category: social
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As of today, Open Projects Net has changed its name. We are now freenode!
slug: welcome-fsf-and-gnu
title: Welcome FSF and GNU!
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Today freenode welcomes the Free Software Foundation's [GNU Project](http://www.gnu.org/), which [announced today](http://www.fsf.org/press/2002-08-26-freenode.html) that it has made us its official IRC network. From the press release:
slug: updates-to-policy-document
title: Updates to Policy Document
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Changes have been made to the site to reflect [new content](http://freenode.net/policy.shtml#output) on the [policy page](http://freenode.net/policy.shtml). This does not represent a change in network philosophy; we're just starting to formalize our policies so that we can keep our focus on free software, open source and other sorts of peer-directed projects as the network grows.
slug: server-issues
title: Server Issues
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Good day to all. Many of you will have noticed that freenode has been experiencing server problems over the last few days. Problems are likely to continue. The network needs new main rotation hub and leaf servers. If you think you might be interested in hosting a server, please take a look at our [server hosting](http://freenode.net/hosting_ircd.shtml) page and email to: staff at freenode dot net.
slug: hubbing-issues
title: Hubbing Issues
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We had another interesting hubbing evening. Apparently someone tore up not one, but two fibers, leading to our primary European hub. We simultaneously had some problems with our US hubbing. Things are settling back to normal in our temporary hubbing configuration, and we expect to have to rehub sometime within the next 24 hours to bring things back to a more permanent state. Again, if you think you might be interested in hosting a server, this would be a good time to look at the [server hosting](http://freenode.net/hosting_ircd.shtml) page. Email to: staff at freenode dot net. Obligatory comment about our needing better coordination, which takes consistent time availability. If you'd like to help resolve that problem, please consider a [donation](http://freenode.net/contributions.shtml).
slug: happy-new-year-2003
title: Happy New Year 2003!
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Happy New Year to everyone. We appreciate your being with us for another year, and hope that 2003 will be a very productive year for all of the projects which live on freenode. If you'd like to kick off the New Year on a helpful note, please consider [hosting a server](http://freenode.net/hosting_ircd.shtml) or [making a donation](http://freenode.net/contributions.shtml) to our parent organization.
slug: expired-nickschannels-purge
title: Expired Nicks/Channels Purge
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Good evening to all. In a few minutes, staff will be purging the services databases of expired nicknames and channels. We do this from time to time, to keep the databases free of clutter from unused nicks and channels. Nicknames are considered to be expired when they have been unused for 60 days. Channels are considered to be expired after 120 days. But we will only be expiring nicks and channels which have been unused for at least 120 days in this manual run. When a channel founder's nick is dropped, the channel is also dropped.
slug: server-hosting
title: Server Hosting
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Good morning to everyone. Once again, we need to talk to you very seriously about the issue of server hosting. The network ran very well yesterday, and it's been running pretty well so far today. But we have a problem.
slug: scheduled-maintenance-rehubbing
title: [Scheduled Maintenance] Rehubbing
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Over the course of the next few days, we'll be rehubbing most of the network, in an effort to improve reliability and possibly save some bandwidth costs. We're not sure how quickly we'll go through the network; if you'd like to keep track of the proceedings, you may want to turn on WALLOPS ("/mode yournick +w" or "/umode +w" on most clients). We'll try to mention it occasionally on global notice, since most users will be affected by the main rotation part of the rehubbing. Apologies for the inconvenience, and thanks for your patience.
slug: announcement-additional-faq-items
title: [Announcement] Additional FAQ items
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We've added [two](http://freenode.net/faq.shtml#drones) [FAQs](http://freenode.net/faq.shtml#practicaljoke) about [automated network bans](http://freenode.net/drones.shtml) which you should probably read at your first opportunity. Thanks!
slug: pre-release-dancer-ircd-1032
title: Pre-release -- dancer-ircd 1.0.32
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We're currently prereleases of dancer-ircd 1.0.32, the newest version of our production server code. Please come to the testnet on [irc.freenode.net, port 9001](irc://irc.freenode.net:9001/) and help us find bugs! Services has not yet been modified to take into account the new features, but we'll do it as we go. Help us out by thrashing the code a bit, and send your bug reports to **bugs at freenode dot net**!
slug: new-irc-server-code-approaches-release
title: New IRC Server Code Approaches Release
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Hi all. As you probably know, we're in the process of testing release candidates for dancer-ircd 1.0.32, the next production IRC server code for freenode. Since the last news item, we've continued to test and debug, and we've made some progress. [The change list is here](http://freenode.net/news-2003-05-28.shtml#changes).
slug: announcement-polling-for-statistics
title: [Announcement] Polling for statistics
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
At about 20:15 UTC, we'll be running a network-wide CTCP VERSION from a staff nick, **client_poll**. You should feel free to change your VERSION string if you want to, but the information helps staff get some idea of channel demographics. Thanks!
slug: dropping-unused-and-expired-nick-and-channel-registrations
title: Dropping unused and expired nick and channel registrations.
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Hi, all. In about a day, we'll be dropping expired nicks and channels, registered with NickServ and ChanServ, which have been unused for at least 120 days. This is a semi-automated process; we do it every so often to clear out the deadwood in the services databases. If you don't regularly IDENTIFY to NickServ, please start as soon as you can. Remember that this is the only way we can determine that your IRC nicknames and channels are used.
slug: hubbing-problems
title: Hubbing Problems
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
It's been an interesting week or so. We've lost our best hubbing in EU; the facilities host ran out of money to pay bandwidth and had to dump his free software projects. We've attempted to fall back to new and old hubs in the US but stability has been unpromising. We suspect that the recently announced [Cisco problem](http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sa-20030717-blocked.shtml) may be affecting us as well, though we can't be sure to what extent, other [oopsie removed --Ed.] than some known Cisco router reboots. But we are having hubbing problems. Your editor is writing this in somewhat sleep-deprived mode, having spent a fair amount of time rehubbing earlier in the day. Expect more rehubbing today, as we do our best to work with what resources we have available. If you're thinking about hosting a freenode hub or main rotation server, [now is definitely the time](http://freenode.net/hosting_servers.shtml) to help us out. Thanks!
slug: scheduled-maintenance-ircd-upgrade-3
title: [Scheduled Maintenance] IRCD Upgrade
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Hi, all. Yesterday at about 10pm UTC we posted a global notice to let people know that we were considering an upgrade this weekend to pre-1.0.32 dancer-ircd. We continue to experience clonebot attacks, and the additional features in the new release will be helpful. We directed people to channel **#upgrade** and asked for questions and feedback. After answering questions and taking comments for about an hour, it seemed that the response to the idea of trying the upgrade was pretty favorable.
slug: network-status-update
title: Network Status Update
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Good afternoon to all. The network is currently experiencing extreme stability problems. Our lead coder is currently looking over core files is gdb and working on resolving the issue. However, expect the network to be extremely volatile until he has a fix in hand. Apologies for this inconvenience. A week after the upgrade, while we've collected a number of noncritical bugs, today's critical problem is our first of the new release. We'll get the problem resolved as quickly as possible.
slug: release-dancer-ircd-1032
title: [Release] dancer-ircd 1.0.32
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We're pleased to announce that dancer-ircd [1.0.32](http://source.freenode.net/%7Easuffield/dancer/dancer-ircd/1.0/releases/dancer-ircd-1.0.32.tar.gz) has been released. It's up on the testnet and we'll probably be doing limited production testing at some point during the week. We believe that the cmode +J, +b/+q and +e issues and the services shutdown hub crash issue are resolved by this release.
slug: happy-birthday-freenode
title: Happy Birthday freenode!
