date: 2002-08-26 15:53:48+00:00
slug: welcome-fsf-and-gnu
title: Welcome FSF and GNU!
+---
+
+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:
+
+_ Bradley M. Kuhn, executive director of the Free Software Foundation, pointed out: "The GNU Project has long sought an IRC network aligned with our strong stand for the principles of software freedom. We believe that Freenode, with its commitment to providing a innovative venue for Free Software developers and like-minded individuals to cooperate, fits the bill."
+
Robert Levin, president of Peer-Directed Projects Center, added: "We welcome the opportunity to work more closely with the Free Software Foundation. Licensing that preserves freedom is essential to the health and success of peer-directed projects. The Free Software Foundation's pivotal role in advocating software freedom makes it a valued contributor to the community." _
To all of the members of the GNU project who've spent so much time with us so far: thank you for your support, and welcome officially to **freenode**!
date: 2002-09-11 01:04:01+00:00
slug: updates-to-policy-document
title: Updates to Policy Document
+---
+
+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.
date: 2002-10-01 00:00:11+00:00
slug: server-issues
title: Server Issues
+---
+
+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.
+
+This is also an important time to mention that, while we are not in a formal fundraising drive, the nonprofit [PDPC, the not-for-profit entity which runs the network --Ed.] needs funds to continue to maintain and develop the services we provide and those we intend to provide. We have servers and bandwidth and can get more. We have volunteers to work on the network. Our biggest problem is not having consistent time to spend coordinating support, server and routing improvements.
+
Over 8,000 users utilize the network on a daily basis. When we're not asking for help in a direct way, it's easy to forget that we're here, keeping the service running as best we can. If you're one of our users, please let us know that you find the network helpful. Express your support in a way that makes a difference by [making a donation](http://freenode.net/contributions.shtml) to help keep us running.
Thank you for using freenode, and have a great day!
date: 2002-10-02 21:02:16+00:00
slug: hubbing-issues
title: Hubbing Issues
+---
+
+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).
+
+One of our main rotation hub servers that dropped off the map will be returning at a new colocation facility. The hosting technical staff has found (and hopefully corrected) a motherboard-related reliability issue. Again, we'll monitor the stability of the server over the course of several days and see how it shapes up.
+
Thank you for using freenode!
date: 2003-01-01 16:24:19+00:00
slug: happy-new-year-2003
title: Happy New Year 2003!
+---
+
+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.
+
+It's been about four and a half months since our name change, so we're doing some cleanup for the new year. The **openprojects.net** hostnames have been obsolete for several months and we have removed most of them today. If you're using one, please change it from **"openprojects"** to **"freenode"**.
+
Have an excellent year!
If your client points to **"irc.openprojects.net"**, you'll be getting notices on an ongoing basis. Be sure to reconfigure your client to point to **"irc.freenode.net"** and then reconnect to get back to the main rotation; then you'll no longer get notices on the subject. If you were pointed to irc.openprojects.net by a project web page, irc hostname or irc client default, please let the project owners know to change that pointer. Thanks!
date: 2003-03-16 23:48:42+00:00
slug: expired-nickschannels-purge
title: Expired Nicks/Channels Purge
+---
+
+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.
+
+Please note that we can only tell that you've used your nick if you've identified yourself to NickServ (/msg nickserv help identify). And we can only tell that your channel is in use if some user in your access list, identified to NickServ, periodically joins the channel. Please don't forget to IDENTIFY!
+
If your channel is dropped even though it is in use, we'll be happy to help you resolve the problem. Stop by #freenode or email us (staff at freenode dot net). For more information on services expiration issues, please take a look at our [FAQ](http://freenode.net/faq.shtml#expirations).
Have a great week!
date: 2003-04-10 15:48:58+00:00
slug: server-hosting
title: Server Hosting
+---
+
+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.
+
+freenode has grown over time, and we continue to offer an effective and useful interactive service. The linchpin of our service is the main rotation; servers on it can predictably handle relatively heavy load from all over the world. But we can no longer support the network on the number of main rotation servers we have. Matters are coming to a head. Earlier one of our main rotation servers split and rejoined the network, dropping a number of users. That server is back, and we hope it will continue to be reliable, but we have no way to predict its behavior. As a result of that split, another host's server picked up quite a few users, and he has just asked us to temporarily remove his server from the main rotation due to the volume of traffic.
+
This leaves us with three main rotation servers.
Another host has notified us that his provider will be doing router work this weekend, which will occasion downtime. In order to prepare for that downtime, we'll need to remove his server from the main rotation. **That will leave us with two main rotation servers.** At peak load, those two servers will have to handle 5,000 users each. We simply do not have any servers which can handle 5,000 users for any length of time.
date: 2003-04-17 04:59:57+00:00
slug: scheduled-maintenance-rehubbing
title: '[Scheduled Maintenance] Rehubbing'
+---
+
+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.
+
+A big welcome and a sigh of relief go out to our new main rotation server hosts. Thanks to [Oregon State University](http://www.oregonstate.edu/) and to Patrick Scheeler and Glenn Shannon at the San Diego Supercomputing Center for helping us in our current crunch. Also, welcome to [BS2 Internet](http://www.bs2.com.br/)'s new server in Curitiba, Paraná, Brasil!
date: 2003-04-25 21:15:22+00:00
slug: announcement-additional-faq-items
title: '[Announcement] Additional FAQ items'
+---
+
+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!
date: 2003-05-19 22:43:34+00:00
slug: pre-release-dancer-ircd-1032
title: Pre-release -- dancer-ircd 1.0.32
+---
+
+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**!
+
+Numerous small bugs have been fixed, and the following lists some of the changes:
+
date: 2003-05-28 23:20:45+00:00
slug: new-irc-server-code-approaches-release
title: New IRC Server Code Approaches Release
+---
+
+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).
+
+In addition to some bug-squashing, we've now modified services to allow us to mlock +Jrz and -Jrz, as well as +PF and -PF with the help of network staff. Ben Reser has kindly produced a [script](http://ben.reser.org/irssi/format_identify.pl) for [irssi](http://www.irssi.org/) which takes advantage of the new CAPAB IDENTIFY-MSG support to display an unambiguous indication in each line whether the person speaking (or doing an ACTION) is identified to services. **This should make it quite a bit harder to spoof nicknames.** To use the script in irssi, simply follow the instructions in the comments section.
+
**We could use your help** in creating similar scripts for **xchat** and the other **free software** IRC clients, and even for **mIRC**, to help those who are stuck using Microsoft products to connect to the network.
We're approaching release and, again, **we need your help.** **Please come to the testnet** on [irc.freenode.net, port 9001](irc://irc.freenode.net:9001/) and help us find bugs! Stop by #kline-me if you'd like to help us thrash the bugs out of our KLINE/UNKLINE/REHASH changes. Or just take a look at the following (slightly updated) change list, and at our older [reference manual](http://source.freenode.net/%7Easuffield/dancer/dancer-oper-guide/dancer-oper-guide/), not yet updated, to look for features to test.
date: 2003-06-05 15:44:59+00:00
slug: announcement-polling-for-statistics
title: '[Announcement] Polling for statistics'
+---
+
+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!
date: 2003-06-05 21:05:48+00:00
slug: dropping-unused-and-expired-nick-and-channel-registrations
title: Dropping unused and expired nick and channel registrations.
+---
+
+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.
+
+In other news, the testnet is now running a new release, dancer-ircd-1.0.31+pre19. This means we're getting closer to 1.0.32, but we need your help to test it all out. Please take a look at the [original news article](http://freenode.net/news-2003-05-28.shtml) and come help us test!
+
Finally, we asked the editors of [Computerworld](http://www.computerworld.com/) to provide an [RSS feed](http://www.computerworld.com/news/xml/coverage/0,5451,2046,00.xml) for their [SCO coverage page](http://www.computerworld.com/news/special/pages/0,10911,2046,00.html), and they were kind enough to set it up and write us back in about an hour. You may want to add this to your newsbot or add it to knewsticker or your Evolution summary page, to help keep up with the news.
Have a great evening!
date: 2003-07-21 16:48:06+00:00
slug: hubbing-problems
title: Hubbing Problems
+---
+
+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!
+
+In other interesting and more positive news, freenode has the unusual opportunity to welcome a group which has already been on the network for some time. Our **#redhat** channel has been registered for over five years, and has been a venue for some excellent unofficial support from such Red Hat employees as **spot** and **mharris**. The latest news is that [Red Hat Linux](http://www.redhat.com/) has become.... [Red Hat Linux](http://rhl.redhat.com/). More properly, the underlying Red Hat Linux free software project has been reconstituted and is now maintained as a discrete project. RHL has officially moved to freenode as a development project. We welcome one of our newest, and one of our oldest, participating GNU/Linux distributions! :)
+
Finally, we continue to work on testing [dancer-ircd 1.0.32](http://freenode.net/news-2003-05-28.shtml). We're currently at 1.0.31+pre22. There will be at least one more pre-release for feature cleanup, but what we have running on the [testnet](irc://irc.freenode.net:9001) (irc.freenode.net, port 9001) is as solid as we can make it at test loads. Please help us test by opening up a client or two or a hundred. We really need your help. We'll be going back in to clean up the hubbing this afternoon or evening, in line with whatever changes we make to the production environment. Stop in first chance you get.
Have a great day!
date: 2003-08-03 21:12:49+00:00
slug: scheduled-maintenance-ircd-upgrade-3
title: '[Scheduled Maintenance] IRCD Upgrade'
+---
+
+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.
+
+The release candidate code can be found [here](http://source.freenode.net/%7Easuffield/dancer/dancer-ircd/1.0/pre/dancer-ircd-1.0.31+pre23.tar.gz), and we provided information on new server features in a [previous news item](http://freenode.net/news-2003-05-28.shtml). It seems from our experience in this and other development cycles that the only real way to get production-load testing in dancer-ircd 1.0 is to go ahead and try the conversion, once we're pretty certain we have reliable code. The code looks fine in the test environment, and delaying will not help us with kiddie attacks.
+
The plan is to try today (Sunday in most venues), converting the small European servers and Australia and a couple of small servers in the US, and then the larger servers in the main rotation. The old protocol is not fully-compatible with the new protocol, so servers which have been converted will be connected to other converted servers, but we'll have two networks until the conversion is complete. It could take a couple of hours if all goes well.
Obviously, there is no guarantee we'll be successful. If need be, we'll back up to the 1.0 environment, which should take about a half hour. If we're able to stay up using pre-1.0.32, we'll just do a bit of cleanup next weekend, which may involve restarting the servers one at a time, but should not require a partition of the network.
date: 2003-08-11 17:47:14+00:00
slug: network-status-update
title: Network Status Update
+---
+
+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.
+
+Thank you again for your patience, and thank you for using freenode!
+
**Edit:**
NETWORK STATUS UPDATELatest news: We've got a working upgrade for the server code, [dancer-ircd 1.0.31+pre24](http://source.freenode.net/%7Easuffield/dancer/dancer-ircd/1.0/pre/dancer-ircd-1.0.31+pre24.tar.gz) and we're preparing to upgrade. We've installed the new code on the primary hubs to filter out problem state as it travels the network. The next step will be a global restart of the main rotation servers. We'll follow that with the smaller regional servers and the IPv6 servers. Please bear with us as we restore the network to more reliable operation.
date: 2003-09-01 04:42:32+00:00
slug: release-dancer-ircd-1032
title: '[Release] dancer-ircd 1.0.32'
+---
+
+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.
