Freenode fallout

[Luc Verhaegen]

On Fri, May 21, 2021 at 08:36:25AM -0400, Drew DeVault wrote:
> 
> The cautious perspective which recoils from anything unknown is
> understandable for a community with as much tenure as Free Desktop. But,
> the responsibility to help is ours all the same, and the risk is not
> especially great. The new network has stabilized remarkably fast for a
> network of its scope, scale, and ambitions, and is operated by an
> reputable and experienced staff. And, at the end of the day, whatever
> bumps we may encounter along the way, it's only IRC. The world won't end
> if there's a netsplit every few days while they settle things.
> protest if any project goes there. But I'm going to Libera.

My experience is that what comes after a nasty fork is often also 
flawed, particularly because the noise and a potential power vacume 
attract a certain kind of people.

What helps is transparency and accountability, which is something that 
bad elements try to avoid, or have to be very skillful to navigate such 
a setting successfully. Said transparency and accountability was 
apparently lacking in freenode for the past few years, and this seems 
why we hit this wall now.

Afaict, OFTC has yearly elections, which is not a guarantee to getting 
good results as popularity often gets chosen over good gouvernance, but 
such a system is better than other alternatives.

Luc Verhaegen.