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
It's **freenode**'s birthday party. Please come celebrate with us.
slug: scheduled-maintenance-ircd-upgrades
title: [Scheduled Maintenance] IRCD Upgrades
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Hi all. It's time again for an upgrade. In about 7 hours, at 05:00 UTC, we'll be upgrading the servers to [dancer-ircd v1.0.34](http://source.freenode.net/%7Easuffield/dancer/dancer-ircd/1.0/releases/dancer-ircd-1.0.34.tar.gz). The upgrade process is likely to be fairly disruptive, as we are doing to be doing our best to get it done as quickly as possible. This time, we're hoping to get the IPv6 servers upgraded at the same time, rather than holding that upgrade till later.
slug: scheduled-maintenance-bug-fixes-expected-network-disturbances
title: [Scheduled Maintenance] Bug fixes, expected network disturbances
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Good afternoon to all. We'll be upgrading the servers again tomorrow morning at 05:00. We'll have more details closer to upgrade time; but the upgrade should resolve the "anonymous topic" problem as well as several other bugs. In addition, we'll be introducing a new channel mode, **+R, moderate unknown users.** The effect of this mode is that users without mode **e** turned on (identified to NickServ) will be moderated and will not automatically have a voice in the channel. Users moderated by +R will receive a message pointing them to NickServ when they attempt to type on channel.
slug: announcement-feature-addition-freenode-info
title: [Announcement] Feature Addition, freenode-info.
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As you may have noticed, as of this morning we have added a new feature to freenode, called [freenode-info]. For more information, please check this [FAQ](http://freenode.net/faq.shtml#freenode-info). Thanks!
slug: a-big-thank-you-to-digium
title: A big thank you to Digium.
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
On behalf of Peer-Directed Projects Center, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank our new corporate sponsor, [Digium](http://www.digium.com/), for their support for PDPC and freenode. Digium, the primary sponsors of [Asterisk The Open Source PBX](http://www.asterisk.org/), have been on the network for about two and a half years, and they've chosen to express their appreciation for our work by establishing a donor relationship with PDPC.
slug: customised-project-cloaks
title: Customised Project Cloaks
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As of this morning, we've begun providing FOSS projects on freenode with customized cloaks, linking their participants publicly with the projects into which they've put so much time and effort. We think it's the ultimate community fashion statement. **:)**
slug: announcement-policy-changes
title: [Announcement] Policy Changes
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Hi all. We've made two changes recently of which you should be aware.
slug: group-contacts
title: Group Contacts
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As you may be aware, we're in the process of adding a new administrative feature to the network, the **group contact**. Group contacts allow projects and groups to maintain an unambigous "real world" contact list for communication with freenode network staff and allow them to take advantage of such features as [project cloaks](http://freenode.net/faq.shtml#projectcloak) for their participants. We've added a [description](http://freenode.net/group_registration.shtml) of the group contact role and made changes to the notes on the right-hand side of the group contact form, to clarify our newly-codified commitment in the area of [channel ownership](http://freenode.net/policy.shtml#channelownership). Just click on [Group Registration](http://freenode.net/group_registration.shtml) on the nav bar to the left, to find out more about how they work, and to access the form. Please let us know if you have any questions, and thank you for using the network!
slug: gcf-delays
title: GCF Delays
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Hi all, To those of you who've submitted [group contact](http://freenode.net/news-2004-05-17.shtml) forms and have not yet received replies, please be patient. With the volume of replies, we've had to work on finishing the database schemas for Registry just to have some way to keep up with them. So we're backed up, but we'll catch up as soon as we can.
slug: pdpc-fundraiser-event
title: PDPC Fundraiser Event
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Well, the fundraiser is almost done. We're $1,000.00 US away from our goal of $18,000. (Actually, $988.56---thanks, **Luigi30!** :) We're almost there, and it seems to be a good time to go that extra mile to finish up. So, lock up your pets and small children, turn off your WALLOPS, today is **Silly Cloaks Day** on freenode. 8)
slug: fundraising-event
title: Fundraising Event
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Yesterday's fundraising event went well. Things started out a bit slowly, so much so that your editor ended up sending some global notices---apologies to those of our users who find such messages noisy. But at the end of the day, we raised a total of $355.54, which means we are now $633.02 away from our fundraising goal of $18,000.
slug: announcement-fundraising-update-scheduled-maintenance
title: [Announcement] Fundraising Update & Scheduled Maintenance
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As you're probably aware, the March-July 2004 fundraiser for [Peer-Directed Projects Center](http://freenode.net/pdpc.shtml) is officially at a close. We've met our fundraising goal, with donations totaling $18,119.42. Thanks to our corporate sponsor [Digium](http://www.digium.com/) and to all of the users of freenode. We appreciate your help!
slug: scheduled-maintenance-maintenance-and-re-routing
title: [Scheduled Maintenance] Maintenance and Re-routing
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Hi, all. Main rotation servers will be coming down for maintenance and rerouting on two occasions this month:
slug: scheduled-maintenance-services-downtime
title: [Scheduled Maintenance] Services Downtime
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Hi all. We're making a minor change in cloaking this morning; we're changing the generic user cloaks (the '.registered' and most of the '.cloaked' cloaks) to '.user'. The requirements for these cloaks will stay the same; we're just simplifying the hostnames a bit.
slug: scheduled-maintenance-services-database-clear-out
title: [Scheduled Maintenance] Services database clear-out.
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
This is just to let you know that we will soon be performing a fairly massive cleanup of the NickServ database, and through it the ChanServ database. We're hoping to clear out a lot of the dead nicks and channels in order to make our next services upgrade a simpler process.
slug: scheduled-maintenance-upgrading-rotation-servers
title: [Scheduled Maintenance] Upgrading Rotation Servers
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
About 11 hours from now, at 06:00 (1am in Chicago, 8am in Paris, 3pm _[whoops, 3:30pm --ed]_ in Adelaide), we'll be rebooting several main rotation servers to perform upgrades. Much of the network will be affected, but if all goes well, we should be finished within a half hour. We apologize for the inconvenience. Thanks for your understanding, and thank you for using freenode!
slug: a-couple-of-items-of-possible-interest
title: A couple of items of possible interest.
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
**First,** if you're involved with bookkeeping or accounting for a small not-for-profit entity, particularly in the FOSS community, please consider maintaining a presence on the new **#accounting** channel on **freenode**. This channel was set up to provide mutual support for small not-for-profit entities in the area of bookkeeping and accounting. Examples: use of UCoA for general ledger and reporting, accrual-based accounting techniques, basic bookkeeping. Please [stop by the **freenode** IRC network](http://freenode.net/using_the_network.shtml), channel **#accounting**.
slug: scheduled-maintenance-emergency-reboot
title: [Scheduled Maintenance] Emergency reboot
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Good morning to you all. The **freenode** network will experience extensive outages between 12 and 12:30pm today (about 7-7.5 hours from now). One of our sponsors needs to reboot a dying core router on an emergency basis, and it's expected to affect service network-wide. The outages should last about five minutes. Staff may need to do routing cleanup mid-afternoon, as well.
slug: scheduled-maintenance-re-hubbing
title: [Scheduled Maintenance] Re-hubbing
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Good morning, all. We'll be doing substantial rehubbing on freenode at 7am, in just under two hours. The work will disrupt network use but should be finished in less than a half hour. We'll also be doing fairly major rehubbing and reboots on main rotation servers around 5am either Sunday or Monday morning. We'll keep you posted.
slug: scheduled-maintenance-switch-maintenance
title: [Scheduled Maintenance] Switch Maintenance
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Good morning and best wishes during the holiday season. One of our sponsors has scheduled switch maintenance for New Years' Eve morning, 31 December 2004 at 1am UTC. This maintenance could take as little as two minutes or as much as forty-five. There is the possibility of substantial network impact.
slug: announcement-pdpc-fundraiser
title: [Announcement] PDPC Fundraiser
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Good evening to everyone. Here's hoping you're having an excellent new year.
slug: announcement-late-notice-of-outages
title: [Announcement] Late notice of outages
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Good morning, all. We've received last minute news that several of our main hub and leaf nodes may experience outages beginning about five hours from now, from noon until 2pm UTC. Service is being interrupted to perform urgent upgrades to infrastructure equipment. We're not certain whether the outages will occur once or twice or be intermittent throughout that period.
slug: scheduled-maintenance-network-outages
title: [Scheduled Maintenance] Network Outages
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Significant network outages are scheduled for just over 17 hours from now, to update server code. These updates affect main rotation servers and hubs and will significantly affect all users on the network. The outages are scheduled for 7am UTC tomorrow. We'll make them as brief as we can manage.
