanding user Ariadne with guarantees of ops privileges, announcing “I will almost definitely make sure you opt up +o0 in #freenode so you would kick other folks. My gift to you ultimate friend.”
• On Can even 11, Lee began issuing notices to workers as a community and on to particular particular person Freenode staffers. The complete lot came from “the board”—an entity which staffers mumble by no way existed, and even now is merely a euphemism for Lee himself.

On Can even 12, Lee (aka rasengan) posted his version of events—whereby he claims applicable ownership of Freenode, alongside with an inventory of grievances—in a Github gist. (The gist is critically saltier than the version of events Lee posted to Freenode’s public-facing weblog per week later.)

Libera Chat

Per week after Lee’s successfully public announcement of ownership and de facto dictatorial operation of Freenode, the staffers who resigned from Freenode created Libera.chat as a replace.

Libera Chat is integrated as a Swedish nonprofit organization, owned and operated by volunteer staffers who are voting participants of the organization. It has a small, member-elected board—for the time being consisting of chair, treasurer, tasks and community gain, engineering gain / vice chair, and operations gain. Nonetheless most decisions are to be taken by the membership as a total.

The membership additionally elects two auditors, tasked with auditing the board’s actions on behalf of the membership. A transparency file is to be published every person year, detailing bookkeeping and the auditors’ findings alongside with the fashioned annual file from the board itself.

All fresh Libera Chat boardmembers and auditors are Freenode staffers who resigned in explain of Lee’s most up-to-date actions and assumption of withhold watch over.