If you read the comments one reason FreeNode is in disarray is because Rob Levin who ran the site died in a bicycling accident a few years ago.<p>In fact the chaos and drama at FreeNode might be the real story here.<p><a href="http://bramcohen.livejournal.com/72298.html?thread=1000554#t1000554" rel="nofollow">http://bramcohen.livejournal.com/72298.html?thread=1000554#t...</a><p>Fragglet writes (in the comments):<p>"This shouldn't be surprising to anyone with any experience of Freenode. Freenode is a perfect example of how open source projects tend to acquire the personality of their founder. In the case of Freenode, that founder was Rob Levin, famous for his online begging over wallops and for being completely incompetent in general. Levin's incompetence, begging and dictatorial style where he branded everyone who disagreed with him a "troll" gradually alienated all the sensible and technically skilled people from the network staff until the only people left were his equally incompetent sycophantic underlings.<p>"When Levin died several years ago as a result of his own stupidity (riding a bike without a helmet), they took over. I haven't heard of mquin before but it looks like the cycle continues.<p>"Your best option is to close the Freenode channel and move to OFTC, the staff of which consist mostly of the sensible and technically skilled people who left Freenode."<p>Here are some links with more details,<p><a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/01/29/buy_a_piece_of_net/" rel="nofollow">http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/01/29/buy_a_piece_of_net/</a><p><a href="http://antisec.wordpress.com/2006/06/27/eyeballing-rob-levin/" rel="nofollow">http://antisec.wordpress.com/2006/06/27/eyeballing-rob-levin...</a>