+
+In other news, we're sorry to report that the Freenode Radio project is being put on hold for the time being. We hope to reinstate FNR in the near future, at least on a pilot project basis. We understand that **MysticOne** and other participants are moving on to other streaming radio projects, and we wish them well.
date: 2004-01-27 15:36:27+00:00
slug: happy-birthday-freenode
title: Happy Birthday freenode!
+---
+
+It's **freenode**'s birthday party. Please come celebrate with us.
+
+In early August, 1994, a small IRC support channel called #linuxneo, on the EFNet IRC network, began to see activity. The channel grew, and in a few days its name was changed to #linpeople. The channel eventually moved to Undernet, then DALnet, and in late 1995 it became its own IRC network, irc.linpeople.org. By early 1998, its focus began to broaden, from GNU/Linux to free software in general, and it became irc.openprojects.net. In August, 2002, the network changed its name to irc.freenode.net as it became the first project of a new nonprofit [(not-for-profit) --Ed.] entity, [Peer-Directed Projects Center](http://freenode.net/pdpc.shtml).
+
Today, **freenode** peaks at over 15,000 users, and we're home to coordination channels for such projects as Debian GNU/Linux, fedora, Gentoo, KDE and subversion. We're the official IRC network of the Free Software Foundation's GNU project; we provide support channels for FreeBSD, GNU/Linux and a variety of free software applications. But the real conceptual moment when the network was born was early in 1994, on 29 January at 01:49 UTC, when I first joined the channel #linuxneo.
So, happy birthday to us! Ten years later to the minute, on 29 January 2004 at 01:49 UTC, the birthday party will begin in channel **#linuxneo** on **irc.freenode.net.** It'll last all day. Grab an IRC client, get a little [help](http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/ircprimer.html) setting it up, and come join us on freenode!
date: 2004-01-31 22:05:38+00:00
slug: scheduled-maintenance-ircd-upgrades
title: '[Scheduled Maintenance] IRCD Upgrades'
+---
+
+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.
+
+Your editor notes that this is a maintenance release, so in theory it should consist entirely of minor changes and bugfixes; but until dancer 1.1 (with its automated testing framework) is in place, upgrades are always going to be a bit nervous-making. Whenever we upgrade the network, there's a possibility that new problems will be uncovered, requiring further upgrades. Bear with us, and help us if you can by staying with the network during the process and giving the new code a good thumping to make sure it's okay. :)
+
Excerpts from the NEWS file follow:
date: 2004-02-14 14:49:39+00:00
slug: scheduled-maintenance-bug-fixes-expected-network-disturbances
title: '[Scheduled Maintenance] Bug fixes, expected network disturbances'
+---
+
+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.
+
+The upgrade should go very quickly unless some unforeseen problem occurs. Thank you for using freenode!
date: 2004-03-16 04:22:00+00:00
slug: announcement-feature-addition-freenode-info
title: '[Announcement] Feature Addition, freenode-info.'
+---
+
+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!
date: 2004-03-19 15:33:22+00:00
slug: a-big-thank-you-to-digium
title: A big thank you to Digium.
+---
+
+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.
+
+Thanks again to **Digium** and **Asterisk** for making their home on freenode!
date: 2004-03-25 06:01:35+00:00
slug: customised-project-cloaks
title: Customised Project Cloaks
+---
+
+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. **:)**
+
+If you'd like to wear a cloak and you think you might be eligible, check with your project lead to set it up. If you're a project lead and you'd like to set up cloaking, the [FAQ](http://freenode.net/faq.shtml#projectcloak) should tell you everything you need to know. If you have any questions, just email **staff at freenode dot net**.
+
Thank you for using freenode!
**ADDENDUM:** Thursday 25 March 2004 at 07:20We'll be making one more change to cloaking near the end of the week. At midnight UTC on Saturday morning (Friday evening in much of the US), we'll be simplifying the **foo.registered.freenode** cloaks. From that point on, they will be simply: **foo.registered**. Thanks!
date: 2004-04-13 16:34:53+00:00
slug: announcement-policy-changes
title: '[Announcement] Policy Changes'
+---
+
+Hi all. We've made two changes recently of which you should be aware.
+
+
+
1. We've added a [channel ownership policy](http://freenode.net/policy.shtml#channelownership) item to the [freenode policy page](http://freenode.net/policy.shtml). It's a key clarification to our channel ownership policies and you should take a look.
date: 2004-04-16 15:31:16+00:00
slug: group-contacts
title: Group Contacts
+---
+
+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!
date: 2004-05-17 14:44:22+00:00
slug: gcf-delays
title: GCF Delays
+---
+
+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.
+
+In the meantime, the freenode fundraiser is moving along fairly slowly at this point. If you've been thinking about [donating](http://freenode.net/news-2004-05-17.shtml#donate), now would be a very good time. If you've used the network and found it helpful, please think about making a donation so that we can grow the network and the [nonprofit](http://freenode.net/pdpc.shtml) [PDPC, the not-for-profit entity which runs the network --Ed.] successfully.
+
If you're a corporate user of freenode, we can use your help. A one-time donation to [Peer-Directed Projects Center](http://freenode.net/pdpc.shtml), an IRS 501(c)3 (non-profit, tax-exempt) corporation, would help the network and allow you to support the community in a very visible way. [Contact us](mailto:staff@peerprojects.org) for more information.
Your participation is essential to growing the network and the nonprofit. Please help us.
date: 2004-07-05 17:38:14+00:00
slug: pdpc-fundraiser-event
title: PDPC Fundraiser Event
+---
+
+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)
+
+Today's contributors will get to wear **the silly cloak of their choice for 24 hours.** Just [donate](http://freenode.net/news-2004-07-05.shtml#donate) and message a staffer on **#fundraiser** with the details. You get up to 52 characters of the text of your choice, and the cloaks will end in **.fundraiser.pdpc**. You'll get to wear your cloak for 24 hours!
+
And for those of you who would like to help us move things along even further, it's....
date: 2004-07-06 12:32:06+00:00
slug: fundraising-event
title: Fundraising Event
+---
+
+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.
+
+**Many thanks to everyone who participated in fundraising yesterday, including:**
+
aaearon, ac1d, alexissoft, amrit, andrewy, Anvil, BettyBoop, bhearsum, bkw_, c0ldbyte, ciaranm, Cody, cnb, ctd, Daeken, Damian_Des, dan2, decode, [Dev]_, Didjoburo, DP, eaglex, file, floppydisk, flosch, Georgia, gerrynjr, guru3, harryv, Hyp3rion, jaqque, jcristau, ksandre, Luigi30, mrsnazz, mtp, NeoThermic, nichlas, Nikaji, plasmaroo, poptix, PuppiesOnAcid, pwaring, Ramsey, Rawplayer, reuben, RichardP, Richih, ruskie, rxKaffee, setient, smimou, swegener, The_Tick, TheSandyman, theWW1FlyingAce, tigloo, tite, TmBerg, twisted, unleashed2k, W8TVI, wwalker, Xial, xiO_ and the staff of freenode.
Apologies if we missed you---there were a lot of people in **#fundraiser** and things were very hectic. We appreciate your support, whether we managed to list you or not. And our thanks to everyone who has donated and to everyone who uses and contributes to the network. We couldn't do it without you.
date: 2004-07-12 04:30:50+00:00
slug: announcement-fundraising-update-scheduled-maintenance
title: '[Announcement] Fundraising Update & Scheduled Maintenance'
+---
+
+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!
+
+**OPERATIONAL NOTE:** We're in the process of moving one of our hub nodes to its permanent fiber. We'll be rehubbing in about a half hour, sometime around 05:00 UTC, and again in another 8 hours, at 13:00 UTC (midnight and 08:00 US/Central time). We apologize in advance for the disruption. Thanks for your understanding.
date: 2004-08-12 19:52:26+00:00
slug: scheduled-maintenance-maintenance-and-re-routing
title: '[Scheduled Maintenance] Maintenance and Re-routing'
+---
+
+Hi, all. Main rotation servers will be coming down for maintenance and rerouting on two occasions this month:
+
+
+
date: 2004-09-05 01:29:13+00:00
slug: scheduled-maintenance-services-downtime
title: '[Scheduled Maintenance] Services Downtime'
+---
+
+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.
+
+IRC services (NickServ and ChanServ) will be down for several minutes while part of the change is completed.
+
Thanks for your patience, and as usual, thank you for using freenode!
date: 2004-09-08 02:38:24+00:00
slug: scheduled-maintenance-services-database-clear-out
title: '[Scheduled Maintenance] Services database clear-out.'
+---
+
+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.
+
+We'll be dropping all expired nicknames. As [explained](http://freenode.net/faq.shtml#expirations) in the [FAQ](http://freenode.net/faq.shtml), IRC nicknames on freenode expire after 60 days. Nicks that are at least two weeks old and that were last used less than two hours after their creation are also considered to be expired.
+
There are several things you should know about this cleanup process:
date: 2004-10-11 19:09:18+00:00
slug: scheduled-maintenance-upgrading-rotation-servers
title: '[Scheduled Maintenance] Upgrading Rotation Servers'
+---
+
+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!
date: 2004-10-28 19:58:15+00:00
slug: a-couple-of-items-of-possible-interest
title: 'A couple of items of possible interest. '
+---
+
+**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**.
+
+**Second,** if you're thinking of using PayPal to donate to our parent not-for-profit entity, [Peer-Directed Projects Center](http://freenode.net/pdpc.shtml), today would be a good day to do so. PayPal has announced a free day due to its recent problems. It will be refunding fees on all transactions, until 11:59pm US/Pacific (6:59am 29 October 2004 UTC). So, you have about ten hours to make that donation with no fees charged to PDPC. Please take the opportunity to make your donation go a bit farther!
+
Thank you for your support to date, and thank you for using **freenode**.
date: 2004-11-03 04:59:56+00:00
slug: scheduled-maintenance-emergency-reboot
title: '[Scheduled Maintenance] Emergency reboot'
+---
+
+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.
+
+We apologize for this unavoidable service interruption. Please accept our apologies, and thank you for using freenode
date: 2004-12-18 05:09:10+00:00
slug: scheduled-maintenance-re-hubbing
title: '[Scheduled Maintenance] Re-hubbing'
+---
+
+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.
+
+We apologize for these unavoidable outages, and as always, thank you for using freenode!
date: 2004-12-29 03:34:19+00:00
slug: scheduled-maintenance-switch-maintenance
title: '[Scheduled Maintenance] Switch Maintenance'
+---
+
+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.
+
+Thanks in advance for your patience, and have an excellent New Year. Thank you for using freenode!
date: 2005-01-23 23:34:28+00:00
slug: announcement-pdpc-fundraiser
title: '[Announcement] PDPC Fundraiser'
+---
+
+Good evening to everyone. Here's hoping you're having an excellent new year. In the next day or so, [Peer-Directed Projects Center](http://freenode.net/pdpc.shtml), the IRS 501(c)(03) parent organization of **freenode**, will begin its fundraising campaign for the fiscal year ending 30 June 2006. We're still working on budget estimates for FYE 2006, and we begin the campaign with about $2,440 in donations over and above those required for the current year.