slug: scheduled-maintenance-expected-downtime-due-to-software-upgrade
title: [Scheduled Maintenance] Expected downtime due to software upgrade
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Due to an unexpected combination of events, freenode will be scheduling major server maintenance for 7am UTC Sunday 22 May 2005 (that's midnight in Los Angeles, 3am in New York City, 9am in Brussels and 5pm in Sydney). Six major servers will be restarted and the entire network will be affected. If all goes well, everything should be over in just about 15 minutes. Thanks for your support and understanding as we continue to upgrade the network.
slug: scheduled-maintenance-major-server-maintenance
title: [Scheduled Maintenance] Major Server Maintenance
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
To update status, we're still scheduling major server maintenance at 7am UTC Sunday 22 May 2005 (that's midnight in Los Angeles, 3am in New York City, 9am in Brussels and 5pm in Sydney). Seven, not six, major servers will be restarted, and the entire network will be affected. We anticipate that this process may take up to an hour, rather than the 15 minutes previously reported. Thanks again for your support and understanding.
slug: scheduled-maintenance-server-upgrades
title: [Scheduled Maintenance] Server Upgrades
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
freenode has tentatively scheduled server upgrades for 6am UTC on Saturday 2 July 2005 (2am in New York City, 8am in Brussels, 4pm in Sydney and 11pm Friday in Los Angeles). At least three major servers will be restarted, and the entire network will be affected. This process may take up to an hour. As always, thank you for your support and understanding.
slug: scheduled-maintenance-rescheduling-planned-outages
title: [Scheduled Maintenance] Rescheduling planned outages
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
The upgrades for freenode on Saturday 2 July 2005 at 6am UTC have been rescheduled. One of our sponsors has schedule a couple of major power outages, and the effect on us will be pretty major, so we'll do the work at that time. So, the new schedule has major outages planned which are likely to affect our service for one hour each at 9am UTC (2am Los Angeles, 11am Brussels and 6pm Sydney) on: Wednesday, 29 June 2005
Sunday, 3 July 2005
slug: scheduled-maintenance-changes-to-the-scheduled-downtime
title: [Scheduled Maintenance] Changes to the scheduled downtime
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
There's a slight change in the outage schedule. The outages are now planned to last up to an hour and a half, beginning at 8:30am UTC (1:30am Los Angeles, 10:30am Brussels and 5:30pm Sydney) on: Wednesday, 29 June 2005
Sunday, 3 July 2005
slug: announcement-introducing-stats-p
title: [Announcement] Introducing /stats p
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Late-scheduled sponsor power outages between 9am and 10am UTC on Monday, 8 August 2005 (a bit over a day from now) will impact network use for most of our users. We'll take the opportunity at that time to do software updates on several of our servers, and we'll also schedule a test upgrade to Hyperion 1.0. Hyperion is a fork of our current dancer-ircd 1.0 ircd server software.
slug: scheduled-maintenance-ircd-upgrade-2
title: [Scheduled Maintenance] IRCD upgrade.
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
By now you've noticed that the **freenode** network was upgraded late this morning to hyperion-ircd release 1.0.1. Due to overwhelming problems with floodbots during the last few days, we've added an experimental feature to hyperion ircd and we'll be implementing it this afternoon.
slug: scheduled-maintenance-services-upgrade
title: [Scheduled Maintenance] Services Upgrade
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Yesterday around noon, we ran into such serious problems with hyperion-ircd 1.0.1 that it became necessary to back out the NOIDPRIVMSG feature, which blocks unregistered users from sending private messages. But users responding to requests for feedback on the feature, via global notice and news item, commented very positively, with about 60% favoring the permanent adoption of the feature, and 83% favoring its use in some temporary or permanent form.
slug: scheduled-maintenance-memory-upgrade
title: [Scheduled Maintenance] Memory Upgrade
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We'll be restarting a main rotation server on either Monday or Tuesday at 5:00am, in order to perform a memory upgrade. The server has been removed from rotation and, so far, no more than about 2,000 users should be affected. Thanks in advance for your patience and understanding.
slug: afternoon-all
title: [Announcement] DNS change
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
freenode is currently experiencing a large-scale nuisancebot infestation. We've temporarily removed the **irc.freenode.net** rotation, but you can find us on [chat.freenode.net](irc://chat.freenode.net/). If you're a client developer or you run an IRC network list site, please do not list this new hostname without first emailing **staff at freenode dot net** to make sure it's okay to do so. Apologies for the inconvenience, and thank you for using the network!
slug: good-afternoon-everyone
title: [Announcement] Temporary DNS Change
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
For the last 18 hours, freenode experienced a large-scale nuisancebot infestation. We temporarily removed the [irc.freenode.net](irc://irc.freenode.net) rotation and replaced it with [chat.freenode.net](irc://chat.freenode.net/), in order to try to stem the tide of spambots hitting the network. In the process of doing so, we discovered a new methodology for analyzing the spambot net and produced a patched server version to mitigate the effects of the infestation. As of a few minutes ago, all freenode servers have been upgraded to this new code.
slug: good-morning-all-2
title: [Announcement] Network problems
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Yesterday evening, freenode had network problems related to the recent spambot infestation. Despite the recent server patch, the underlying infestation continues and has created some temporary resource issues. Several servers restarts ensued and network staff rearranged the main server rotation to compensate for the problem.
slug: '98'
title: Happy New Year!
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
[This image does no longer exist] - Happy New Year from freenode!
category: pdpc
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
A quick note on a few current topics. First, new manual group registrations have been, if anything, slower than before. We apologize for this; we're working on ramping up the freenode-registry project and concentrating on coding for the moment. The code is in the early prototyping stage and is going fairly slowly, though it's beginning to pick up speed. However, the current manual group registration process is suffering while we work on the code which will eventually automate our processes. We'll try to pick off some of the more active projects in the group registration queue and get them moving again. Thanks in advance for your patience.
category: infrastructure
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We'll be rehubbing our European servers at about 6am UTC tomorrow, in about 9 hours (11pm US/Pacific, 8am Europe/Paris, 4pm Australia/Sydney). We're returning our normal hubbing, which was modified several days ago due to backbone connectivity problems between our US and Europe hubs. This correction should reduce transatlantic latencies.
category: freenode
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
On the 12th September Rob Levin, known to many as freenode's lilo, was hit by a car while riding his bike. He suffered head injuries and was in a coma. Rob was being treated at the Neuro Trauma Intensive Care Unit at a local hospital in Houston, Texas where he passed away on Sept 16th.
category: private
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As previously announced last week, Rob Levin aka lilo, the father of freenode, passed away on the 16th of September. He had been in a coma after being hit by a car while riding his bicycle.
category: infrastructure
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We would like to apologise to those of our users affected by the network downtime earlier tooday, November 2nd 2006. The network went down unexpectedly after one of our staffers accidentally found a bug in the IRCD code.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to suggest that you keep your eyes on this webpage as we will shortly be announcing some exciting changes and bringing you some great news!
title: [Announcement] Introducing the PDPC board
category: pdpc
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
It is with great pleasure that I can finally introduce the new board of directors for PDPC, the not-for-profit entity that runs freenode.
category: infrastructure
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
In order to upgrade our ircd code to fix various bugs and security issues, it has become necessary to restart a large portion of freenode network.
category: fosscon
category: freenode
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
When I first came on board as [freenode](http://www.freenode.net) staff I had no idea what a incredible experience I was in for.
title: Here, there be blog posts
category: freenode
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
If you are reading [christel's blog](http://blog.simplychristel.net/), you will know that we have been mulling over creating a staffblog. It is not meant as an official newsfeed like freenode news, it is our semi-official way to talk about what happens behind the scenes, what makes us happy and what we think needs changing. We really do hope to get this thing flying and are aiming for at least one entry per week. Let us see how good we do once novelty wears off..
category: infrastructure
category: projects
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Hi all. I'd like to talk about a unique feature that freenode has that many are not aware of for my first post to this blog. Sitting quietly in a small corner of our website, the concept of group registration is one of the things that makes freenode unique amongst IRC networks and it is something that I think highlights our commitment to open projects. The process is simple: after submitting a group contact form, a representative of freenode will contact you, usually by telephone, to verify your identity and to help get things set up.
