> It seems like a sticky problem because even if Freenode purports to be open, and you can read the source code of what software they say they use, you can't actually see the source code powering their service, right?
I'm not sure how hard it would be, but conceivably you could join freenode and host your own ircd? I think the federation part (and ability to migrate/self-host) is the most important part here.
I don't think it makes much sense to bever let other projects/org run part of your infrastructure - the key point is that those organisations are open (so you can join Debian and take over an orphaned package you use, or you can run your own email and federate with others that use email).
IRC vs Slack is a bit one-sided, as IRC has some real problems at the protocol level - jabber/xmpp and Matrix are probably more sensible alternatives. But even then I don't think the main point is that everyone should do all the work of hosting all their infrastructure - just that it's goid to choose an infrastructure with as little lock-in as possible - and infrastructure that one can easily contribute to (eg: submit a patch for ircd or one of the bots etc).
I'm not sure how hard it would be, but conceivably you could join freenode and host your own ircd? I think the federation part (and ability to migrate/self-host) is the most important part here.
I don't think it makes much sense to bever let other projects/org run part of your infrastructure - the key point is that those organisations are open (so you can join Debian and take over an orphaned package you use, or you can run your own email and federate with others that use email).
IRC vs Slack is a bit one-sided, as IRC has some real problems at the protocol level - jabber/xmpp and Matrix are probably more sensible alternatives. But even then I don't think the main point is that everyone should do all the work of hosting all their infrastructure - just that it's goid to choose an infrastructure with as little lock-in as possible - and infrastructure that one can easily contribute to (eg: submit a patch for ircd or one of the bots etc).