+
+The board of directors of PDPC passed the following resolution today, pertaining to fundraising:
+
<blockquote> _ Whereas Peer-Directed Projects Center is an IRS 501(c)(03) organization, with a responsibility to contribute to the public welfare, and whereas donors to PDPC represent a broad range of community participants, and whereas the recent tsunami has demonstrated a genuine need for public support for international relief and welfare organizations, and
date: 2005-01-27 07:06:05+00:00
slug: announcement-late-notice-of-outages
title: '[Announcement] Late notice of outages'
+---
+
+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.
+
+Apologies for this unfortunate service interruption. We appreciate your patience and understanding, and thank you for using freenode.
date: 2005-02-02 13:50:53+00:00
slug: scheduled-maintenance-network-outages
title: '[Scheduled Maintenance] Network Outages'
+---
+
+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.
+
+Apologies for the inconvenience. As always, we appreciate your patience and understanding, and we thank you for using freenode!
date: 2005-05-20 17:20:29+00:00
slug: scheduled-maintenance-expected-downtime-due-to-software-upgrade
title: '[Scheduled Maintenance] Expected downtime due to software upgrade'
+---
+
+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.
date: 2005-05-20 20:36:16+00:00
slug: scheduled-maintenance-major-server-maintenance
title: '[Scheduled Maintenance] Major Server Maintenance'
+---
+
+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.
date: 2005-06-20 18:00:19+00:00
slug: scheduled-maintenance-server-upgrades
title: '[Scheduled Maintenance] Server Upgrades'
+---
+
+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.
date: 2005-06-27 21:36:08+00:00
slug: scheduled-maintenance-rescheduling-planned-outages
title: '[Scheduled Maintenance] Rescheduling planned outages'
+---
+
+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
+
+Thank you for your support and understanding.
date: 2005-06-28 23:55:08+00:00
slug: scheduled-maintenance-changes-to-the-scheduled-downtime
title: '[Scheduled Maintenance] Changes to the scheduled downtime'
+---
+
+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
+
+We'll try to keep things running as well as possible during the outage periods, but there will be disruption--we appreciate your understanding and patience.
date: 2005-08-07 07:11:46+00:00
slug: announcement-introducing-stats-p
title: '[Announcement] Introducing /stats p'
+---
+
+ 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.
+
+Hyperion represents the return to active maintenance of our source tree, and provides [a number of bug fixes and operational enhancements.](http://svn.freenode.net/hyperion/trunk/NEWS) There will be a few visible enhancements, such as the use of the
+
<blockquote>** /stats p **</blockquote>
date: 2005-08-29 12:52:45+00:00
slug: scheduled-maintenance-ircd-upgrade-2
title: '[Scheduled Maintenance] IRCD upgrade.'
+---
+
+ 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.
+
+In a few minutes, we'll be reconfiguring the network to prevent unregistered users from sending private messages. This is an experimental feature which can be turned on and off at will. In the short term, it should prevent private message flooding from spambots; in the long term, combined with changes to authentication, it could make such flooding very rare. Please email us at **_policy at freenode dot net_** and let us know what you think of the feature. You'll also be able to use
+
<blockquote> **_/stats p_**</blockquote>
date: 2005-08-30 20:03:10+00:00
slug: scheduled-maintenance-services-upgrade
title: '[Scheduled Maintenance] Services Upgrade'
+---
+
+ 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.
+
+We've resolved the problems with the 1.0.1 code release and will be phasing the patched code in over the next 8 or 9 hours, with our main rotation servers restarted between 4am and 5am UTC. We'll be working on providing a non-default NickServ setting for registered users, allowing them to receive messages from unregistered users. This feature should be available very soon. We'll continue to test for the next few days, and you can help by telling us what you think of the feature; just email your comments to **_policy at freenode dot net_**. And registered or unregistered users can message an active staffer for help; just use
+
<blockquote>**_ /stats p _**</blockquote>
date: 2005-09-10 10:27:54+00:00
slug: scheduled-maintenance-memory-upgrade
title: '[Scheduled Maintenance] Memory Upgrade'
+---
+
+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.
date: 2005-12-16 18:11:40+00:00
slug: afternoon-all
title: '[Announcement] DNS change'
+---
+
+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!
date: 2005-12-17 12:18:55+00:00
slug: good-afternoon-everyone
title: '[Announcement] Temporary DNS Change'
+---
+
+ 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.
+
+We're not certain how long the patch will work. Botnets are modified over time by their creators and this one will likely be no exception. We hope we can utilize the new methodology to handle subsequent generations of botnets, but there's no guarantee our efforts will be successful. We believe that it will be helpful to make a gradual, permanent cutover of the main rotation hostname from _irc.*_ to _chat.*_ to make it somewhat less likely we'll experience future problems.
+
If you're a client developer or you run an IRC network list site, please do not list [chat.freenode.net](irc://chat.freenode.net/), in your client or site without first emailing **staff at freenode dot net** to make sure it's okay to do so.
Finally, we want to thank you all for your patience and understanding. You've helped us stay on track and resolve the current difficulties, and we appreciate it. Apologies for the inconvenience, and thank you for using freenode!
date: 2005-12-22 01:10:59+00:00
slug: good-morning-all-2
title: '[Announcement] Network problems'
+---
+
+ 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.
+
+The network is once again running smoothly. However, in order to resolve remaining resource issues, staff has scheduled server restarts at 6am UTC (10pm in San Francisco, 7am in Stockholm, 5pm in Sydney). The restarts will affect most of the network but should be very brief.
+
Other than the problems yesterday evening, the network has been running well, and staff considers the upgrade to be a qualified success. We'll keep you posted in case of additional problems. Thanks much for your patience!
date: 2005-12-31 00:30:02+00:00
slug: '98'
title: Happy New Year!
+---
+
+
date: 2006-05-02 21:03:26+00:00
slug: good-evening-everyone
title: '[Scheduled Maintenance] European Rehubbing'
+---
+
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.
Thanks to everyone for your patience and understanding, and thank you for using freenode. Have a great night!
date: 2006-09-16 10:47:55+00:00
slug: announcement-rob-levin-has-passed-away
title: '[Announcement] Rob Levin has passed away'
+---
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.
date: 2006-09-23 14:46:39+00:00
slug: '94'
title: Rob Levin, a man who will be greatly missed
-- social
---
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.
date: 2006-11-02 16:46:39+00:00
slug: downtime-unexpected-downtime
title: '[Downtime] Unexpected downtime.'
+---
+
+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!
Thank you for using freenode and have a great day.
date: 2006-11-11 08:00:49+00:00
slug: introducing-the-pdpc-board
title: '[Announcement] Introducing the PDPC board'
+---
+
+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.
+
Following Rob "lilo" Levin's death earlier this year, the PDPC board has voted in new board members and are about to embark upon some exciting new tasks. The new board is as follows:
date: 2006-12-22 00:00:53+00:00
slug: scheduled-maintenance-ircd-upgrade
title: '[Scheduled Maintenance] IRCD upgrade.'
+---
+
+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.
This morning, between 6:00 and 7:00AM UTC, we will be restarting numerous servers, including our network hubs. Approximately 35% of the network will be disconnected and the rest will notice significant fragmentation. We have planned the upgrades well in advance and with hope, the affected servers will only be down for a few minutes, at which point the network will return to normal operation.
date: 2007-02-15 02:12:17+00:00
slug: bringing-people-together
title: Bringing people together?
+---
+
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.
Over the past few years I've gotten to know some amazing people, both online and in person, become involved with some exciting projects, learned a lot about cool new stuff.. and it's all thanks to the community surrounding the network.
date: 2007-02-15 00:13:59+00:00
slug: here-there-be-blog-posts
title: Here, there be blog posts
+---
+
+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..
+
We will start our regular blogging with a message from christel, our head of staff. Most of you will probably have heard of her, anyway. For those who did not, she is a twenty-something nurse trying to live in the UK. She fails horribly at this and is cursed with lots of traveling around the world. Apart from Free Software and open communities, her interests include pink.
Expect to see her first post soonish. :)
date: 2007-02-16 20:25:46+00:00
slug: group-registration-with-freenode
title: Group registration with freenode
+---
+
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.
The concept of registering your project and the availability of this service has been around for some time. Rob Levin, the late founder of PDPC and freenode, placed particularly emphasis on the importance of real world-backed relationships between projects and the network, and there are many benefits to the projects for going through the process: they have rights over the channels they register, and to this end can request transfer of ownership of any channels that they lay claim to as part of their group - assuming, of course, they are able to prove that they are involved in the group to a sufficient level of authority to authorise this. Additionally, project cloaks can be requested. These replace the default unaffiliated cloaks given out; for example, I wear a Wikimedia cloak to show my involvement. Group registration is also possible for about, reference or topical groups, such as those found at ##cooking, ##philosophy and ##security on freenode, to name but a few. They too can request cloaks and gain an official relationship with the network and its staff.
date: 2007-02-23 07:49:11+00:00
slug: the-heart-and-mind-of-a-catalyst
title: The Heart and Mind of a Catalyst
+---
+
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!
What is a catalyst, you might ask? "Catalysts try to resolve problems, not through the use of authority and special privilege, but by fostering consensus, gently nudging participants in the direction of more appropriate behavior and by generally reducing the level of confrontation rather than confronting users with problems...[while] Channel and network administrators may be catalysts...[a]n important characteristic of successful catalysts is the infrequency with which they wear authority or invoke special privilege."
date: 2007-02-28 00:26:33+00:00
slug: fosdem-2007
title: FOSDEM 2007
+---
+
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!
In hindsight, we should probably have announced some sort of informal freenode meeting so people would have been aware that some of us went there. It is a pity that we did not think of that beforehand, but I will try to make sure we let people know well in advance next time!
date: 2007-02-28 00:58:33+00:00
slug: freenode-is-about-you-and-dont-just-take-our-word-for-it
title: freenode is about you and don't just take our word for it
+---
+
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.
date: 2007-03-24 22:15:49+00:00
slug: nickserv-is-your-friend
title: NickServ Is Your Friend
+---
+
+**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.**
+
Nickserv, unbeknownst to many, has many useful features. In addition to handling nick registration, it allows you to change your password, hide certain information about your nick and online status, recover your nick from another user who is using it (or a dead computer connection), turn on/off the ability to receive and be notified of new memos. Here are some of the major features of nickserv. Don't be afraid to poke around with /msg nickserv help.
**Nick Setup**
date: 2007-03-24 16:13:29+00:00
slug: pdpc-design-contest
title: PDPC Design Contest!
+---
+
+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.
+
This is a quick reminder about the contest still being on, and anyone interested are encouraged to get in touch with us by e-mailing design@freenode.net
As the PDPC grows and expands it has become clear that we would benefit greatly from a better web presence, and we would like to invite you to participate in our web design and logo contests.
date: 2007-04-05 10:58:35+00:00
slug: building-bridges
title: Building Bridges
+---
+
+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.
It should come as no great surprise to most people to learn that the two groups are remarkably similar. We have the same goals, the same mindset, and common roots. We're moving in the same direction, of course we're taking similar paths! But it's nice to know that, to have it confirmed by months of observation and conversation, by sharing common problems (and common jokes).
date: 2007-04-06 09:55:38+00:00
slug: whats-your-story
title: What's your story?