category: freenode
category: philosophy
imported: yes
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---
As the staff has so recently begun this blog, I've been carefully thinking about freenode and what make it different from so many other networks. Ask 10 people and you might get 10 different answers, but I have my own theory, which I thought I'd share with you here. The difference is, quite simply, the people that populate the network - and their heart and drive to make it something better. For a long time, though I was operating a channel of my own, I never realized that freenode officially encouraged the sort of behavior that I often employ - self-mediation, moderation, arbitration, catalysing, or whatever you want to call it. But indeed, freenode has an entire section on its website about the importance (and role) of a Catalyst!
category: freenode
category: private
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
I was at [FOSDEM](http://fosdem.org/) last weekend and I liked it. There were loads of interesting talks in over a dozen tracks. Dev rooms, hacker's corner, booths with funny gadgets and interesting software, you name it :). A huge thank you to all the people that made this happen!
category: freenode
category: philosophy
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We are still experimenting with this blog and we would really like to get some input on what interests you guys and gals. So please take five minutes, sit down and write a comment to this blog post. Tell us what you feel, what you think, what you love, what you hate, what you always wanted to know about us and anything else you can come up with. Talk to us. I promise we will answer.
title: NickServ Is Your Friend
category: freenode
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
**UPDATE: This is outdated. See [here](http://freenode.net/faq.shtml#nicksetup) for up-to-date instructions. Note that some commands in this entry have been renamed or have different syntax. If you need help with your NickServ account and can't find information on our website, please ask in #freenode.**
title: PDPC Design Contest!
category: pdpc
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
A while back we announced on the freenode news page that we are running a design competition for logo + website design for the PDPC (Peer-Directed Projects Center); the not-for-profit organization that owns and operates freenode.
category: community
category: freenode
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
For the last few months, some of freenode's staff have been doing overtime as 'observers' on another IRC network for FOSS developers; hanging out in their staff channels, watching how they do things. At the same time, some of their staff have been watching how we work. It's been interesting.
category: community
category: freenode
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We would like to feature a few stories of how open source in general and freenode in specific influenced you and your life. Anyone who is interested in getting their story published should write email to blog*freenode.net. Depending on feedback, this might even evolve into a weekly feature (or not ;) ). So, happy submitting!
category: community
category: freenode
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
If you've been on the network for a little while you'll probably have noticed that #freenode presently forwards you to #freenode-social, a moderated channel. This is officially our "staff social channel", but it oftens confuses people how it can seem to take a long time to get a voice, when most of the channel are happily chattering away. I thought I'd have a go at clearing up this mysterious situation a little, in the hope that the channel will cause less angst in the future. At the moment, we get a lot of requests for voice, and I hope that by explaining the situation here it will be easier for people to understand what policies we are implementing.
category: freenode
category: infrastructure
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We're working on rolling out some new changes to hyperion, our ircd software. If everything goes well, we should be running with these changes in a few weeks. However, you should note that we're releasing these changes as **hyperion 1.0.3**, and we don't particularly encourage any other networks to try to run this code (there are better, more modern ircd software out there). In addition, hyperion 1.0.3 will probably be the last release we make of hyperion. (We are collaborating with Stuart Walsh and TJ Fontaine, the authors of oftc-hybrid which have some great ideas for a next generation ircd tree for freenode!)
category: social
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
**The Issue **
category: infrastructure
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
freenode is pleased to announce a few changes effective May 12, 2007 at 12:55 UTC:
category: philosophy
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Some time ago I used to work as a special projects mentor for a large international company, one of the things I were to try purvey to the people I trained was 'Change is good, change is great'. It took a long time for me to change my internal thought process and face my own fears of giving up security of what's familiar, and as such it took a long time for me to be able to stand there in a room full of people and utter those words while actually believing in and meaning what I said.
title: Changes to the board structure of the PDPC
category: pdpc
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As of the board meeting on May 22nd 2007 a few changes have been made with immediate effect. David Levin has stepped down from his position as President. Christel Dahlskjaer (freenode Head of Staff) replaces him as President by unanimous vote, while David retains a position on the PDPC board.
category: pdpc
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Today has been an interesting day in 'freenodia', a day of reflection, and a
category: social
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
For most of my professional career, I worked in the international arena. I'm not sure why I have always enjoyed that so much - perhaps as a result of having lived overseas for a portion of my life. There are, as a result, a lot of things that I take for granted in dealing with others, and I've recently become more aware that others often don't think or don't realize there is a bit of an art to dealing with folks from other cultures, countries, backgrounds and who speak other languages. On irc, there are **so** many different people, languages, cultures, it's important to realize the need to do things a bit differently than we normally would, even though many of the traditional issues that arise when you're face-to-face don't exist.
category: freenode
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Donna [recently posted](http://blog.freenode.net/?p=41) on the move that changed #freenode-social and #tapthru to #defocus and #freenode respectively. This has involved getting the former #tapthru staff on board as our new freenode helpers, and as staff we have found them a great bunch of people to work with - thank you to you all. Yesterday we held an evaluation meeting about how the last two months had gone, with the ups and downs, and to try and set plans for the future. It was a constructive event; what follows us a brief summary of the meeting.<!-- more -->
category: freenode
category: pdpc
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
It's been quiet on the blog front lately, we're mid holiday season so find ourselves somewhat lacking in active staff and this has kept most of those who are around tremendously busy. Both on freenode and with working on new stuff!
category: freenode
category: projects
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
While most FOSS contributors will be familiar with [CIA](http://cia.vc) and likely to utilize it for tracking commits for their project(s) and contributors, we occasionally have concerns raised from projects who find that CIA-* joined their channel unexpectedly and not on their request, this may be because someone typoed a channel name when setting things up over at the CIA page, or because someone decided to be helpful and share the joys of CIA with a new project/channel but forgot to ask the project admins/channel owners whether this would be a-ok.. and occasionally we find ourselves getting a bunch of notices alerting us to a CIA-* bot as a potential spambot as it tries rejoin a channel from which it has been banned, or when its been misconfigured and cycle a channel which has a forward set (this tends to confuse most bots!).
category: social
category: user count
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Today at around 18:45 UTC freenode hit a total number of connections of fourty thousand, which is a new network record. Over the past few months our usercount has been steadily growing and we are really pleased that more people are finding freenode a useful resource. If you want to see how many users are connected at any one time, type the IRC command /lusers
category: pdpc
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Today saw the (hopefully temporary) resignation of one of our senior staffers; Andy Lindeman (alindeman). Andy has been an important part of freenode staff, both as an excellent part of the strong group of user facing staff and as a part of our infrastructure team. It's sad to see him go, and we hope that he will find the time to rejoin our ranks at some point in the future, but as most of us can relate, being a college student you often find yourself with new and other priorities, be it studies or the social aspects of spending a few years away studying.
category: freenode
category: infrastructure
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As you are probably aware we are in the process of rehauling the IRCd and Services software running on freenode. While hyperion and theia have served us well for a significant amount of time they are also starting to struggle under the weight of our rapid growth (we recently hit 43,000 users, which is a number we hadn't anticipated -- that's 15,000 more users than we had a year ago).
category: philosophy
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
The channel ban, initiated with a mode change of +b, is perhaps one of the most recognised and well known features of IRC, dating back to the origins of the protocol. freenode has implemented a number of features that extend the basic nick!user@host mask format because we believe that the 'kickban' is outdated and there are better ways of dealing with disruptions to channel activity. On freenode you will find the quiet, where by replacing +b with +q you can stop a user from speaking in a channel but they can still read the contents of it. It has been found that this creates a more positive atmosphere in the channel that means better discussion can take place. There is also the realname ban, used via +d.
category: freenode
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
After [this](http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/30/will-irseek-have-a-chilling-effect-on-irc-chat/) recent article on [techcrunch.com](http://www.techcrunch.com) many of our users have contacted freenode staff to express their concern, shock, surprise and unease that IRseeK have for some time now been operating covert clients in various channels on freenode (and other IRC Networks) logging all communication and publishing it on their website.
category: different
category: freenode
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We are currently looking to expand the freenode volunteer staff team – seeking people from across the target communities we serve.
