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commit e2c5c8f73ddcc0362becdb4044b2fd914c2617eb parent fefb3cc84e0f5e64cb46cd05fbe7a69e9482619e Author: opal hart <opal@wowana.me> Date: Thu, 27 May 2021 17:17:47 +0000 new blog post: "Regarding FSF IRC presence" Diffstat:
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diff --git a/src/blog/regarding-fsf-irc-presence.md b/src/blog/regarding-fsf-irc-presence.md @@ -0,0 +1,80 @@ +# "Regarding FSF IRC presence" +<!--[time 202105271717.09]--> + +in response to [FSF's meeting agenda][], I wrote an E-mail voicing my +opinion on the matter: + +> Hi, +> +> I'll be unable to make the meeting on freenode #fsf (not necessarily +> due to time constraints, but due to my decision to leave freenode +> entirely), and while I am not a FSF member/sponsor, I still want to +> give my input on the following points: +> +> > Current state and long-term future of the [f]reenode network; +> +> At first I was unsure how this transfer would pan out. I know Andrew +> Lee from outside of freenode, and I know he associates with unstable +> and untrustworthy personalities such as Shane Allen (aka rdv and +> nirvana, co-founder of Snoonet). Most other information I can give +> about Lee is already public information, and I assume FSF is familiar +> with such literature, so I will not expand on it unless prompted. +> +> After seeing an array of events pan out -- takeover of ##hntop, +> promotion of known abusers such as eskimo to staff, promotion of other +> staff (such as bagira) who are too personally invested against Libera +> staff and thus may have conflicts of interest for the larger freenode +> community, and finally the recent mass takeovers of on-topic project +> channels who so much as mention Libera in their topic -- I am now sure +> of the collateral here. I can safely say that it is not a political +> decision, but rather a practical one, to relocate away from freenode. +> +> > Assessing alternate IRC networks (Libera, OFTC); and +> +> Personal conflicts aside, both seem equally capable to host project +> communities such as FSF. But, leading into the next point, it may be +> better to leave IRC entirely for several reasons, or at least open up +> the community to alternate platforms in conjunction with IRC. +> +> > Viability and freedom status of alternate communication networks +> > (Matrix, XMPP). +> +> Personally I see a lot of promise in XMPP, despite not a lot of focus +> being placed in it as of recent years, due to Matrix offsetting +> development efforts. Matrix gave hope to a lot of people, including +> myself, for being a promising federated platform, but it ended up +> suffering more from decisions influenced by venture capital and +> misaligned priorities. The software ecosystem is still *very* immature +> compared to more-established platforms, and I believe the split between +> developer groups working on many servers and clients will not be +> beneficial in the long term. +> +> XMPP is great for one-on-one chat these days; clients, servers, and +> standards are more mature (not perfect, but overall I believe there is +> less effort spent in cleaning the ecosystem up compared to Matrix). +> Multi-user chats are XMPP's shortcoming still, and while there are +> extention proposals to "decentralise" MUCs, so far those standards take +> after IRC's spanning-tree protocol and don't scale as well as Matrix's +> mobile room identities. +> +> In general, federated platforms such as XMPP and Matrix allow for more +> agency than IRC networks do. Several organisations (Mozilla comes +> immediately to mind) host or have sponsorship for their own +> homeservers, which allows them to create their own policies for their +> spaces, while also allowing users to participate with remotely-managed +> homeservers that may have differing rules and standards. +> +> Matrix has seen wider adoption for group chats than XMPP in recent +> years, primarily due to the hype and some of the features it promises +> over IRC (message history, media attachments, mobile-friendly clients, +> et cetera). So, that's definitely a point to weigh into consideration +> for platform choice. Just as well, I know there is a group of people +> who do not wish to leave IRC for these other platforms. +> +> I believe it would also be worth to bridge protocols and allow people +> to make the choice for what platform they want to use in order to +> participate in the FSF community discussions. This way, even if an IRC +> channel has issues down the line, the community can still remain at +> least partially active on other platforms with less effort. + +[FSF's meeting agenda]: <https://www.fsf.org/events/community-meeting-on-the-future-of-our-irc-presence>