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There are 17 freenode server locations around the world as of June
2008.
freenode, formerly known as Open
Projects Network, is a popular IRC network used
to discuss peer-directed projects.[1] Their
servers are all accessible from the domain name chat.freenode.net, which load balances connections by
using the actual servers in rotation.[2] It is
the largest free and open source
software-focused IRC network, encompassing more than 50,000
users and 10,000 channels.[3]
History
freenode began as a 4-person Linux support channel called #LinPeople on EFnet, another IRC network. By 1995
it moved from being just a channel to its own network,
irc.linpeople.org. In early 1998 it changed to Open Projects Net
(OPN) with about 200 users and under 20 channels. The OPN soon grew
to become the largest network for the free software community, and
20th largest in the world. In 2002 the name changed to freenode.
The Peer-Directed Projects
Center was founded as the legal umbrella organization. The
OpenProjects.net domain was later put up for sale on eBay,[4]
but did not sell.
On June 24, 2006, a user with the
nickname "ratbert" (actually one of lilo's services-linked
nicknames) gained the network privileges of freenode administrator Rob Levin (lilo)
and took control of the network. It is likely that approximately 25
user passwords were stolen as a result.[5] This
user proceeded to k-line many freenode staff members, and
most freenode servers subsequently went down for several hours.[6][7][8][9]
Rob Levin died on Saturday, September 16, 2006.[10][11] His
death was caused by head injuries sustained in a hit
and run collision while riding his bicycle on September 12. He fell into a coma at
the scene and did not regain consciousness.
Attacks
On December 15th users saw wallop messages by Christel and other
staff members making the users aware of a ddos attack[12] ,
which caused some IRC servers to netsplit. Freenode staff has not released any
more information on the event.
Controversy
Mibbit
ban
On 19th of June 2009, Freenode announced that access through the
popular mibbit IRC-to-web
gateway was now disabled due to "numerous reasons", but ultimately
decided to block abuse as "Freenode staff were spending 10 times
more time on mibbit abuse [(including ban evading)] than any other
source",[13] while
putting its own web chat in place.[14][15][16][17] This
prompted a large range of comments also on freenode's own blog entry with users
objecting to freenode's new web chat lacking features in comparison
to mibbit.[18]
Mibbit developer axod states that he believes 'abuse'
reason "is a red herring" and that "their [Freenode's] own web
client is less secure than mibbit in terms of preventing
abuse."[19]
Freenode insist on the big amount of time their staff needed to
stop abuse through mibbit and that they "chose a solution that
fixed those two problems - using staff time and disrupting our 50k users - whilst
giving the mibbit users an alternative."[20]
See also
References
External
links
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