[Warning: very opinionated content]
So, freenode decided to migrate to a new chanserv/nickserv. Of course this means that chanserv and nickserv work completely different now. And that a ton of users lost their passwords. That’s fairly normal on freenode of course, they love their users. And now they’ve hit another “minor bug”: channels that are invite-only are now enforced that way, so people will be kicked if they don’t have an invite exception or +i flag. And then all invite exceptions were removed! Morons. On Freenode you don’t really need external attacks: they allow and encourage spammers and now they will also destroy channels all by themselves. Very userfriendly indeed.
This sort of crap didn’t happen in the good old lilo days. Sure, some say he was the freenode spammer then, but that’s only one person to ignore. Not a whole fleet of spammers and attackers to fight, staff that don’t do their job (GCF anyone?) and now actively killing channels.
Herman Bos says:
When I read this I really wonder: Why the choice for a big chemical fire?
Big chemical fires are just too easy and too instantly!
Besides the more popular ways to die I would suggest either a more painful death or a very silly way to die. Preferably something not too quickly. They need time to be able to see their sins flash before their eyes.
31 May 2008, 8:15 pmCorey Burger says:
I have no idea as to the validity of your statement, not being on irc for quite some time, but I should remind you that calling somebody a “moron” is very much against the CoC.
31 May 2008, 8:20 pmDennis Kaarsemaker says:
Herman: it’s an mjg59′ism. See also http://www.rjek.com/vmjg59.cgi and http://www.angryfacts.com/
Corey: according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moron_(psychology) a moron is “a person with a mental age located between 8 and 12″. The current behaviour of freenode staff (not paying attention to to the consequences of their actions, dicking around a lot, causing trouble for themselves and others) very much resembles that of the average 12 year old kids that live near me.
31 May 2008, 8:25 pmMichael Greb says:
I think most 12 year olds would take being equated to Freenode staff as an insult (rightly so ;)
31 May 2008, 8:45 pmHerman Bos says:
Ok, thats interesting. In that case I think you are still very polite: a chemical fire is much better then being a fuckwanking cockfarmer which should choke on a bucket of cocks. And you asked kindly.
Corey: If I would be of freenode staff I would be more offended by the suggestion to die in a chemical fire then being called a moron. Since you specificly addressed the moron part and not the dying. Does that mean its CoC-OK to suggest someone politely to die? :)
I should remember that.
I suggest a “would you be so kind to die” day. Where we do not talk like pirates or send christmas cards but polity state the suggestion to a person/people/group/company/product to die in a very creative way (on your blog, postcard or IRL). I think that would be a nice change to Christmas.
31 May 2008, 8:51 pmTeraDyne says:
Minataku would agree with this (other than the chemical fire part). I have two additions to why freenode should die:
1) Ops who don’t do their jobs, or abuse their power. (Ops who hide, start an argument, and them ban whoever argues with them)
2) Sketchy service. kubrick kept dropping, and ping times keep going nuts.
Oh, and my idea for killing the ops: bound and gag them (naked) in a large cage, and sic some lions\tigers after them during “mating season”. >_>;
31 May 2008, 8:54 pmPriceChild says:
Did you not accept the invitation to the testnet to see how a migration would affect you and if things would work? A pity as if there were more that did more then just log on, remark that it was shiny and leave, we might have found these problems.
Neither of the channels I monitor lost their +I flags. (invite exceptions) I’m not sure why your channel lost yours and would like to hear more about it.
Sure, what happenned was really annoying and *should* have been fixed before hand. But at the end of the day its a 5 minute inconvenience for you. It isn’t as though we lost irreplaceable data, or killed someone.
31 May 2008, 8:56 pmDennis Kaarsemaker says:
PriceChild: don’t blame your mistakes on your users. *YOU* (as in Freenode Staff) are responsible for testing it. Not the users. And this is not a ‘5 minute inconvenience’ as it’ll take a while to restore all +I flags. Moreover, this is the zillionth time freenode or its staff staff messes up. Or don’t you remember chanserv breaking #ubuntu by forcing +J during a netsplit? Or freenode staff consistently refusing to do their job (GCF, channel issues, spam).
31 May 2008, 9:05 pmPriceChild says:
Oh no I’m not blaming things on the users, of course things didn’t go perfectly and its freenode’s fault when it comes down to it.
I just think you’re being ‘a little’ rude…
…especially when you were in a position to take 10 minutes out of your life earlier to test things.
31 May 2008, 9:31 pmjldugger says:
Much like Ubuntu and open source in general, Freenode relies on users to test. Testing is an expensive problem that distribution can help solve. Given how much Ubuntu uses Freenode for, perhaps it’s time to make explicit development and testing goals for Freenode itself, and direct a modicum of resources to help.
Dennis, as an outspoken critic of both Freenode and the Ubuntu, perhaps it’s time you wrote a blueprint planning out such contribution and bring it up on IRC and ubuntu-devel-discuss and later on ubuntu-devel ML or something. Even if you don’t participate in the implementation, having a well written plan to refer to and revise is a great start.
31 May 2008, 9:32 pmDennis Kaarsemaker says:
PriceChild: I think it’s more rude that freenode staff often breaks freenode (and welcomes spam… etc… see earlier on this page) and again blames it on their users. I have *not* been in a position to test: I didn’t hear about this change until after it was implemented.
jldugger: I’ve been leading the Ubuntu IRC team for years and quit recently because of all the mess freenode staff is causing. The CC is aware of that and I hope they’re working on it. Freenode has bigger problems than not testing their updates.
31 May 2008, 10:03 pmPriceChild says:
Is there any chance of more information about the loss of your +I channel modes? I haven’t heard of this elsewhere.
Passwords were converted from theia to atheme fine, the reason some have had troubles, is because the ‘master’ nick’s password from theia was migrated to the new account on atheme, and some people have forgotten that one.
Just because freenode doesn’t agree with your definition of spam, doesn’t mean they encourage spam. Not sure what channels freenode have destroyed…?
1 June 2008, 12:18 amMatthew East says:
Dennis,
“I’ve been leading the Ubuntu IRC team for years and quit recently because of all the mess freenode staff is causing. The CC is aware of that and I hope they’re working on it.”
Well, we’re aware that you quit the IRC team. However, I haven’t seen an issue relating to freenode raised on the meeting agenda and no one has written to us privately about it either, so we’re not working on anything as far as I know.
1 June 2008, 6:24 pmDennis Kaarsemaker says:
Matthew, that’s a pity. I know Jono and Mark were discussing it. I’ve exchanged some mails with them about the whole issue.
1 June 2008, 7:23 pm