category: projects
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
It's been just over a year since freenode saw it's biggest shake-up yet, the passing of founder Rob 'lilo' Levin. It has been a challenging and interesting year both for freenode and Peer-Directed Projects Center, the not-for-profit organisation which owns and operates the network. There have been changes within the staff, there have been technical changes and soon we will see the change-over of both our Services package and our IRC daemon.
category: projects
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
I promised you all that I would write an update when we'd had a chance to review things and speak with the IRseeK people. After a bit of discussion, both amongst freenode staff and with the management of the company which provides the IRseeK service, we are happy to announce that there will be a few changes.
category: different
category: freenode
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Thank you to all those who have responded to our [recent call for volunteers](http://blog.freenode.net/?p=65). We have been somewhat overwhelmed with the amount of applicants and are pleased to see so many interested in help keep freenode running. Due to the Head of Staff going on holiday, and due to the amount of e-mails received, we are running a little behind on replying to each and every applicant. Hopefully, everyone should have a response by the end of the weekend.
title: Helping others help you.
category: philosophy
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
From _[The Pragmatic Programmer](http://www.amazon.com/Pragmatic-Programmer-Journeyman-Master/dp/020161622X)_:
category: freenode
category: projects
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
One of the questions we get asked a lot in #freenode is "What's the command to register my channel?"This being the freenode staff blog, I'd like to answer that question the long way around ;)
category: projects
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
The time has come for freenode to migrate from our old, legacy services package to a much newer, actively maintained package known as [Atheme](http://www.atheme.net/), developed by the [Atheme Project](http://www.atheme.org/). Although we, with the help of the Atheme developers, have tried to make the migration process as painless as possible, there are still a few interface differences that you will need to be aware of. This guide, prepared by tomaw, will attempt to walk you through the main changes, grouped by service.
category: freenode
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We've noticed a lot of people who are confused (and rightly so!) about the new nickname system - particularly the way that nickname grouping has changed. Hopefully this blog post will clear some of it up.
category: infrastructure
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As you have undoubtedly noticed by now, freenode recently changed services. Along with this new look, we thought it would be a good time to formally (and perhaps not-so-formally) announce the addition of new staff. You’ll find below a list of all our current staff, and in this post and some that follow, we’ll give you a tiny snapshot of the new (and some of the old) members of our circus^Wteam.
category: projects
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
I, for one, was saddened to hear that my favourite FOSS podcast; Lugradio is coming to an end. If you are in the UK, heck, if you're anywhere and don't mind traveling a bit you may want to catch the grand finale at this years Lugradio Live.
category: community
category: freenode
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
It's been a while since we touched the layout of #freenode - we are generally quite pleased with how things run in there! However, we believe that it needs to be easier for a user to identify a member of staff when they join the channel - our current system of using a mixture of
category: free software
category: projects
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
To mark the 25th "birthday" of the [GNU](http://gnu.org) project the [FSF](http://www.fsf.org) have teamed up with a very special man; [Stephen Fry](http://www.stephenfry.com).
category: philosophy
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Since rearchitecting freenode's network help and social channels, we've been considering various ways to improve them for our network users, and recently freenode's steering committee has investigated and considered these issues.
category: technical
category: user count
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Howdy, folks! At 19:40 UTC+1 today, freenode reached 50,000 active users online, which is a record for us!
category: freenode
category: pdpc
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As you may be vaguely aware, we have been working on some structural changes to the operations of the parent organisation behind freenode. And I am happy to announce that Peer-Directed Projects Center Ltd is now incorporated as a company limited by guarantee in England and Wales.
category: freenode
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As many of you will have noticed, our current IRC server software, [hyperion](http://freenode.net/hyperion.shtml), has been showing its age for some time now. Expectations for its eventual replacement are nothing if not high -- hyperion contains a great many features not found elsewhere, most of which are fairly unique to the way in which freenode operates, so anything that wants to take over from it must provide all of these, in a more robust, maintainable and future-proof package.
category: infrastructure
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Hi all,
category: infrastructure
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Hi all,
category: pdpc
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Another year is coming to an end, for freenode and the PDPC it has been a year of change. We've made a lot of progress on development, the NFP is branching out and starting to slowly move towards providing more services to the FOSS communities and we've grown in size and now peak at a whooping 51,000 users! It feels amazing to see so many FOSS enthusiasts together in one place.
category: freenode
category: pdpc
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
[This image does no longer exist]
category: freenode
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We recently added support for NickServ's ACCESS command to freenode's services. This allows you to define a list of hostmasks from which nickserv will recognise you before you have identified. Logging in as normal is still required, but matching an entry on this list will prevent NickServ from changing your nick if ENFORCE is enabled.
slug: canonical-pledges-matching-funds
title: Canonical Pledges Matching Funds
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Thanks to all of you for the donations you have contributed so far towards our fundraising drive. freenode has a few interesting fundraising events and ideas up its sleeves, so hopefully there will be a few more updates to the blog with more details in weeks to come! Today, freenode and the PDPC announces one of a number of exciting updates to the fundraising process:
category: pdpc
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
15 years ago, on January 29th 1994 Rob (lilo) Levin first joined the channel #linuxneo on the EFNet IRC network. This date has since been referred to as the conceptual moment, the foundation, the cornerstone which later led to the network you now know as freenode.
slug: the-beauty-of-freenode
title: The Beauty of #freenode
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
#freenode channel, as it currently exists, is a veritable work of art - people who come to the channel are nearly always provided help or referred somewhere for the answer. The really beautiful thing about #freenode, though, is that at least 50% of the help provided comes from network users (rather than freenode staff).
category: freenode
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
It's been a while since we posted Part 1 of our series on "Who Are freenode Staff?" - which makes it about time to post a bit more.
category: freenode
category: pdpc
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As you are probably aware, the PDPC re-incorporated in the UK and to that end we are trying to meet the threshold for being registered as a charity through the charity commission -- a status which would allow us to continue offering tax relief to hardware and bandwith sponsors, in addition to cutting our costs. To this end, we are in the process of designing several cool t-shirts which will be available on the pdpc's website for purchase. The proceeds from these sales will help supplement donations which we already receive from some of our users.
category: infrastructure
category: pdpc
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
**[UPDATE]**
title: free-as-in-node
category: community
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We are proud to announce our very first episode of our very first season of free-as-in-node, the new freenode podcast. Now you can let IRC waste your life even when you can't be online! The purpose is simple: entertain, inform, and interact, just like IRC. Via the podcast we will be bringing you guests and information from all over the freenode community.
title: Update on the PDPC 2008/2009 donation campaign (SUCCESS!)
category: community
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We are happy to announce that we have in fact reached our 2008/2009 fund raising goals, and as such are no longer in danger of losing charity status. At present, we have exceeded the required amount (£5,000) by at least £200 and we here are all very excited (and relieved) to have accomplished this with your help. We would like to offer our thanks to each and every one of you who helped out and contributed. This truly shows just the sort of thing the community is capable of. We'd also like to offer thanks Canonical in particular for their help in reaching our goal through their matching of £1,700 of donations by others.
slug: free-as-in-node-episode-2-release
title: free-as-in-node: Episode 2 release
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We're happy to announce we've just released our second episode of the new freenode podcast, free-as-in-node! In this episode, we talk about Gary's recent offenses, geeknics and k-lining park-goers. We also meet with Dave "Daviey" Walker from Ubuntu to discuss the Ubuntu COC and Ubuntu Locos during this episodes Pimp my project. We continue looking at the recent Microsoft and TomTom legal actions and share our views on them.
category: different
category: freenode
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Piping hot and straight from the oven! The Irssi core development team has been hard at work, hunched over their computers for many moons, tapping away till their hearts content! Bruised and blistered, they've just set off to put their sore fingers around a few bottles of cold beer and have a well deserved rest! Thank you all and keep up the good work!
title: PDPC Yahoo acquisition
category: different
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
It is with great fanfare that we announce the Yahoo acquisition of the PDPC, and by extension, freenode. After much deliberation, we have decided to accept Yahoo's offer to purchase the freenode irc network and associated resources for the amount of approximately £2,700,000.00 in yahoo shares. At present it is expected that all current network staff will remain in place while certain yahoo employees will be added to the mix.
category: freenode
category: pdpc
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
When most people think of geeks, they think of pasty white people who never leave their basement. Well, we are aiming to change that... by getting you outside and making you a little less pasty white.
slug: free-as-in-node-episode-3-released
title: Free-as-in-node episode 3 released!
