There is no disconnect or misunderstanding that I see. There is absolutely no way this could have been communicated that would have resulted in it being taken any better.
Freenode spent over 2 decades as a mostly open platform for tech and other communities where you could be kick banned for being a nazi or a spammer but where your community wouldn't be subject to interference solely to serve anyone's commercial interests. There was never any concept that it was disallowed to discuss the competition and if it had been expressed it would have been wildly unacceptable.
After you sprung it on people it remains wildly unacceptable and its the moment when you absolutely jumped the shark. If by next year you are left with ashes and dreams and you want to pick a moment where this became inevitable its this moment when you decided you could stop people from switching to Libera by censoring freenode. If you had a time machine there is no notes you could offer to your prior self save STOP!
Freenode spent over 2 decades as a mostly open platform for tech and other communities where you could be kick banned for being a nazi or a spammer but where your community wouldn't be subject to interference solely to serve anyone's commercial interests. There was never any concept that it was disallowed to discuss the competition and if it had been expressed it would have been wildly unacceptable.
After you sprung it on people it remains wildly unacceptable and its the moment when you absolutely jumped the shark. If by next year you are left with ashes and dreams and you want to pick a moment where this became inevitable its this moment when you decided you could stop people from switching to Libera by censoring freenode. If you had a time machine there is no notes you could offer to your prior self save STOP!