+---
+
+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!
date: 2007-04-19 13:07:23+00:00
slug: getting-voice-in-freenode-social
title: 'Getting voice in #freenode-social'
+---
+
+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.
The channel has been moderated for a long time, and this is because of the many problems with spambots that the network had been experiencing all that time ago. Unfortunately, we are the target of many an attack and moderation stops this - when a staffer comes and gives out voices, they are able to keep an eye on people trying to spoil the fun of others. Although you may notice that some users have auto-voice by ChanServ, a run of voices is usually given out every few hours or so, when a staffer notices that the channel has a lot of unvoiced people. This system isn't the most efficient, but it allows us to keep a close eye on what is going on to keep things stable. Generally speaking, voice is not given on request because we feel that we would find ourselves very quickly inundated with requests, but we try and voice regularly none the less.
date: 2007-04-19 14:03:09+00:00
slug: upcoming-changes-to-hyperion-our-ircd-software
title: Upcoming changes to hyperion, our ircd software
+---
+
+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!)
This update will add some fairly modern features to the ircd's I/O engine to allow it to operate more efficiently and fix a few internal bugs that have been noticed during the run of hyperion 1.0.2b. These changes will be going live on a testnet in the next few days most likely, at which point I will write another post with information on how to play around on the freenode testnet with the updated ircd code.
date: 2007-05-12 14:53:10+00:00
slug: a-re-de-focus
title: A Re-/De-focus
+---
freenode is pleased to announce a few changes effective May 12, 2007 at 12:55 UTC:
date: 2007-05-15 03:49:56+00:00
slug: all-roads-lead-to-defocus
title: 'All roads lead to #defocus'
+---
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.
date: 2007-05-22 21:20:41+00:00
slug: changes-to-the-board-structure-of-the-pdpc
title: Changes to the board structure of the PDPC
+---
+
+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.
+
Phil Stracchino follows in Christel's footsteps, assuming her previous position as secretary pro tem.
Joining the board we have Richard (RichiH) Hartmann in the position as treasurer pro tem, representing freenode staff, and David (cdlu) Graham as a community board member.
date: 2007-05-22 21:42:48+00:00
slug: so-much-is-happening
title: So much is happening...
+---
Today has been an interesting day in 'freenodia', a day of reflection, and a day where both myself and my incredible staff got a feel of what it means to be surrounded and embraced by so many large and vibrant communities as those who choose to use the freenode network. We are proud and happy to host the projects we host, and we are tremendously grateful that by using freenode you allow us to get a peek behind the curtains on how your project operates, which is always refreshing.
date: 2007-07-11 17:58:11+00:00
slug: freenode-defocus-an-evaluation
title: '#freenode & #defocus: an evaluation'
+---
+
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 -->
There are mixed feelings across the network on how the two channels have gone, but we all agreed that #freenode has been doing very well. It is a productive help channel, and has been a good way of contacting staff when methods such as /stats p are blocked by clients, or users are new to the world of IRC. It makes a lot of sense to type /join #networkname when you're in trouble. However, there have been a few concerns raised about #defocus and so we spent a good part of the meeting trying to work these out. A major one was that staff and helpers are not actually using the channel for socialising and thus only appear to police it. We all agreed that this makes a lot of sense, but also that we are stuck in old habits - the staff channel sees a lot of social chatter going on, and it was pointed out that we are often more comfortable in rooms where we know everyone. However, we did all agree to try and make the effort to move conversations, and indeed simply saying "let's take this to #defocus" every so often seems to be working.
date: 2007-08-14 08:56:42+00:00
slug: were-still-here
title: We're still here!
+---
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!
date: 2007-08-26 19:20:55+00:00
slug: cia-bots-the-instant-version-control-informants-an-annoyance
title: CIA Bots - 'The Instant Version Control Informants' -- an annoyance?
+---
+
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!).
While freenode encourage and welcome the use of CIA-* bots on our servers, finding it to be a great tool for the wider FOSS communities, tracking thousands of concurrent projects and contributors at any given time we also acknowledge that it may be annoying to have a uninvited CIA-* bot join your channel.
date: 2007-11-04 23:32:18+00:00
slug: thank-you-alindeman
title: Thank you!
-- social
---
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.
date: 2007-11-11 12:20:54+00:00
slug: a-very-brief-mention-of-upcoming-changes
title: A very brief mention of upcoming changes..
+---
+
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).
We are of course pleased that our numbers are growing and that more and more people and projects are finding a use for freenode; it's a fantastic feeling to be able to give something back to the wider FOSS community.
date: 2007-11-18 23:49:19+00:00
slug: keeping-tabs-on-channel-bans
title: Keeping tabs on channel bans
+---
+
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.
There is however a downside to the ease of banning users on freenode from channels and that is that it is easy to lose track of bans set in large channels. There is no feature to auto-expire bans in IRC and in a busy channel it doesn't take long for a large list to build up. With multiple operators in a channel things can very quickly become confused and no-one seems to know why ban x was set and whether or not the user should now be unbanned. This leads to unhappy users and a channel that misses out on potential positive discussion. In addition, channels have a limit of fifty bans set at any one time and bans end up being shed arbitarily in order to set a new set for a new threat. This can lead to obvious problems.
date: 2007-12-01 23:00:55+00:00
slug: blogging-about-logging
title: Blogging about logging..
+---
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.
date: 2007-12-11 00:38:03+00:00
slug: we-are-recruiting
title: We are recruiting!
+---
+
We are currently looking to expand the freenode volunteer staff team – seeking people from across the target communities we serve.
Previous irc experience is a bonus, but not a requirement.
date: 2007-12-23 18:07:24+00:00
slug: happy-holidays
title: Happy holidays!
-- projects
-- social
---
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.
date: 2007-12-23 18:06:00+00:00
slug: more-blogging-about-logging
title: More blogging about logging...
+---
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.
date: 2008-01-16 20:36:46+00:00
slug: thanks-for-volunteering
title: Thanks for volunteering!
+---
+
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.
Thank you for your patience and we hope you will keep enriching freenode.
date: 2008-03-22 17:46:11+00:00
slug: helping-others-help-you
title: Helping others help you.
+---
+
+ From _[The Pragmatic Programmer](http://www.amazon.com/Pragmatic-Programmer-Journeyman-Master/dp/020161622X)_:
+
<blockquote>**Care and Cultivation of Gurus **With the global adoption of the internet, gurus suddenly are as close as your Enter key. So, how do you find one, and how do you get one to talk with you? We find there are some simple tricks.
date: 2008-04-22 20:57:29+00:00
slug: registering-a-channel-on-freenode
title: Registering a channel on freenode
+---
+
+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 ;)
**Step 1** - make sure you're in the right place
date: 2008-05-29 15:06:27+00:00
slug: services-migration
title: Services Migration
+---
+
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.
date: 2008-05-31 17:56:35+00:00
slug: new-services-nicknames-and-accounts
title: 'New Services: Nicknames and Accounts'
+---
+
+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.
**Nicknames and Accounts**
date: 2008-06-10 17:45:54+00:00
slug: who-are-freenode-staff-part-1-of
title: Who Are freenode Staff? (Part 1 of ?)
+---
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.
date: 2008-07-02 18:58:46+00:00
slug: lugradio-live-the-grand-finale
title: 'Lugradio Live: The grand finale'
+---
+
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.
LugRadio Live UK 2008
date: 2008-08-28 11:00:51+00:00
slug: freenode-autovoice-trial
title: '#freenode: Autovoice Trial'
+---
+
+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
date: 2008-09-02 11:51:24+00:00
slug: happy-25th-birthday-gnu
title: Happy 25th Birthday, GNU!
+---
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).
date: 2008-09-14 19:17:17+00:00
slug: change-in-defocus-policy-and-what-do-you-think
title: 'Change in #defocus policy - and what do you think?'
+---
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.
date: 2008-10-30 12:40:18+00:00
slug: fundraising-for-charity-status
title: Fundraising for Charity Status!
+---
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.
date: 2008-11-02 20:14:06+00:00
slug: help-us-test-ircd-seven
title: Help us test ircd-seven!
+---
+
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.
[Charybdis](http://hg.atheme.org/charybdis) looks like a good start -- it's a modern, modular IRC daemon supporting many of hyperion's strange features, and built on top of [ircd-ratbox](http://ircd-ratbox.org/), which gives it a good heritage of stability and scalability. ircd-ratbox is perhaps best known for powering the majority of EFNet, which seems to make it an excellent base on which to build.
date: 2008-11-02 19:01:07+00:00
slug: maintenance-downtime-warning-lem-orwell
title: '[Maintenance] Downtime warning -- lem, orwell'
+---
Hi all,
date: 2008-12-20 23:32:49+00:00
slug: new-servers
title: New servers
+---
+
Hi all,
Over the past couple of months we've been fortunate enough to be able to add a couple of new servers to freenode's rotation. Namely, lindbohm (IPv6: denis) and hubbard, sponsored by [Stockholm University](http://www.su.se/) and [Carnegie Mellon University Computer Club](http://www.club.cc.cmu.edu/), respectively. Thanks to all of our sponsors for keeping the network online.
date: 2009-01-05 13:36:18+00:00
slug: 20082009-fundraiser
title: 2008/2009 Fundraiser.
+---
date: 2009-01-05 13:34:32+00:00
slug: nickserv-access-module-loaded
title: Nickserv Access Module Loaded.
+---
+
+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.
For more detailed information, see NickServ's help topic:
date: 2009-01-29 19:09:00+00:00
slug: canonical-pledges-matching-funds
title: Canonical Pledges Matching Funds
+---
+
+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:
+
+
+
Mark Shuttleworth and the Canonical team have kindly agreed to provide matching funding for up to £1700, which is enough to meet our £5000 goal). Effective immediately, every donation you make will have a matching contribution, thereby doubling in value! This is an extraordinarily kind gesture and we at freenode would like to thank Mark and Canonical, and the Ubuntu community, for directly and indirectly making it happen!
date: 2009-01-30 19:41:25+00:00
slug: the-beauty-of-freenode
title: 'The Beauty of #freenode'
+---
+
+#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).
+
+Almost two years ago, the channel #freenode was recreated with new guidelines and philosophy consistent with freenode's. The ideas weren't that new - they had already been (somewhat) in use in the old #tapthru channel. The activity in #freenode is generally within the channel guidelines, which may be found at http://freenode.net/poundfreenode.shtml and is highly recommended for anyone planning to participate in the channel.
+
Whilst many help channels utilize specialized staff to answer questions, one of the most refreshing things about #freenode is that anyone who knows the answer to a question can, and often does, provide the answer or help to the user in need - regardless of status or staff-ness. Numerous users lurk in the channel, either to learn from others' questions, help other users through their queries or generally just to take up space :)
Some of the more common questions can be, and are, answered by a multitude of people. Keep in mind that being on staff is not a prerequisite to having the correct answer to your question! Here are some common questions:
date: 2009-02-02 19:19:55+00:00
slug: who-are-freenode-staff-part-2-of
title: Who Are freenode Staff? (Part 2 of ?)
+---
+
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.