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
The third installment of free-as-in-node has just been released! Head on over to [http://podcast.freenode.net](http://podcast.freenode.net) to listen or download.
title: Community Leadership Summit - July 18-19th 2009, San Jose, CA.
category: community
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
[](http://www.communityleadershipsummit.com/)
title: PHP TestFest
category: community
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Jonathan mentioned in his [blog post](http://blog.freenode.net/2009/04/free-as-in-node-episode-3-released/) about the free-as-in-node podcast yesterday that this weeks guest on "Pimp My Project" was there to talk about **PHP TestFest**.
slug: wikipedia-licensing-change
title: Wikipedia licensing change?
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
**Wikipedia to change license to Creative Commons BY-SA?** -- From [http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/13967](http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/13967)
title: pdpc and the open source community
category: community
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As we've mentioned in previous blog posts, pdpc, the parent organization that operates freenode, is very interested in offering more to the community. To this end we've begun a number of other projects such as the new free-as-in-node [podcast](http://podcast.freenode.net/)and "[geeknics](http://geeknic.org)", but this is just a small part of the level of involvement we aspire to. We want to do more for the projects and users that use freenode every day, and for the community they represent.
title: Summer of Geeknics Off to a Great Start!
category: community
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
After much worry about the weather (and possibly being thrown out of the park by park rangers), the Philadelphia Geeknic held yesterday, Sunday, April 19th, 2009, kicked off for a great day of fun in the (partial) sun, with food, fun, and geeks! With about thirty people in attendance and plenty of food to go around, there was much to do. Conversation centered around software, work, and harassing the "windows guy" while children played in the field. Eventually a handful of geeks wandered off for a game of Frisbee at which they for the most part failed miserably. Despite the slightly cloudy day, the weather stayed mostly warm and comfortable.
title: SouthEast LinuxFest (SELF) 2009
category: community
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
The first annual SouthEast LinuxFest is coming up in just a few weeks, on June 13th. This event is for anyone who wants to learn more about free and open source software, and is a combination educational conference and social gathering, all in one. It looks to be a very exciting event. Freenode will have at least one representative at the event and we are already aware of quite a few freenode users who will be there.
title: Free-as-in-Node episode 5 released!
category: community
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Episode 5 of Free-as-in-Node is now available and ready to abduct even more of your time, now with even more ginger! Listen in for some details on Ubuntu-1 from Stuart “aquarius” Langridge in Pimp My Project. Ubuntu-1 sounds like an amazing new project. Stuart gives us a tip to take a look at Ubuntu-1 without the wait, and gives us a few details on what he is up to and whats going on at Canonical. He tells us about the[ ayatana mailing list](https://lists.launchpad.net/ayatana), where discussion takes place on the interface and looks of Ubuntu. We also find out about the new telepathic user interface Stuart is going to deliver to us... personally.
category: infrastructure
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
This is just to let you know that we will soon be performing a fairly substantial cleanup of the NickServ and ChanServ databases.
category: infrastructure
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As announced previously, we have recently (as of Thursday, June 10th) pruned our nickserv and chanserv databases. We also performed some additional updates and modifications. While the most obvious change of this will be that any nicks older than 60 days have been dropped, there have been some additional changes implemented as well. In addition, we have added a new webchat service for users who wish to irc from behind a firewall disallowing a more direct connection. You can try it out [here](http://webchat.freenode.net/)!
category: different
category: freenode
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We are currently looking to expand the freenode volunteer staff team, seeking people involved with the target communities we currently serve.
category: freenode
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As of today we have disabled access to the freenode irc network via mibbit. While there are numerous reasons for this, it ultimately comes down to the ability to prevent abuse via this client. We allow connections from many types of web gateways, and such connections require a certain amount of trust and communication between the server operators and the gateway operators. While we have tried to maintain a good working relationship with anyone who wishes to provide access to freenode and are lucky that most of our users and projects are very friendly and communicative, we have found it difficult to maintain open communications with mibbit. This has resulted in a large amount of staff time being spent on managing abuse coming from mibbit, disrupting service for other mibbit users and reducing the quality of the network. Sadly, we feel that this is ultimately not beneficial to mibbit users or the network as a whole.
category: open source
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Short blog post this evening but an important one!
category: community
category: pdpc
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
[fossevents.org](http://fossevents.org) is an open source event aggregation site created by the Peer Directed Projects Center, the nonprofit organization the operates freenode. Our goal with this new site is to make it easy to find open source events near you, that interest you. Many of us have missed events that were right around the corner because we didn't know about them until it was way too late.
category: open source
category: webchat
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Over the last few weeks we have had quite a bit of feedback from our new web chat client. As a result of this we've been able to feed back requests to the qwebirc developers who have been able to add many requested features:
category: philosophy
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Most of you are probably familiar with the various freedoms that are frequently stated, such as freedom of speech or expression. While freenode does exist to promote communication amongst free and open source projects, it is not an open forum for all to use in any way.
slug: when-bots-go-bad
title: When bots go bad..
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
First off, allow me to apologise to all users affected by the recent "client killing" rampage of our utility bot; Syn. She appears to have gotten into the Halloween spirit a bit too much!
slug: testing-the-nets
title: Testing the nets
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We're in the late stages of testing our new ircd,[ ircd-seven](http://freenode.net/seven.shtml), which is intended to replace our current hyperion ircd, and we need your help!
slug: dcc-spam-and-how-to-handle-it
title: DCC spam, and how to handle it.
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We are aware of the recent DCC spam attempts, and we are working on this issue. In the meantime, please do not paste the full DCC text you recieve in #freenode (or any other channel) as in many cases it can cause you to appear as a problem yourself.
slug: december-8-2009-connectivity-issues-and-netsplits
title: December 8 2009 Connectivity Issues and Netsplits
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As you are probably aware, we've been facing some fairly major splits today as there have been issues between some of our major hubs. We've rerouted these and are working on tracing down the cause of any other splits. Please be aware, our staff are already hard at work on these issues and will resolve them as quickly as possible. Included here are 2 global notices about this matter.
-christel(i=christel@freenode/staff/exherbo.christel)-
slug: december-15th-ddos
title: December 15th DDoS
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We are currently experiencing heavy DDoS against several locations at which some of our servers are hosted. The attack is ongoing and cause a lot of disruption, both to users of the network and unfortunately to projects/companies/individuals whose infrastructure is hosted at the same locations as us. Our sponsors and our sponsors' upstreams are working hard to try curb the attacks as best they can.
category: social
category: user count
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
The New Year is arriving in various parts of the world, and we'd like to take this opportunity to thank the people who continue making freenode possible.
category: development
category: freenode
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
In the coming weeks, we will be migrating freenode to our new ircd, ircd-seven. Presently, freenode uses hyperion and efforts have been underway for some time move us off this platform for reasons of stability and functionality. We are now almost there.
category: freenode
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
You may have noticed some unusual amounts of spam over the past few days, which has had an impact on a number of channels. This spam is the result of some malicious javascript being distributed on a number of webpages which causes visitors to these pages to make a connection to freenode and send spam. While we are doing what we can to mitigate the spam, we would ask that you take a careful look at any unusual sites or URLs you might visit in the near future to be sure you are not being tricked into visiting such a site.
slug: migration-to-new-ircd
title: Migration to ircd-seven.
