This is 100% a bunch of middle-class privileged people having a massive temper tantrum. They literally went around saying, "Assume Freenode is under the control of a malicious actor" just because they wanted to get other people to help out.
If you read both sides of the story, you can decide where the middle ground is. The staffers have a right to decide they want to split off and do their own thing. But going around saying the data is unsafe and there are malicious actors at play seems nothing but a grown-up having a temper tantrum. Crying about a sponsor having a logo on the website is beyond words.
...but Freenode is now behaving maliciously, banning people without good cause, and interfering with tools that open source projects use to coordinate and to provide support for users.
Yes, I know, "Freenode is under the control of a malicious actor" is really melodramatic and honestly sounds a bit unreal, but it also seems to be an accurate statement of facts. Reality is not required to adhere to your understanding of what makes the best narrative.
> If you read both sides of the story, you can decide where the middle ground is.
> ...but Freenode is now behaving maliciously, banning people without good cause, and interfering with tools that open source projects use to coordinate and to provide support for users.
> Yes, I know, "Freenode is under the control of a malicious actor" is really melodramatic and honestly sounds a bit unreal, but it also seems to be an accurate statement of facts.
I would disagree that denial of service is malicous. I would say that making that assertion is entitlement. You get what you pay for and if you pay nothing expect nothing. The funny thing here is all the people acting so entitled are the same people crying about people acting entitled about their open source projects.
> I have read both sides of the story, and I have formed an estimation of which side is telling the truth and is in the right, yes. And it's not Lee.
I think both are telling the truth, it's just they're telling their side. This isn't a fallacy it is just how telling stories works. People don't tell a story in which they look bad. They smooth over that bit.
Your use of Argument to moderation is incorrect since this is not the truth between two positions, it's the truth of a story.
If you're going by who has the moral high ground, I would say the people fleeing Freenode are right. it's their hobby, their free time and if they would rather spend it on a new network that is their right. But if you're talking about what really happened, I think everyone is telling the truth and you piece together things and what I pieced together mainly from the staffer's side of the story is they're entitled adultchildren throwing a hissy fit because they didn't get there way. It was clear they were extragrating. The bit that really glued it all together was the tidbit in Lee's story about them asking for the domains and then the troubles all started. Hence this is a hissy fit by adultchildren.
The fact that the new ownership perceives Libera as a "competitor" (your word) is exactly why the new ownership should be considered a malicious actor. That is an attitude belonging not to a FOSS network but to a business that is planning to monetize its userbase, all the while trying to reassure everyone that their communities are safe.
Maybe that was the wrong way to phrase it, maybe we shouldn't assume Freenode is under the control of a malicious actor as there's no need to question rasengan's intentions. What it boils down to is that his actions now are indistinguishable from malice, intentions aside, and so we should react accordingly.
If you read both sides of the story, you can decide where the middle ground is. The staffers have a right to decide they want to split off and do their own thing. But going around saying the data is unsafe and there are malicious actors at play seems nothing but a grown-up having a temper tantrum. Crying about a sponsor having a logo on the website is beyond words.