_**Gary** - Since today is Gary's birthday, it's only fitting to discuss his deep-seated desire to be helpful to others!__ Although he has been on numerous irc networks since he first discovered irc in the late 90s, he found himself on freenode and wrangled into doing what he does (and loves) best - helping others. Luckily, freenode staff had no need to brainwash Gary when he joined up - he was already completely sold on the network and its philosophy. Gary was, however, christel's biggest proponent in painting the network pink! If he had his choice, Gary would paint all the network trolls pink and then put them on display for others to laugh at them, rather than allowing them to bog things down._
date: 2009-02-09 14:40:19+00:00
slug: freenode-t-shirts
title: freenode t-shirts
+---
+
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.
Well, this is where you come in. We need help! Freenode is full of people with cool ideas, doing cool things, and we want to embody some of this on these t-shirts. As such, we are looking for some great designs we can take forward and use for these shirts. If you have an idea for a t-shirt design you would like to see us offer, send it on over to [canvas@freenode.net](mailto:canvas@freenode.net) for our review. As we proceed, further details (including a link to view and purchase shirts) will be made available via the blog.
date: 2009-03-09 15:32:07+00:00
slug: 20082009-fundraiser-campaign-update
title: 2008/2009 fundraiser campaign update
+---
+
**[UPDATE]**
** **We are down to only £241.60 needed after matching! Thank you for your generosity!
date: 2009-03-17 13:19:47+00:00
slug: free-as-in-node
title: free-as-in-node
+---
+
+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.
+
Visit [http://podcast.freenode.net/](http://podcast.freenode.net/) for more information.
date: 2009-03-24 14:43:41+00:00
slug: update-on-the-pdpc-20082009-donation-campaign-success
title: Update on the PDPC 2008/2009 donation campaign (SUCCESS!)
+---
+
+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.
+
We appreciate all of your help, and as always, thank you for using freenode.
date: 2009-03-30 17:09:19+00:00
slug: free-as-in-node-episode-2-release
title: 'free-as-in-node: Episode 2 release'
+---
+
+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.
+
+During the new freeform discussion segment of the show, we discuss facebook monitoring (and government monitoring in general) and more broadly all the counter terrorism actions being taken by government, including the bomb-resistant sandwich bag.
+
Head on over to http://podcast.freenode.net to listen in and to share your comments. See you there!
date: 2009-03-31 21:53:28+00:00
slug: irssi-0813
title: Irssi 0.8.13
+---
+
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!
All this, to make _our_ IRC experience better! Everyone's favourite IRC client, Irssi, v 0.8.13 has just been released! Head over to [http://www.irssi.org](http://www.irssi.org) to get your copy now!
date: 2009-04-01 01:07:55+00:00
slug: pdpc-yahoo-acquisition
title: 'PDPC Yahoo acquisition '
+---
+
+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.
+
Yahoo intends to leverage our large user base and experience with operating large networks to supplement their existing yahoo chat functionality, and eventually replace it with a hybrid ircd designed for the large numbers of users they have in mind. We are very excited at what this future may hold!
What this means for you, the users of freenode, is that you'll have access to great new search technology right from irc! With the introduction of yahoo search into our ircd, you'll be able to easily search the web from any channel on the network and display results right there, saving you and everyone else in the channel the time and trouble of browsing to yahoo, the worlds premier search engine, first.
date: 2009-04-03 15:21:40+00:00
slug: geeknics
title: Geeknics
+---
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.
date: 2009-04-13 13:32:45+00:00
slug: free-as-in-node-episode-3-released
title: Free-as-in-node episode 3 released!
+---
+
+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.
+
+In this episode, you'll hear all about freenodes april fools joke and our exploding growth (currently at around 57,000 online users). Also discussed is the php testfest with input from mgdm (Michael Maclean) in this weeks pimp my project, and then a bit of soapboxing and the announcement of the new "freenode party" in UK politics, so that we too can partake of free-as-in-shoes-your-taxpayers-bought-you. Make sure you sign our petition before Christel shuts down freenode!
+
In addition, we'll let you know whats going on in the world with our take on the talks between Sun and IBM, Debian eating FreeBSD, the new Gnome 3.0 roadmap, and news on TomTom's settlement with Microsoft. We'll also talk about Fedora11beta with updates on our experience on the next episode.
We also discuss the "geeknic" once again with the announcement of yet another geeknic, this one in the Philadelphia area in less than a week! If you can make it, bring us a canoe or kayak.
date: 2009-04-14 09:53:24+00:00
slug: community-leadership-summit-july-18-19th-2009-san-jose-ca
title: Community Leadership Summit - July 18-19th 2009, San Jose, CA.
+---
+
+[](http://www.communityleadershipsummit.com/)
+
[Jono Bacon](http://jonobacon.org), one of my friends and a FOSS contributor for which I have a lot of respect, known to many for his work as [Ubuntu](http://www.ubuntu.com)'s Community Manager is one of the people behind arranging the Community Leadership Summit -- a conference aimed at bringing people from various projects together to look at cross project collaboration and such things. The conference complements freenode and the PDPC's Group Advisory Board very well and I for one shall be attending.
date: 2009-04-14 09:52:06+00:00
slug: php-testfest
title: PHP TestFest
+---
+
+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**.
+
<blockquote>The TestFest is an event that aims at improving the [code coverage](http://gcov.php.net/) of the [test suite](http://qa.php.net/running-tests.php) for the PHP language itself. As part of this event, local User Groups (UG) are invited to join the TestFest. These UGs can meet physically or come together virtually. The point however is that people network to learn together. Aside from being an opportunity for all of you to make friends with like minded people in your (virtual) community, it also will hopefully reduce the work load for the PHP.net mentors. All it takes is someone to organize a UG to spearhead the event and to get others involved in [writing phpt tests](http://qa.php.net/write-test.php). The submissions will then be reviewed by members of php.net before getting included in the official test suite.</blockquote>
date: 2009-04-14 09:52:41+00:00
slug: wikipedia-licensing-change
title: 'Wikipedia licensing change? '
+---
+
+
+**Wikipedia to change license to Creative Commons BY-SA?** -- From [http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/13967](http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/13967)
+
+
<blockquote>A community vote is now underway, hopefully one of the final steps in the process the migration of Wikipedia (actually Wikipedias, as each language is its own site, and also other Wikimedia Foundation sites) to using [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) as its primary content license.
This migration would be a huge boost for the free culture movement, and for Wikipedia and Creative Commons — until the migration happens there is an unnecessary licensing barrier between the most important free culture project (Wikipedia of course, currently under the Free Documentation License, intended for software documentation) and most other free culture projects and individual creators, which use the aforementioned CC BY-SA license.
date: 2009-04-18 10:27:07+00:00
slug: pdpc-and-the-open-source-community
title: pdpc and the open source community
+---
+
+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.
+
With this in mind, you will be seeing one aspect of this here on the blog, as we make an effort to highlight events, projects, and people in the open source community. You will see references to these here, much like the "pimp my project" section on our podcast, as we strive to bring attention to these well deserving events, projects, and people. We would, of course, love to hear from you about any of this, or anything you think deserves a mention, but meanwhile we will be seeking out those that we find interesting and mentioning them here.
Expect to see more in the near future promoting interesting and fun things, along with some more community focused projects from the pdpc and freenode. We want to offer you and everyone in the open source community even more. Stay tuned!
date: 2009-04-20 10:33:24+00:00
slug: summer-of-geeknics-off-to-a-great-start
title: Summer of Geeknics Off to a Great Start!
+---
+
+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.
+
Through a grave error, the geeknic cake was misplaced, thus ensuring that the cake was, in fact, a lie. Fortunatly the selection of desserts did not suffer much from the missing cake, as there were plenty of treats to be found, including adorable ubuntu cupcakes.
All in all, everyone in attendance seemed to have a wonderful time, and we look ahead anxiously to the next [Geeknic](http://geeknic.org/?p=1), in Dublin Ireland next month, and many others to follow! We hope you can find your way to one or more of them.
date: 2009-05-20 01:29:18+00:00
slug: southeast-linuxfest-self-2009
title: SouthEast LinuxFest (SELF) 2009
+---
+
+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.
+
The event website is [http://southeastlinuxfest.org](http://southeastlinuxfest.org), and you can also hop on irc.freenode.net and visit #southeastlinuxfest.
We really hope a few of you can make it in. It really looks like it's going to be a wonderful event. If you would like to join in, be sure to register on the site. Hope to see you there!
date: 2009-05-29 18:06:35+00:00
slug: free-as-in-node-episode-5-released
title: Free-as-in-Node episode 5 released!
+---
+
+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.
+
Christel tells us about the time travel fund, and the organization behind it. For only $10 YOU too can sign up to be whisked away into time. You'll get it back with interest when they come back to take you away. For $20 you can even go back to pick up your dead relatives. Christel unfortunately vanished moments after signing up.
In this weeks political rant we hear about expenses filed by members of parliament for all sorts of things, from replacing light bulbs to pipes under their personal tennis courts. It seems members of parliament are making use of this to furnish their homes, feed their families, and all sorts of other things. None of this is illegal, but is that because the people doing it are the ones making the laws? Going on we hear all about the political views around the table and Christel hugging the queen.
date: 2009-06-09 09:43:51+00:00
slug: scheduled-maintenance-services-database-clear-out-2
title: '[Scheduled Maintenance] Services database clear-out.'
+---
+
+This is just to let you know that we will soon be performing a fairly substantial cleanup of the NickServ and ChanServ databases.
We'll be dropping all expired nicknames. As [explained](http://freenode.net/faq.shtml#expirations) in the [FAQ](http://freenode.net/faq.shtml), nicknames on freenode expire after 60 days. Nicks that are at least two weeks old and that were last used less than two hours after their creation are also considered to be expired.
date: 2009-06-11 11:22:18+00:00
slug: freenode-network-services-cleanup-and-changes
title: freenode Network Services Cleanup and Changes.
+---
+
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/)!
First, we have made a modification to make it easier to identify, as long as your client supports a server password. Previously, users were able to identify by using a registered nick and sending the password for that registered nick as their server password. You can also now identify on connect regardless of nick by providing both your account name and password, as follow: "_/connect irc.freenode.net 6667 :mquin uwhY8wgzWw22-zXs.M39p_." This will identify you upon connection.
date: 2009-06-17 09:39:25+00:00
slug: we-want-you
title: 'We want YOU! '
+---
+
We are currently looking to expand the freenode volunteer staff team, seeking people involved with the target communities we currently serve.
The freenode network has seen substantial growth in recent times and as such we are looking to add to our existing team of volunteers. freenode volunteers hail from a variety of backgrounds and come in all ages, it's a diverse group of people and we all share a passion for Free and Open Source Software, Free Culture and Peer-Directed Project Communities. We are looking for peoplewho would complement the current set-up and make a refreshing addition to the team.
date: 2009-06-19 11:41:04+00:00
slug: new-freenode-webchat-and-why-to-use-it
title: New freenode webchat (and why to use it)
+---
+
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.
We apologize to those who used mibbit for the inconvenience this has caused, and for the need to find a new client or method to connect to freenode.
date: 2009-06-22 22:07:52+00:00
slug: possible-sorbs-closure
title: Possible SORBS closure
+---
Short blog post this evening but an important one!
date: 2009-07-06 10:54:14+00:00
slug: fosseventsorg
title: fossevents.org
+---
+
+[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.
As we grow this site we'll be adding new and interesting ways to monitor open source events, so keep an eye on it.
date: 2009-11-01 21:12:26+00:00
slug: when-bots-go-bad
title: When bots go bad..
