Article note: Man, freenode has been a constant without too much drama for decades.
I haven't been real active in long enough that I have no idea what the situation is, but enough of the old guard leadership are bailing that it can't be good.
At least it's an open protocol and tooling so everyone can just move.
The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism – ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.