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
On the 30th of January, 2010 at around 7:30 UTC, we will be moving to the new ircd-seven. If you haven't done so already, now is a great time to look at how this may change things for you and what you may need to do as a result.
category: infrastructure
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
With our change of ircd to the all new [ircd-seven](http://www.freenode.net/seven.shtml), we are trialling a new method of allowing users to connect to the network via Tor. This method brings a number of changes:
category: projects
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
After much time in development and testing, the move to ircd-seven is finally complete. The migration took place in the early hours of today, Saturday January 30th 2010.
slug: yes-we-are-going-to-fosdem
title: Yes, we are going to FOSDEM
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As every year, some of us will attend FOSDEM.
slug: fosscon-2010-and-northeast-us-geeknic-camping-trip
title: fosscon 2010 and Northeast US geeknic++ camping trip
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
There are two pdpc-related events coming up in the Northeast US we'd like to make you aware of. The first is the second "geeknic++" camping trip, to be held May 21st-23rd in Worthington State Forest, NJ. Last year, there was much fun to be had as geeks (and their families) from all over the Northest gathered for 2 nights of camping in a New Jersey State forest. This year there is a new location, but more of the same fun. See [http://geeknic.org/?p=91](http://geeknic.org/?p=91) for details. The trip is only $20 for adults, and kids under 18 are free.
category: pdpc
category: projects
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
For many years now, freenode has offered projects and userbases on the network the option of registering themselves as "Groups". Each of these groups has one or more designated people as their "Group Contacts", who are the point of contact for freenode-staff<=>group liasion, and are thus able to contact staff to request that cloaks be set, or to request assistance in administering channels.
category: technical
category: webchat
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Webchat has always presented an interesting problem, mostly for the staff of various channels as well as the network itself, but indirectly for all our users as well. All webchat connections come from the IP address of the webchat service. This results in them having to be handled a little bit differently from other connections.
category: groups
category: projects
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
For a long time, freenode has utilised a [Group Registration](http://freenode.net/group_registration.shtml) system to give groups (such as companies and open source projects) the ability to manage channels in the [primary namespace](http://freenode.net/policy.shtml#channelnaming) (ie, channels beginning with a single "#") and to give contributors to their projects [cloaks](http://freenode.net/faq.shtml#cloaks). Perhaps more importantly, the system allows groups to retain control of their identity on freenode. It is because of this aspect of Group Registration that filing a [Group Registration Form (GRF)](http://freenode.net/group_registration_form.php) has been necessary for projects to acquire primary channels which have been already registered. For the same reason, we ask those who register new primary channels to file a form.
category: philosophy
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
While talking online is great, meeting in person presents brand new opportunities... and we would like to meet you!
category: projects
category: webchat
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Following our successful switch of cloaking on our web gateway ([http://webchat.freenode.net](http://webchat.freenode.net)) to show the full IP address of connecting users (see [this blog post](http://blog.freenode.net/2010/06/freenode-webchat-changes/)), we have decided to transition our old and relatively unused Java client ([pjIRC](http://www.pjirc.com/main.php)) to our webchat service. This will be done via a HTTP redirect.
category: infrastructure
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Hi everyone.
Currently the freenode webchat instance (webchat.freenode.net) is down. This is due to maintenance by the host of the box upon which the service sits, and looks set to continue for up to a further 6 hours.
category: technical
category: webchat
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Unfortunately, it seems the box our webchat is on has decided to fall out with the Internet again. We're working on setting up a reserve instance which shouldn't be affected by this sort of issue in the future. When we have more details, we'll update this post. We're really sorry for the inconvenience this causes, and guarantee it will be less in future.
category: philosophy
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
**freenode **is sometimes a target of spammers, bots, or attempts to trick users into taking action or giving up information they normally would not. One form of spam, popular recently, claims that freenode will require SASL to connect. Others attempt to lure users to a website that may generate revenue for the spammer, attempt to install malicious software, reveal information about the user (such as location, IP address, operating system, and so on), or lead to a shock site intended to offend or disgust. Other spam has no purpose except to cause disruption through channel noise, nick-highlights, and the ensuing complaints from those disrupted.
category: freenode
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Just a quick note to wish each and every one of our users, sponsors, donors, volunteers and projects for making freenode great.
category: different
category: open source
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
category: freenode
category: user count
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
With apologies to cringing table-top players, we are more than happy to announce that we passed the threshold of 70,000 active users a few minutes ago. Lingering at a maximum of 69,991 lately, we have been anticipating this day for some time, now. And it has come :)
category: freenode
category: infrastructure
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As you may know, the network operations of freenode are fully supported by donations - of hosting and other resources - from both companies and individuals. We acknowledge all sponsors on our [website](http://freenode.net/acknowledgements.shtml), but it is nice from time to time to provide a round-up of recent changes on the sponsorship scene!
category: free software
category: pdpc
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Hello everyone and Happy St Valentine's Day!
slug: port-6697-irc-via-tlsssl
title: Default port for IRC via TLS/SSL (hint: it''s 6697)
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As some of you might be aware, there has been a push to [standardize](http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-hartmann-default-port-for-irc-via-tls-ssl) on a common port for IRC via SSL/TLS. Same as you can reasonably expect any public ircd for plain text connections to listen on port 6667, you should be able to expect any public ircd for IRC via SSL/TLS to listen on port 6697.
slug: change-in-nick-expiry-times
title: Change in nick expiry times
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Up to now, the expiry time of nicks has been 60 days. As you know, Services compress timespans into years, weeks, and days. 60 days are 8 weeks and 4 days. Easy enough to convert, but still unnecessary. Also, a nick that has been registered for a long time should get a little bit more protection than a new one. In the past, we have sometimes asked users to wait a bit longer before requesting old nicks to be dropped. To make things easier and fairer, we have decided to change and simplify our official policy.
slug: important-service-announcement-regarding-defocus
title: Important service announcement regarding #defocus
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As many of you are aware, [back in 2008](news/2008-09-14-change-in-defocus-policy-and-what-do-you-think) we changed our policy in #defocus and the method in which the channel works to require users have voice to speak. For the past few years we've been using a combination of manual action, scripts and bots to voice users as needed to control when and how and when they are voiced.
slug: april-1st-the-aftermatch
title: April 1st, the aftermatch
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Some of you might have remembered the wolfgame bot in #defocus from 2008-04-01. Reception was even better this time and people really liked it. We might even make this a tradition. Feedback in comments, please.
slug: the-cat-enigma
title: The Cat Enigma!
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Hello! Many of you have joined in with our April Fools' activities, including the two challenges injected into the April 1st blogpost. We had several successful winners of the first competition, and a smaller number of the second, but many determined competitors - thanks to everyone who invested so much time and energy into the challenges!
slug: this-is-a-public-service-announcement
title: This is a public service announcement...
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As some of you might remember, freenode used to send wallops when FLOSS projects had major releases and for other news that are, hopefully, of general interest. After some internal deliberation, we decided to retry this experiment. Projects are invited to submit their wallops requests to us and we will try to accommodate everyone. Obviously, we will try to limit this to relevant news and while we are not sure about the exact modus operandi yet, we are confident that we will figure something out that works for everyone.
slug: fosscon-2011-philadelphia-pennsylvania-23rd-july-2011
title: Fosscon 2011: Philadelphia Pennsylvania, 23rd July, 2011.
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
July 23, 2011 - (All day)
title: A short mention on Mibbit
category: freenode
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Hi all.
slug: fixing-defocus
title: Fixing #defocus
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We want #defocus, the network social channel, to be a welcoming place for relaxed, easy conversation. Of late, we're seeing that staff are acting in a policing role more than we are able to take an active part in the flow of the channel. This is something of a circle, as the more we are seen to be police, the harder it is for us to achieve what we want with the channel.
slug: ircd-upgrades
title: IRCD Upgrades
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Over the next weeks we will be upgrading our servers to the next version of ircd-seven. This means restarting all our servers. Downtime should be minimal, and as we will not upgrade all servers at the same time this should not be as noisy as the upgrade from hyperion to ircd-seven was. When the server you are on is upgraded you will be disconnected, but should be able to reconnect immediately (most clients will do this automatically).
slug: wednesday-server-updates
title: Wednesday Server Updates
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
This Wednesday (September 14th, 2011) we will be continuing our server updates as mentioned [here](http://blog.freenode.net/2011/09/ircd-upgrades/).
