Re:The “smolnet”, build for friends and friends of friends
by sshine on Monday June 12, 2023 @06:59PM
(#36302567)
> something happened with Freenode, and the communities faded away, right?
It was a netsplit.
Freenode was sold to an heir of the former Korean monarchy. The idea that the network was even sellable did not resonate with several former staff calling it a hostile takeover, so Libera.Chat was formed as a moral successor.
The split caused a drop in user count from ~80k to ~45k. Some channels migrated to OFTC instead. See a user count history graph:
It was a netsplit.
Freenode was sold to an heir of the former Korean monarchy. The idea that the network was even sellable did not resonate with several former staff calling it a hostile takeover, so Libera.Chat was formed as a moral successor.
The split caused a drop in user count from ~80k to ~45k. Some channels migrated to OFTC instead. See a user count history graph:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libera_Chat#History
https://netsplit.de/networks/top10.php?year=2021
Since the decline of freenode, their user count statistics have looked unapologetically synthetic.