[$] Turmoil at the freenode IRC network

Internet RelayChat (IRC) is a longstanding protocol-or series of protocols-forcreating online,text-based chat rooms.While many of the "channels" (as chat rooms are usually called) are highly useful toa wide variety of projects and organizations, including much of thefree-software world,IRC seems to have a community that suffers frommore than its fair share of disagreements, hostile forks, vitriol, and other types ofdivisiveness. It is perhaps no huge surprise, then, that the IRCworld is currently undergoing another of its periodic upheavals. Thelargest IRC network, freenode, isembroiled in a messy dispute that has ledto the mass resignationof many of its volunteer staff, the founding of a competitor network (run by the former staff),and its abandonment by multiple high-profile projects.