+---
+
+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!
+
+You may have noticed a large number of people disconnecting from freenode with the reason 'Nick collision from syn.' We feel we should explain what happened.
+
For those of you not already familiar with her, syn is a utility bot that, amongst other duties, regulates gateway access to the network. This could be web gateways such as CGI:IRC or our own webchat, NAT gateways, or some conferences and shell services. One of the things that she does, for web gateways in particular, is to match the reported IP address (hex-encoded in the ident field) against network bans, and deny the connection if a match is found.
It was this particular part that had an unfortunate pair of bugs resulting in the incident you observed. Firstly, in using sscanf() to detect a hex-encoded IP address in the ident field, the validation was not quite strict enough -- any ident that *began* with a series of valid hexadecimal characters (the digits 0-9 and letters a-f) would result in a number being decoded. In normal circumstances, this would be relatively harmless as the resulting IP is clearly invalid -- in most cases, it would begin 0.0.0., and not match any network bans.
date: 2009-11-09 18:29:35+00:00
slug: testing-the-nets
title: Testing the nets
+---
+
+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!
+
+While we have been testing it regularly against some basic loads, nothing really replaces users, and we need as many as possible to connect, try it out, and report back with any issues. Please note that ircd-seven differs from our current software; hyperion -- and some bits of behaviour may differ, if your project/channels rely on the use of bots on the production network we encourage you to also test these on the testnet! We would really like to stress, there are some significant changes in the new ircd so please do test the full functionality of any bots you require at this time, as we'll be moving forward with this new ircd in the future.
+
To connet, use testnet.freenode.net for ipv4 or ipv6. Port 9002 listens for regular connections, while 9003 listens for SSL.
We want a lot of traffic, and while we don't normally encourage it -- you are welcome to bring bots and drones en-masse! So bring in the bots, simulate traffic, join your regular channels, talk or spout nonsense. You can find us all in #freenode when you've connected to the testnet.
date: 2009-11-20 16:58:58+00:00
slug: dcc-spam-and-how-to-handle-it
title: DCC spam, and how to handle it.
+---
+
+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.
+
+Instead, feel free to report it by first verifying (using the /whois command) that the sender is still online, and then reporting the sender in #freenode. Please be aware that #freenode is a general help channel and we need to keep it clear of general chatter in order to support the many users of freenode. If you wish to discuss anything other than an immediate support request, please find a more appropriate channel for the topic.
+
On this topic, please be sure to only accept DCC requests from trusted users and to be cautious about them at all times. You may wish to consider filtering out the DCC requests using your clients ignore functions, or enabling umode +C to prevent CTCP messages from being received. If you would like help with these topics feel free to stop by #freenode or your clients support channel.
As always, thank you for using freenode.
date: 2009-12-08 17:58:35+00:00
slug: december-8-2009-connectivity-issues-and-netsplits
title: December 8 2009 Connectivity Issues and Netsplits
+---
+
+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)-
+[Global Notice] Hi all, we appear to be having some
+connectivity issues with our main US hub, as a result of
this we are temporarily without services, if this affects
your channel please contact staff in #freenode for
assistance. We're looking into the issues as we speak. Thank
date: 2009-12-15 19:23:24+00:00
slug: december-15th-ddos
title: December 15th DDoS
+---
+
+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.
+
+We will try keep this page updated with any significant information as and when we receive it, however, users of the network will also be able to receive (infrequent) status updates via global notice and slightly more frequent updates via wallops for those who have chosen to go +w (**/umode +w** or **/mode yournick +w**) will enable wallops in your irc client should you wish to see these. Global notices do not work on a opt-in basis, and are restricted to information we deem important, however for those of you who have absolutely no interest in what's going on with the network you may **/ignore *!*@freenode/staff/* notices** in order to prevent global notices from displaying in your client.
+
We apologise for the inconvenience this no doubt causes for you and your project(s) and we would like to thank you all (in particular, our very generous and dedicated sponsors) for the patience and support while the issues are still ongoing.
date: 2009-12-31 13:32:59+00:00
slug: happy-new-year-2010
title: Happy New Year 2010
-- user count
---
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.
date: 2010-01-14 14:28:35+00:00
slug: ircd-migration-sat-jan-30th-2010
title: ircd Migration Sat Jan 30th 2010
+---
+
+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.
As users please be aware that during the migration all clients will be temporarily disconnected and will need to reconnect in order to move over to the new servers. For most of you this will happen as the old servers are shut down.
date: 2010-01-17 02:36:04+00:00
slug: javascript-spam
title: Javascript spam
+---
+
+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.
**If you have been banned** from the network after clicking on one of these links, please email klines@freenode.net with your internet-routeable IP address. Visit [http://myip.dk/](http://myip.dk/) and include both the IP address and hostname provided on this site. It's also helpful if you let us know what nick you were using at the time. We will address these requests as quickly as possible, but please be patient.
date: 2010-01-26 17:40:44+00:00
slug: migration-to-new-ircd
title: Migration to ircd-seven.
+---
+
+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.
+
+We covered a few of the changes in [this](http://blog.freenode.net/2010/01/ircd-migration-sat-jan-30th-2010/) article earlier, but this post adds a few things.
+
If you are a tor user, the way you connect will be slightly different. Connecting via tor will require you use "username:password" in your server password field instead of just "password" as is the case now.
If you currently have an arrangement with freenode to increase your connection count for a business, school, or other organization (also known as an iline), you may need to verify it is still in place after the migration. While we have moved the majority of these over to the new ircd, some older ilines where we do not have contact information may need to be updated. If you find yours is missing, join #freenode and look for any freenode staff to further assist you. All staff are voiced on #freenode.
date: 2010-01-29 18:55:02+00:00
slug: connecting-to-freenode-using-tor-sasl
title: 'Connecting to freenode using Tor: SASL'
+---
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:
date: 2010-01-30 08:20:10+00:00
slug: freenode-is-dead-long-live-freenode
title: freenode is dead, long live freenode
-- pdpc
-- projects
-- technical
---
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.
date: 2010-02-03 15:30:31+00:00
slug: yes-we-are-going-to-fosdem
title: Yes, we are going to FOSDEM
+---
+
+As every year, some of us will attend FOSDEM.
+
+This year, you will be able to meat [czajkowski](http://identi.ca/czajkowski), kloeri, [RichiH](http://identi.ca/richih), SeJo and a FOSDEM-virgin: marienz (be gentle). If you have any praise, complaints, questions, spare beer or just want to connect a face to a name, you are more than welcome to poke us.
+Hunt us down via IRC or the linked identi.ca pages and we will try to meet you.
[](http://www.fosdem.org)
date: 2010-03-16 14:11:39+00:00
slug: fosscon-2010-and-northeast-us-geeknic-camping-trip
title: fosscon 2010 and Northeast US geeknic++ camping trip
+---
+
+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.
+
+Second, is our very first fosscon, a free and open source conference organized by and for the foss community. This event will be held June 19th in Rochester NY. Lots of interesting speakers are lining up but there is still room for more if you have an interesting topic of your own, and sponsorship opportunities are still available. Visit[ http://fosscon.org](http://fosscon.org) for more details on this exciting event.
+
We hope to see you at one or both of these great events!
date: 2010-06-10 18:30:18+00:00
slug: freenode-webchat-changes
title: freenode webchat changes
+---
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.
date: 2010-06-12 11:06:26+00:00
slug: group-registration-form-verifications
title: Group Registration Form verifications
+---
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.
date: 2010-06-15 13:27:23+00:00
slug: fosscon-2010-free-and-open-source-software-conference
title: Fosscon 2010 Free and Open Source Software Conference.
-- pdpc
-- philosophy
-- social
---
While talking online is great, meeting in person presents brand new opportunities... and we would like to meet you!
date: 2010-10-02 01:58:22+00:00
slug: webchat-downtime
title: Webchat downtime
+---
+
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.
This is maintenance that we, as staff, were not previously aware of.
date: 2010-10-18 11:57:11+00:00
slug: further-webchat-issues
title: Further webchat issues
+---
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.
author: jayne
date: 2010-11-14 16:22:31+00:00
-layout: post
+excerpt: A word on network abuse and how to recognize and respond to it.
slug: be-safe-out-there
+title: Be Safe Out There
+---
**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.
date: 2010-12-24 05:00:47+00:00
slug: happy-holidays-2
title: Happy Holidays!
+---
+
Just a quick note to wish each and every one of our users, sponsors, donors, volunteers and projects for making freenode great.
It's amazing being able to communicate and collaborate with such a variety of people and projects. **YOU** make the network what it is and help us provide a fantastic resource for FOSS communities.
date: 2011-01-30 01:24:40+00:00
slug: we-are-going-to-fosdem
title: We are going to FOSDEM
+---
+
[](http://blog.freenode.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/going-to-fosdem-2011.png)
As every year, some of freenode staff will attend FOSDEM. If you have any concerns, praise, criticism or free beer you want to share with us, you are more than welcome to meat us. The best way to coordinate meatings is to simply join #freenode-fosdem and poke us.
date: 2011-01-31 20:56:57+00:00
slug: freenode-70k
title: freenode 70k
+---
+
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 :)
We'd like to thank all of our users for using freenode. Without you we would, quite literally, not have made this milestone.
date: 2011-02-13 21:19:18+00:00
slug: sponsorship-roundup
title: Sponsorship Roundup
+---
+
+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!
If you're currently connected to freenode, you will be connected to a donated server - look at the "MOTD" (delivered to you on connection or by passing the command _/motd_) to see who has provided your particular server.
date: 2011-02-14 00:00:16+00:00
slug: pdpc-fundraiser-2011
title: PDPC Fundraiser 2011
+---
Hello everyone and Happy St Valentine's Day!
date: 2011-02-23 17:46:04+00:00
slug: port-6697-irc-via-tlsssl
title: 'Default port for IRC via TLS/SSL (hint: it''s 6697)'
+---
+
+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.
+
+All IRC networks, except one, in the global top twenty which offer IRC via SSL/TLS are listening on port 6697 and many smaller networks do, as well. Clients like irssi default to 6697 as do daemons like Charybdis and seven. Similar to how port 6667 is not the only for plain text, 6697 is not intended to be the only one for SSL/TLS, but it's still nice to have a common standard.
+
The Internet Draft linked above will not be made into a proper RFC quickly as these things tend to take a lot of time, but for all intents and purposes, 6697 is the canonical port for IRC via SSL/TLS, today.
**Update:** In case we didn't make it clear enough (apparently we didn't): You can still continue to use all other ports we have listened to in the past. But we will start recommending 6697 from now on.
date: 2011-03-11 15:59:21+00:00
slug: change-in-nick-expiry-times
title: Change in nick expiry times
+---
+
+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.
+
+Starting on 2011-04-01, the expiry time will be 70 days, i.e. 10 weeks. For every full year of registration time, one week is added to the expiry time. Thus, a nick that's been registered for three and a half years needs to have been unused for 13 weeks before another user can request to have it dropped.
+
We are pre-announcing this change as it would be unfair towards users to change expiry times just before their 60 days of waiting are over. As usual, barring manual database cleanups every few years, we won't drop nicks or channels on our own, but only at a user's request.
date: 2011-04-01 00:01:08+00:00
slug: important-service-announcement-regarding-defocus
title: 'Important service announcement regarding #defocus'
+---
+
+As many of you are aware, [back in 2008](../2008/09/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.
