I'm not big on denying the past, and we clearly supported freenode in the pre-2021 Era. However the existing page states that we also continue to support Freenode and its operations and I don't believe this is true today and I don't believe the community would support such activity. Its my view that factually: - In 2021 the org we actually supported was renamed to LiberaChat. - If we want to acknowledge our contribution to LiberaChat's past, we can do that on their webpages. - We should remove our acknowledgement from freenode as we currently do not support them. -A
So, first the legal situation as I see it: LiberaChat is not the successor in interest to Freenode by any legal standard I'm aware of, so we ought to be careful about making any assertions otherwise. That is actually something that has the potential to make our organization liable under US law (slander of title). I get that people don't like the changes Freenode made, but the whole point of the Foundation is to be Gentoo's legal entity, and we need to distinguish between sentiment and law. Legally Libera Chat appears to be a Sweedish Non-profit that came into existence in June 2021 (at least that is the info I gather from their website). It legally has no past. Sure, a bunch of people we worked with left one organization and started a new one. If we wanted to acknowledge individuals by name I don't think there would be any issues with doing so (assuming they didn't mind). However, the legal organizations themselves are distinct from the people who volunteered for or were employed by them (where applicable). We certainly do not need to continue to acknowledge an organization we no longer work with. Then my personal thoughts/recommendation: There is a reason that organizations generally refrain from making negative statements about other organizations - the downsides are usually much larger than the upsides. IMO we should just quietly drop any mention of them and not make a fuss. Making purported statements of fact about another organization just creates potential grounds for slander or libel accusations. The press has already made covered the story - there is no need for us to do so further.
(In reply to Alec Warner from comment #0) > Its my view that factually: > - In 2021 the org we actually supported was renamed to LiberaChat. > - If we want to acknowledge our contribution to LiberaChat's past, we can > do that on their webpages. That's mostly their call, not ours. Also, I'd suggest to keep that question separate from this discussion. > - We should remove our acknowledgement from freenode as we currently do not > support them. +1 As a side remark: Redhat had their acknowledgement removed: https://git.freenode.net/freenode-web/web-7-0/-/commit/f4b552ab5b96a8bf4c32c6edb1aa72c3062b1d6d (In reply to Richard Freeman from comment #1) > Sure, a bunch of people we worked with left one organization and started a > new one. If we wanted to acknowledge individuals by name I don't think > there would be any issues with doing so (assuming they didn't mind). > However, the legal organizations themselves are distinct from the people who > volunteered for or were employed by them (where applicable). > > We certainly do not need to continue to acknowledge an organization we no > longer work with. IIUC this bug is about them acknowledging us, not us acknowledging them?
(In reply to Ulrich Müller from comment #2) > IIUC this bug is about them acknowledging us, not us acknowledging them? Ah, in that case you can ask. I'm not sure legally you can compel removal, but you can ask. It is basically just nominative use unless we had agreed to confidentiality up-front all those years ago.
(In reply to Alec Warner from comment #0) > I'm not big on denying the past, and we clearly supported freenode in the > pre-2021 Era. However the existing page states that we also continue to > support Freenode and its operations and I don't believe this is true today > and I don't believe the community would support such activity. > > Its my view that factually: > - In 2021 the org we actually supported was renamed to LiberaChat. As Rich mentioned, it was not simply renamed. Both platforms are now two separate entities. > - If we want to acknowledge our contribution to LiberaChat's past, we can > do that on their webpages. With the above in mind, we would technically be acknowledging our contribution(s) to Freenode pre-2021 > - We should remove our acknowledgement from freenode as we currently do not > support them. > Agreed. IMHO, we should not publicly endorse Freenode any longer. > -A
I vote to remove our acknowledgement from freenode as we currently do not support them
We need 3/5 vote for this motion to pass
In case my previous comments were not clear: I vote to remove our acknowledgement from Freenode as we currently do not support them.
passed (3/5)
The motion has passed, but nobody has created a PR at GitLab. Who is going to do that?
If is not done yet, I will
Opened issue to be removed from Freenode Acknowledgements section https://git.freenode.net/freenode-web/web-7-0/-/issues/526
also sent mail to tjr@freenode.net
(In reply to Alice Ferrazzi from comment #12) > Opened issue to be removed from Freenode Acknowledgements section > https://git.freenode.net/freenode-web/web-7-0/-/issues/526 Their gitlab is private now, but we are no longer listed on their website: https://freenode.net/acknowledgements Alicef, is there anything left to do for this bug? -A
Gentoo got removed from the acknowledgement https://freenode.net/acknowledgements