category: pdpc
category: projects
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As you might know, GRFs ([Group Registration](http://freenode.net/group_registration.shtml) Forms) exist to form a relationship between a project and the [PDPC (Peer Directed Projects Center)](http://pdpc.org.uk). This relationship is relatively formal - personal details (address/tel no./etc) need to be shared by the project. For this reason, a severe backlog of GRFs has built up, since only a few staff have access to them (to protect this personal data). PDPC is the UK-based not-for-profit company which runs freenode. For most groups in our request backlog, their reason for registering is not to work with PDPC, but to gain a channel or cloak namespace on freenode. We've decided that running a separate, freenode-centric groups request system may help to move the system along. By requesting fewer details, we can open up this system to more staff, and hopefully keep on top of the queue of requests.
category: open source
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We've got some ircd upgrades in the works!
category: pdpc
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
It was the day before Christmas, when all across the network not a creature was stirring, not even a troll...
slug: focus-on-defocus
title: Focus on #defocus
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We've been working on improving the environment in #defocus for a while now. We think we're on the right track with opening up channel moderation to more than @freenode/staff/ but we need your help to get to where we want to be.
slug: on-sopapipa
title: On SOPA/PIPA
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Today, January 18th 2012, a number of websites, organisations and institutions along with countless individuals have chosen to take a stance to protest the proposed SOPA and PIPA legislations.
slug: defocuss-visit-to-the-opticians-new-guidelines
title: Defocus''s visit to the opticians: new guidelines
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
A couple of months ago, mrmist posted about the #defocus-focus channel, which was looking to improve the atmosphere in #defocus.
slug: at-dawn-we-ride-for-fosdem-castle
title: At dawn, we ride for FOSDEM Castle
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As usual, some of us will be around at FOSDEM.
category: geeknic
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Today, we launched [planet.freenode.net](http://planet.freenode.net).
slug: network-wide-policy-privacy-change
title: Network wide policy privacy change
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
category: freenode
category: user count
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As of today, freenode had 81443 concurrent connections. Last Friday, the count lingered around 79987, presumably to make things more interesting for those of us keeping close track.
slug: april-fools-day
title: April Fool's Day!
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Needless to say, our policy changes announced yesterday were in jest, and are not real ([unlike a similarly themed post on April Fool's Day from somewhere far more important!](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17576745)).
category: infrastructure
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Every couple of years, freenode likes to get out the shears and prune the services database. Recently we broke the 80,000 usercount barrier, but the services stats are way ahead:
category: projects
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Very soon we will be upgrading your favourite network helpers... (no not erry…): NickServ, ChanServ, Alis etc. They’re currently connected to our testnet and we need your help with testing, looking for any issues which may affect the production network.
slug: april-1st-the-aftermath
title: April 1st, the aftermath
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
It's been two weeks since our April Fools quiz; thanks to everybody who participated. Several people managed to complete the quiz; the first eight are:
category: fosscon
category: pdpc
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
August 11th, 2012 (All day)
slug: group-registration-closure
title: Group Registration Closure
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Our group registration system has been around for some time, in various guises. Over that time, our small but dedicated team of staff has attempted to keep up with demand for groups. Unfortunately, in the early years of GRF, this generated a substantial backlog of processing, since the system was very manual, a lot of data was processed (restricting the staff who had access) and each group can take some time to properly investigate. To address this issue, we've tried a number of alternatives, such as priority group emails, and, lately, a streamlined group registration system known as "grf-f".
category: infrastructure
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Hi
The long-awaited upgrade of services which we [blogged about a while ago](http://blog.freenode.net/2012/04/database-prune/) is now planned for this coming weekend, the 16th/17th June.
category: infrastructure
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
The planned services upgrade and database prune went ahead today as planned and has completed successfully. Approximately 300000 nicks were removed from the database, and we've moved to Atheme 7, so hopefully response times from services should be improved, with less of the lag that was sometimes noticeable before.
slug: happy-2013-hope-you-had-a-good-2012
title: Happy 2013, hope you had a good 2012
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We would all like to wish you a happy 2013!
category: infrastructure
category: pdpc
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Sadly, we were forced to dissolve PDPC, freenode's parent organisation.
slug: insert-witty-title-here
title: Insert witty title here
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Like every year, we would like to invite our users to take part in the April 1st quiz and have the chance to win an April Fools' cloak.
title: April 1st 2013, the aftermath
category: April 1st
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
It’s been a little more than a week since we started our April Fools quiz this year; thanks to everybody who participated.
slug: the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly
title: The good, the bad, and the ugly...
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Firstly, I would like to apologise for the interruptions the network has experienced in the last week (and continues to experience as we speak). I would also like to thank our incredible server sponsors for the time and dedication they have shown in helping us attempt to deal with the situation.
category: freenode
category: user count
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
freenode has been growing slowly and steadily, breaking the next practically-useless-but-still-kinda-neat barrier of more than 90,000 concurrent connections at the same time. It's very nice, and humbling, to know that we are able to enable so many people to communicate with each other.
category: technical
category: webchat
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We've recently enabled some new functionality in our ircd to further help you manage your channels:
title: Fosscon, an open source conference in Philadelphia PA, Saturday August 10th
category: fosscon
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
FOSSCON 2013 will be held on August 10th, 2013. Several of our very own staff here at freenode will be attending this year and we are really looking forward to it.
category: freenode
category: infrastructure
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
For the purpose of disclosure we have had to make the difficult decision to discontinue a long-standing relationship with a server sponsor.
slug: check-your-nickserv-email
title: Reminder: Keep your NickServ email up to date.
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
If you've registered with NickServ within the last few years then you'll have used an email address and we'll have sent you a mail to verify it. That will probably be the last time you heard from us...
slug: turbulence
title: Turbulence
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As many of you will be aware, freenode has been experiencing intermittent instability today, as the network has been under attack. Whilst we have network services back online, the network continues to be a little unreliable and users are continuing to report issues in connecting to the network.
title: +freenode
category: April 1st
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
UPDATE: This was of course an April Fool... you can "/msg nickserv set property GOOGLE+" to remove the property from your account. There might still be other secrets within the message though...
category: security
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
The recently exposed [heartbleed bug](http://heartbleed.com/) in the OpenSSL library has surprised everyone with a [catastrophic](https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/04/heartbleed.html) vulnerability in many of the world's secure systems.
category: April 1st
category: freenode
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
It's been almost too long for this blog post to arrive here after the April Fools quiz this year. Thanks to everyone who participated!
category: infrastructure
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
We have loaded a new module on the network which provides the $j extban type:
slug: server-issues-2
title: Server issues
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Earlier today the freenode infra team noticed an anomaly on a single IRC server. We have since identified that this was indicative of the server being compromised by an unknown third party. We immediately started an investigation to map the extent of the problem and located similar issues with several other machines and have taken those offline. For now, since network traffic may have been sniffed, we recommend that everyone change their NickServ password as a precaution.
slug: server-issues-update
title: Server Issues: Update
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Following up on our [previous blog post](http://blog.freenode.net/2014/09/server-issues-2/), we have continued to investigate the compromise of freenode infrastructure, aided by our sponsors in addition to experts in the field.
category: philosophy
category: technical
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
As a network, we feel it is hugely important to maintain close relationships with our many communities and users. Our interactions with users in #freenode and elsewhere on the network, fielding support requests and assisting users, help build and maintain these relationships.
slug: atheme-7-2-and-freenode
title: Atheme 7.2 and freenode
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
Hello!
category: projects
category: social
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
The GNOME project will be familiar to the vast majority of our users, what you might not be aware of is that the project is currently facing an expensive trademark battle against Groupon with the latter having allegedly chosen to infringe upon GNOME's trademark by launching a product with the same name (a POS "operating system for merchants to run their entire operation").
tag: expiry
tag: nicks
imported: yes
+robots: noindex
---
On or around Friday, October 2nd, we shall be cleaning up the services database. This involves the bulk removal of expired nicks, channels and accounts.
title: 404—Not Found
slug: 404
absolute: yes
+robots: noindex
---
You have followed a link that does no longer exist. The freenode website was redesigned in 2016,
- [Cloaks](kb/general/cloaks)
- [About freenode](/project)
-You can also try the navigation links on the bottom of the page.
\ No newline at end of file
+You can also try the navigation links on the bottom of the page.
projects / irc / freenode / web-7.0.git / commitdiff