+
+Starting today, we are changing the policy to one we believe is fairly balanced and which gives users much more control over gaining and keeping voice in the channel.
+
The new bot, known as brrflrqxt, will voice users as they send the command "!join" to #defocus and those who pass its tests will be allowed to keep their voice. The tests involve problem solving, proving that you are human, and therefore capable of lying, cheating, and backstabbing like any valuable member of #defocus; thus ensuring a safe and productive environment for all our users.
If you have any questions about this policy, feel free to ask any member of staff.
date: 2011-04-02 14:47:08+00:00
slug: april-1st-the-aftermatch
title: April 1st, the aftermatch
+---
+
+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.
+
+To get your wolfgame fix during the rest of the year, join #wolfgame . We are waiting :)
+
We will publish the solutions to our riddles here, but we had to promise to not do so before Sunday so we won't. Watch this space if you are interested.
Also, remember [our new nick expiry times](http://blog.freenode.net/2011/03/change-in-nick-expiry-times/). This is now active policy.
date: 2011-04-03 15:38:12+00:00
slug: the-cat-enigma
title: The Cat Enigma!
+---
+
+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!
+
+We'd now like to give you the answers! Hopefully you won't kick yourself too much if you competed but didn't get all the way to the end. :)
+
### **Challenge 1**
date: 2011-05-28 17:06:53+00:00
slug: this-is-a-public-service-announcement
title: This is a public service announcement...
+---
+
+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.
+
+If you want to receive wallops, simply run
+
`/quote mode $yournick +w`
or
date: 2011-07-14 11:36:40+00:00
slug: fosscon-2011-philadelphia-pennsylvania-23rd-july-2011
title: 'Fosscon 2011: Philadelphia Pennsylvania, 23rd July, 2011.'
+---
+
+July 23, 2011 - (All day)
+
+Hi everyone,
+Next Saturday Basekamp will be hosting FOSSCON (Free and Open Source Software Conference), focusing on the community that has grown around Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), and in parallel to both the Free Culture and Open Source cultural movements.
This is a community-focused live event designed to build and strengthen relationships between Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) developers and users. FOSSCON seeks to raise awareness of and promote FOSS alternatives to proprietary software. Facilitating face-to-face interaction, creative workshops, talks and think tanks, FOSSCON brings developers and users together in a nurturing and dynamic environment stimulating the free exchange of ideas and information while fostering cross-project collaboration and dialogue for innovation.
FOSSCON is organized by Peer-Directed Projects Center (PDPC) – the group responsible for projects like [Freenode](http://basekamp.com/about/events/freenode) and fossevents – FOSSCON (along with Geeknics) is part of PDPC’s desire to bring an already massive online community that has grown around free and open source ideas, out into the world, to meet, connect, support and challenge each other, imagine, plot and co-develop beautiful, possibly useful and unexpected things.
date: 2011-08-14 15:48:09+00:00
slug: a-short-mention-on-mibbit
title: A short mention on Mibbit
+---
+
+Hi all.
+
It has come to our attention that [Mibbit](http://www.mibbit.com) have experienced a security issue impacting (or so it initially appears) their testing servers. This has resulted in a list of plain text NickServ passwords **from Mibbit's own NickServ (the one you use if you connect to irc.mibbit.com)** being made public, as well as a small section of private logs and some internal server details of the affected equipment. There's some more information [on their own blog](http://mibbitblog.blogspot.com/).
As I'm sure many of you have been aware, Mibbit hasn't been available for use with freenode for quite a while now so the issue will only indirectly impact freenode users when the password they use for their NickServ is the same as it is for elsewhere. Therefore freenode staff are recommending that anyone that has used Mibbit's own NickServ should ensure that their password is changed to keep your account secure.
date: 2011-08-31 08:46:35+00:00
slug: fixing-defocus
title: 'Fixing #defocus'
+---
+
+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.
+
+We've had some extensive discussions with #defocus regulars and ops on various channels around what we can do to improve the day-to-day atmosphere of the channel and bring it around to be what we want it to be, and one of the more immediate outcomes of these discussions was that we need to introduce more specific channel ops for #defocus, to work alongside staff in shaping the channel's future.
+
To that end, the following users are now channel ops in #defocus, and are ready and able to asist when moderation might be required. _msh, jbroome , rww , Ttech, bburhans, frantk, gry, Fuchs , TheEvilPhoenix, Zuu.
Please help us in welcoming them to the #defocus team.
date: 2011-09-07 20:48:37+00:00
slug: ircd-upgrades
title: IRCD Upgrades
+---
+
+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).
+
+The following user-visible changes have been made since the versions in production:
+
- The channel quiet list is now sent using the new numerics RPL_QUIETLIST(728) and RPL_QUIETLISTEND(729) instead of overloading the same numerics as for ban lists. You may find that clients have to be updated before they will display this in a user-friendly format.
- Users who cannot send to a channel are now prevented from changing its topic, even when mode +t is not set.
- Sending a private message to another user while user mode +g is active will now automatically add an accept-list entry so that they can reply.
date: 2011-09-13 06:20:58+00:00
slug: wednesday-server-updates
title: Wednesday Server Updates
+---
+
+This Wednesday (September 14th, 2011) we will be continuing our server updates as mentioned [here](http://blog.freenode.net/2011/09/ircd-upgrades/).
+
+The following servers will be affected: leguin, gibson, wolfe, hitchcock, and pratchett.
+
During the update process these servers will be restarted and anyone connected to them will need to reconnect. You may wish to connect to an alternate server if you are currently connected to one of these. You can check what server you are currently connected to using the command "/whois _nickname" _with your own nick as "nickname".
We apologize for any inconvenience as we continue to improve the technology behind freenode.
date: 2011-10-31 23:04:34+00:00
slug: ircd-upgrades-2
title: ircd upgrades
+---
We've got some ircd upgrades in the works!
date: 2011-12-23 23:26:48+00:00
slug: merry-christmas
title: Merry Christmas
-- social
---
It was the day before Christmas, when all across the network not a creature was stirring, not even a troll...
date: 2011-12-30 11:50:37+00:00
slug: focus-on-defocus
title: 'Focus on #defocus'
+---
+
+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.
+
+So this is a call out to those who think that they might be able to work with us to improve #defocus further. If you think you have what it takes to be a #defocus channel operator, or simply have some ideas that you want to share as to how the existing or new team can improve things, please /join #defocus-focus where you can state your desire to be considered for the team, or share your ideas, or both!
+
(Don't worry if you're the first one there, either, someone has to be!)
Hope to see you there.
date: 2012-01-18 15:32:14+00:00
slug: on-sopapipa
title: On SOPA/PIPA
+---
+
+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.
+
+We believe that these acts could have a significant impact on the way in which we currently use the internet, and we strongly encourage and support raising awareness about the legislative proposals in order for people to make an informed decision about their stance on the issue.
+
Whilst we will not be partaking in any blackout to mark the occasion, we very much welcome frank and open discussion about SOPA/PIPA in ##sopa on the freenode network. The channel is not run by freenode staff, but was created by some people with a passion about the topics covered by the proposed legislations. If you feel passionate about SOPA/PIPA or you want to find out what all this is about, why not come along and join in the discussion?
As the USA is a power house in so far that they directly or indirectly control most of the internet's infrastructure, and the proposed legislation has been written in a manner in which they specifically take into account "foreign rogue sites", the legislation will, should it pass, have an impact upon the world as a whole.
date: 2012-01-29 22:14:36+00:00
slug: defocuss-visit-to-the-opticians-new-guidelines
title: 'Defocus''s visit to the opticians: new guidelines'
+---
+
+A couple of months ago, mrmist posted about the #defocus-focus channel, which was looking to improve the atmosphere in #defocus.
+
+One of the areas that has been concentrated on is improving the ruleset for the channel. A number of people including Fuchs, dax, Ttech and others have involved in this improvement process.
+
As a result of the efforts of all the fantastic people involved in that channel, we now have a new set of guidelines for #defocus. You can read them on [our website](http://freenode.net/pounddefocus.shtml).
Hopefully these changes bring the guidelines up to date with the general expectations and aims of the channel. As always, comments are welcome!
date: 2012-02-02 20:09:50+00:00
slug: at-dawn-we-ride-for-fosdem-castle
title: At dawn, we ride for FOSDEM Castle
+---
+
+As usual, some of us will be around at FOSDEM.
+
+A possibly incomplete list of us includes Fuchs*, kloeri, Md*, mquin, RichiH, and spaceinvader; asterisks indicating first timers. We may or may not update this list as attendance changes. As a first, we will have a somewhat stable base for people wanting to meat us. I (RichiH) will help man the beer token sale for the Beer Event this year, it's not unlikely that other staff will stick around as well. The first one to tell me where the quote is from (in person) will get a beer token.
+
Also, staff pets ahf and sejo will lurk the shadows of FOSDEM, ready to fulfill our every wish and dream. If you see them, toss them food.
date: 2012-03-10 23:39:50+00:00
slug: planet-freenode-net
title: planet.freenode.net
+---
Today, we launched [planet.freenode.net](http://planet.freenode.net).
date: 2012-04-01 00:00:17+00:00
slug: network-wide-policy-privacy-change
title: Network wide policy privacy change
+---
+
+[](http://blog.freenode.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ITucplOwnTShozIfVT1cM2u0VTWyVPZwp3EupaD.jpg)
+
+ITucplOwnTShozIfVT1cM2u0VTWyVPZwp3EupaD=
+
UPDATE : Yes, this was an April Fools Joke. Some of you fell for it, some didn't. There's still time to complete the quiz and get an April Fool cloak, if you can figure out where to go...
date: 2012-04-02 21:19:37+00:00
slug: 80k
title: 80k...
+---
+
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.
We passed this milestone one working day later than I [predicted in January 2011](http://blog.freenode.net/2011/01/freenode-70k/ ), more than a year ago. Scary precision, I know. Extrapolation based on graphs and nothing else is a big no-no in the scientific circles, yet we really do grow at an exceptionally steady and predictable pace.
date: 2012-04-02 19:09:06+00:00
slug: april-fools-day
title: April Fool's Day!
+---
+
+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)).
+
+Expect a future blog post about what you could have seen, reading between the lines ;)
date: 2012-04-06 20:33:08+00:00
slug: help-us-test-our-services-upgrade
title: Help us test our services upgrade!
-- technical
---
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.
date: 2012-04-15 22:01:21+00:00
slug: april-1st-the-aftermath
title: April 1st, the aftermath
+---
+
+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:
+
+
+
1. dwfreed
date: 2012-06-09 10:39:38+00:00
slug: fosscon-2012-saturday-august-11th-in-philadelphia-pa
title: Fosscon 2012, Saturday August 11th in Philadelphia PA
+---
+
August 11th, 2012 (All day)
Hi everyone,
date: 2012-06-09 20:42:48+00:00
slug: group-registration-closure
title: Group Registration Closure
+---
+
+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".
+
+For various reasons, these replacements haven't worked quite how we'd want or need them to in order to achieve our objective of registering groups in a timely fashion. Meanwhile, development of GMS, our automated replacement GRF system, continues.
+
For these reasons, we have taken the decision to temporarily close the group registration system.
