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Last remaining >1000 user community channel seized by freenode staff

Late in the evening of June 12, 2021, freenode staff seized the largest community channel left on freenode.

They cleared the ##linux access list and established themselves as channel owners. In the process they kicked roughly a thousand remaining users from ##linux, trying to forward them to #linux (one hash mark).

##linux was by far the largest community content channel remaining on freenode with >1000 online users, building this Linux community on IRC, my staff and I have spent countless hours of volunteer time over 22 years.

There was no warning, no consultation and the only shred of reasoning that could be found was in the canned message stating “this channel is in violation of Freenode policy” used with the channel purge. Some of the ##linux channel staff were klined from freenode (i.e. banned at the network level). The channel staff and myself view this as a hostile takeover attempt of our community and an attack on users’ freedom of choice and association.

Since the resignation of all former freenode staff and the takeover of the network operations by Andrew Lee and his new recruits, FLOSS communities can no longer count on the safety and stability of the freenode IRC network.

Similar hostile takeovers happened to the Python community, GNU and the FSF. More than 700 FLOSS projects have abandoned freenode and now the Linux.Chat community has left as well; find our new home at #linux on Libera and our multi-platform community website here.

I personally urge any remaining FLOSS projects to consider moving to Libera, OFTC or any other FLOSS friendly environment. freenode has become actively hostile, unpredictable and untrustworthy.

June 14, 2021, Nigel Kukard (former ##linux on freenode founder, founder of #linux on Libera, owner of Linux.Chat on Discord)
Press contact: nkukard@gmail.com

2021-06-14T11:43:56+00:00June 13th, 2021|IRC|

Exim, really?

Exim is a wonderful piece of software which may work for most… not me though.

I am known for doing some crazy things, and in this case its using the VRFY command from frontend servers to backend servers to easily, quickly and cost effectively check which backend is routing an email address.

1. This is what the VRFY command is specifically designed for, checking if an email address is valid or routable.

2. The purpose of the ACL list is to define access controls for commands. If I want to reject access to a command, should I not be able to do this?

This boils down to me not caring what Exim thinks. I don’t want to hear “252” (maybe its routable? maybe not? agg, maybe try later?). I know what is routable. I will tell you what is routable or not, and if I want to outright reject use of the command, you will do it.

But alas, Exim up to at least 4.86 returns a 2xx code, which is not configurable to 5xx or even 4xx. So no matter what we get a 2xx SUCCESSFUL status code.

ref: Exim bug 1769

PS: YES, I know why it returns 252 and I am not disputing that. The fact you cannot override this to 5xx is a deficiency.

2016-01-05T23:45:32+00:00January 5th, 2016|Bugs|
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