What this means is that -
date: 2012-06-09 17:38:33+00:00
slug: services-upgrade-and-database-prune
title: Services upgrade and database prune
+---
+
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.
date: 2012-06-16 21:35:15+00:00
slug: upgrade-and-database-prune-completed
title: Upgrade and database prune completed
+---
+
+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.
In addition, certificate based authentication is now available. We'll hopefully get the docs for this up online shortly.
date: 2012-12-31 11:11:17+00:00
slug: happy-2013-hope-you-had-a-good-2012
title: Happy 2013, hope you had a good 2012
+---
+
+We would all like to wish you a happy 2013!
+
+May it be as good as, or even better than, 2012.
date: 2013-03-19 20:14:46+00:00
slug: bye-bye-pdpc
title: Bye bye PDPC
+---
+
+Sadly, we were forced to dissolve PDPC, freenode's parent organisation.
When the organisation transferred across from the US to the UK we wanted to keep the organisational structure as close to what it had been before (change is scary, right?) -- however, we made the conscious decision to no longer have any paid employees after Rob Levin passed away. This meant that everyone involved with the organisation were volunteers and we no longer had anyone who could invest the time and effort required to do fundraising and similar tasks, meaning that the organisation was unable to sustain the levels of donations required to obtain and maintain charitable status in the UK.
date: 2013-03-31 19:32:06+00:00
slug: insert-witty-title-here
title: Insert witty title here
+---
+
+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.
+
+Good luck, lots of fun, and thanks for flying freenode trebutchet!
+
**What does Dorothy wish she was on the other side of?
###>++++++++++ [>++++++++++>+++++++++++>+++++++++++>+++++++++++>++++++++++><<<<<<-] >+>++>++++>+>+++> <<<<<< >.>.>.>.>.
##bhggbyhapu**
date: 2013-04-09 22:24:47+00:00
slug: april-1st-2013-the-aftermath
title: April 1st 2013, the aftermath
+---
+
+It’s been a little more than a week since we started our April Fools quiz this year; thanks to everybody who participated.
+
The first ten people who completed all three tracks are, in descending order of aprilness:
date: 2013-05-14 17:33:54+00:00
slug: the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly
title: The good, the bad, and the ugly...
+---
+
+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.
+
+**Sponsors** -- sponsors are the lifeblood of the network; without sponsors there would be no freenode. Unfortunately, the recent attacks have been significant enough for some of our sponsors to pull the plug as they were unable to continue providing the same level of assistance to the network as they had in the past. These kind of attacks can be costly for our sponsors; the disruptions soon have a financial impact for sponsors and their paying clients when service is disrupted. They are also costly in time and resources spent trying to alleviate the issues caused within their networks. To those of our sponsors who have had to discontinue sponsorship, in part or in full, I would like to thank you for the years of support. Not just for freenode but for the Free and Open Source Software Communities and we can only apologise for the difficulties your organisations have experienced as a result of these recent attacks.
+
**Free and Open Source Software Communities** -- whilst sponsors may be the lifeblood of the network, the FOSS communities are our reason for being. Unfortunately they, along with our sponsors, are the ones suffering at the hands of the attacker(s) -- it is their projects that are disrupted and affected and we can only apologise for the instability and disruption experienced by projects on the network in this last week.
**freenode** -- ironically freenode is the puzzle piece that gets off lightly. We're just a bunch of people passionate about FOSS -- the network itself is devoid of feeling and whilst our volunteers do their best dealing with the aftermath of the attacks and try to keep the network up and running the reality is that in the grand scheme of things freenode is nothing. freenode is just a means to an end; the projects that have chosen to use freenode could easily go elsewhere, the volunteers who staff the network... well, they could easily go wherever their projects went -- we volunteer for freenode because we're passionate about FOSS, and the majority of us also contribute to one or several FOSS projects or have done in the past. For us it has never been about "freenode" -- it has been about FOSS; and the projects we, as individuals, care about. We are all freenode users first, and staffers second.
date: 2013-05-24 21:09:57+00:00
slug: over-9000-10
title: Over 9000 * 10
+---
+
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.
I shouldn't have added a month of leeway at the last second to my [last prediction](http://blog.freenode.net/2012/04/80k/) so the scary scary 100,000 is officially targeted for May 2014. Yes, the pace at which freenode is growing seems to be increasing ever so slightly.
date: 2013-06-27 09:10:13+00:00
slug: new-tlsssl-channel-modes-and-webirc
title: New TLS/SSL Channel Modes & Webchat Features
+---
+
We've recently enabled some new functionality in our ircd to further help you manage your channels:
date: 2013-07-17 21:51:27+00:00
slug: fosscon-an-open-source-conference-in-philadelphia-pa-saturday-august-10th
title: Fosscon, an open source conference in Philadelphia PA, Saturday August 10th
+---
+
+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.
+
date: 2013-07-22 19:19:36+00:00
slug: server-hosting-and-trust
title: Server hosting and trust
+---
For the purpose of disclosure we have had to make the difficult decision to discontinue a long-standing relationship with a server sponsor.
date: 2013-08-09 08:50:14+00:00
slug: check-your-nickserv-email
title: 'Reminder: Keep your NickServ email up to date.'
+---
+
+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...
+
+...until you forget your password and find yourself unable to identify to your account. When that happens we can send an email (only to that same address) to verify your identify and reset your password.
+
You aren't stuck with the email you originally used though! We'd very strongly recommend you take 5 minutes to double check the set email address is current, especially in light of recent [service](http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/08/lavabit-email-shut-down-edward-snowden) [closures](http://silentcircle.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/to-our-customers/). You don't need access to your old inbox to change your registered email, just your NickServ password.
To view the current state of your account, while identified type:
date: 2014-02-03 17:43:16+00:00
slug: turbulence
title: Turbulence
+---
+
+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.
+
+We appreciate the patience of our many wonderful users whilst we continue to work to mitigate the effects this has on the network.
+
We also greatly appreciate our many sponsors who work with us to help minimise the impact and who are themselves affected by attacks against the network.
We've [posted on this subject before](http://blog.freenode.net/2013/05/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/), and what we said then remains as true as ever - and for those of you who didn't read the earlier blogpost first time round, it's definitely worth perusing it now if this subject interests or affects you.
date: 2014-04-01 00:01:17+00:00
slug: googleplusfreenode
title: +freenode
+---
+
+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...
+
[](http://blog.freenode.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/freenode41.png)
Edit: Previous versions of the post contained an incorrect NickServ command. We have corrected this and apologise for the inconvenience.
date: 2014-04-15 18:52:05+00:00
slug: heartbleed
title: Heartbleed
+---
+
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.
In common with many other SSL-exposed services, some freenode servers were running vulnerable versions of OpenSSL, exposing us to this exploit. Consequently, all of our affected services have been patched to mitigate the vulnerability, and we have also regenerated our private SSL keys and certificates.
date: 2014-04-26 18:05:01+00:00
slug: april-1st-2014-followup
title: April 1st 2014, Followup
+---
+
+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!
"Dan Brown simply invented the 'Rose Line' linking Rosslyn and Glastonbury. The name 'Roslin' definitely does not derive from any 'hallowed Rose Line'. It has nothing to do with a 'Rose Bloodline' or a 'Rose Line meridian'. There are many medieval spellings of 'Rosslyn'. 'Roslin' is certainly not the 'original spelling': it is now the most common spelling for the village."[18]
-- [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Line#Dan_Brown.27s_The_Da_Vinci_Code)
* The "Jules Verne" clue is suppose to reaffirm to contestants that they were on the right track:
The competition between the Paris and Greenwich meridians is a plot element in Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", published just before the international decision in favor of the British one.
-- [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Meridian#Origin)
* The answer: **####roslin**
* The former transmitter[27] was located near Povarovo, Russia[28] at 56°5′0″N 37°6′37″E which is about halfway between Zelenograd and Solnechnogorsk and 40 kilometres (25 mi) northwest of Moscow, near the village of Lozhki.
-- [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UVB-76#Location_and_function)
* The is.gd link points to a file that has the "No Q" image from a previous level hidden in it.
date: 2014-06-18 15:54:08+00:00
slug: new-extban-j
title: 'New extban: $j'
+---
+
We have loaded a new module on the network which provides the $j extban type:
date: 2014-09-13 14:47:51+00:00
slug: server-issues-2
title: Server issues
+---
+
+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.
+
+Before changing your password, please check your email address in /msg nickserv info and, if needed, update it - see /msg nickserv help set email (remember to check your new email for the verification key). This will ensure that we can send you a password reset email should, for whatever reason, your password change not work properly. If you have no email set on your account or an email set that you cannot access, we cannot send password resets to you, so do please keep this up-to-date.
+
To change your password use /msg nickserv set password newpasshere
date: 2014-10-15 21:27:44+00:00
slug: server-issues-update
title: 'Server Issues: Update'
+---
+
+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.
+
+NCC Group's Cyber Defence Operations team kindly provided pro bono digital forensic and reverse engineering services to assist our infrastructure team and have recently published a report with some of their findings:
+
[https://www.nccgroup.com/en/blog/2014/10/analysis-of-the-linux-backdoor-used-in-freenode-irc-network-compromise/](https://www.nccgroup.com/en/blog/2014/10/analysis-of-the-linux-backdoor-used-in-freenode-irc-network-compromise/)
NCC's support has been invaluable in aiding us in further securing our infrastructure, and we have already made significant changes to ensure that it is more resilient against further attacks. Our investigation into the compromise is ongoing and we will provide further updates as appropriate.
date: 2014-10-29 21:20:17+00:00
slug: user-enabled-sendpass
title: User-enabled sendpass
+---
+
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.
But we're constantly looking for things to change and make better, and one of the pieces of feedback we've had is that users would like a little automation - and the ability to be able to resolve some of their own support requests.
date: 2014-11-08 23:18:51+00:00
slug: atheme-7-2-and-freenode
title: Atheme 7.2 and freenode
+---
+
+Hello!
+
+We've begun some testing on Atheme's latest release, 7.2, and we'd like to invite interested users to help with that.
+
Not all changes the Atheme project has included in their new release will be included in our Atheme upgrade, so here's the bulk of the changes that will actually affect our network:
date: 2015-09-18 08:58:13+00:00
slug: services-database-purge
title: Services database purge
+tags:
---
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.
date: 2016-02-19 13:11:54+00:00
slug: recent-events-and-future-changes
title: Recent Events and Future Changes
+---
+
+Many of you have been asking questions about the recent rash of high-profile
+staff resignations, and we feel we owe you all both an explanation and an
+apology.
+
First, the explanation: in short, it's become clear over recent months that
freenode has lost its way somewhat, when compared to the ideals and goals that
we were created with. A growing sense of disillusionment amongst those of us who
date: 2016-02-19 13:11:52+00:00
slug: the-new-policies
title: The New Policies
+---
+
+One of the several problems that's become obvious in recent times is that we have too many policies, they're often not consistent with each other, and we've spent too much time and effort wondering whether something, which is obviously the right thing to do, fits with our published policy. With that in mind, the following stripped-back set of policies will apply in future, with the intention that we can set out a simple set of baselines and apply common sense on top of them.
+
+**Nickname ownership**
+
Nicknames are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, to the first person
who registers the name with NickServ. However, we expect users to act in good
faith and reserve the right to remove a nickname registration where we believe
projects / irc / freenode / web-7.0.git / commitdiff
