aaronmdjones · May 19, 2021 10:20 · May 19, 2021 · May 19, 2021
diff --git a/freenode-resign-letter.txt b/freenode-resign-letter.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-```
 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
 Hash: SHA512
 
@@ -380,4 +379,3 @@ kCVrNzK1NKPmBchnu8Yhf2h0RcAUL3euK31w2Cw7hYF4qwa4ZIybycmZtgJrRdQZ
 TwbnCkFPkIbP7slmQ1iTWislhjSfsc+3yvexM/2XY4yLoL8up8o=
 =uJP8
 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
-```
diff --git a/freenode-resign-letter.txt b/freenode-resign-letter.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,383 @@
+```
+-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
+Hash: SHA512
+
+My resignation from freenode staff
+==================================
+
+I joined the freenode staff in March 2019 [1].
+
+Before I joined the staff, Freenode Ltd was sold [2] to a person named
+Andrew Lee as part of a sponsorship deal. The informal terms of that
+arrangement, discussed with staff and users at the time, included that
+Andrew would neither obtain nor exercise operational control over the
+network, and that it would continue to be run independently by the
+volunteer staff, and this was communicated to users clearly [3].
+
+What has become clear to us in the last few days is that we were lied to,
+by both Andrew and christel. Contrary to public and private statements, the
+sale included the network as a whole, something christel should not have
+had the ability to relinquish, as most of the infrastructure is not owned
+by her or any of us. However, Andrew has more money than us, and so we
+cannot fight this.
+
+It should have been disclosed to us, and you, that for the last 3 years (and
+then some), we have not in fact been working with a team of volunteers, but
+rather that we have collectively all been doing unpaid work for a company.
+
+
+Timeline of critical events:
+
+
+1) In early 2021, the freenode website was altered to begin prominently
+   mentioning Shells, a company that Andrew co-founded [4].
+
+   This was not discussed among staff at the time. This caused some
+   disruption and considerable confusion among staff for months afterward,
+   as to how to handle user inquiries about it, of which we received many.
+
+   Ultimately, christel chose to resign rather than explain the situation to
+   us.
+
+   As an addendum, this is *extremely* irregular. All website advertising is
+   usually only found at [5].
+
+
+2) In early April 2021, Andrew insisted that we remove a blog post [6],
+   which was created after christel's resignation. This was also not
+   discussed. I cannot give an accurate timestamp because the history of the
+   website was rewritten to never contain the blog post in the first place,
+   so there is no commit removing it.
+
+   The blog post outlines a change of leadership, as we, the collective
+   staff as a whole, decided that we needed a new head of staff, and we
+   elected tomaw to that position.
+
+   Andrew should have no right to be concerned about who we put in charge,
+   as it was promised that he would be hands-off and let us continue to run
+   the network as we always have.
+
+   The blog post also outlines that we were continuing to develop a
+   replacement IRCd, Solanum [7], which we started back in September 2020.
+
+   Before September 2020, the development effort was being spent on upstream
+   Charybdis instead, since at least December 2019 (see [8] through [41] for
+   details, inclusive), with edk (head of our development team) doing almost
+   all of the work. The intention was that freenode would be migrating to
+   Charydis when it was ready. That plan fell apart because of unrelated
+   drama, and Charybdis was forked (again) at that point.
+
+   The work being done on Charybdis, and Solanum since, was in an effort to
+   make the network easier to administer, and allow for the implementation
+   of new IRCv3 features, such as message IDs (necessary for message
+   editing and deletion) and BRB/RESUME support.
+
+   If Andrew had concerns about what we were doing with the IRCd, he has had
+   since December 2019 to raise them. I can confidently say we've heard
+   nothing on that front, except wild delusions, such as that we were doing
+   this to merge with OFTC, which is frankly prepostorous.
+
+
+3) In the final few days of April 2021, the freenode testnet (which was
+   being used to ready Solanum in preparation for the network's migration to
+   it) was shut down, again without discussion.
+
+   Attempts to discover a reason why were met with silence. Tom has not been
+   able to talk about it, but I strongly suspect that Andrew is behind it,
+   and given Tom's silence on the subject, I suspect Andrew used the threat
+   of legal force to ensure it. I have also heard rumours that a gag order
+   was sent to a large collection of OFTC staff, of all people? I cannot
+   state concretely whether that is the case, but it would not surprise me.
+
+   While I have not had much interaction with the IRCd side of things beyond
+   code review, with my development focus being on services instead [42], I
+   have submitted pull requests to improve it [43]. I was also one of the
+   Charybdis IRCd maintainers [44], of which Solanum is a fork. Seeing this
+   effort just disappear, and seemingly the entire line of Charybdis
+   development as a whole, is highly discouraging.
+
+
+4) At the same time as the testnet shutdown, Andrew registered the channel
+   "#freenode-board" for unknown reasons, without prior discussion.
+
+   This was in the wrong namespace [45], as he was not a freenode group
+   contact, nor was he authorised to act on behalf of the freenode project.
+
+   However, we do not routinely enforce that only group contacts can
+   register channels in the primary namespace, and to make an exception in
+   this case would be counter-productive.
+
+
+5) An associate and employee of Andrew, Shane Allen ("rdv" / "nirvana"), was
+   observed boasting on another network that they were soon going to become
+   a member of the freenode staff, which was unknown to freenode staff at
+   the time.
+
+   We elect staff members at our own discretion, and always collectively
+   discuss it first.
+
+   A few weeks later, they were also observed asking around for volunteers
+   to join freenode staff, an act which they did not have the capacity or
+   authorisation to do.
+
+   Finally, they attempted to bribe a prominent network user (and former
+   staff member) into joining their cause [46][47].
+
+
+6) Andrew wrote the following message in the official network support
+   channel:
+
+   2021-05-11T17:54:16Z <rasengan> Hey Freenode Staff! Hope you're well. A
+     message from the official board of Freenode Limited, owner of the
+     freenode IRC network: kevinp is in charge of infrastructure and has
+     been legally resolved into this position by the board of Freenode.
+     Please work with him to get his access and credentials in place
+     smoothly.
+
+   This is as clear a violation of the agreement as any of the incidents I
+   could have written about.
+
+   This was followed by this private message to myself:
+
+   2021-05-11T17:56:28Z <rasengan> Hey there, please review my message in
+     #freenode -- this is an official notice from the board. Compliance is
+     requested.
+
+   This is odd, in that I do not have, nor have I ever had, the credentials
+   and privileges necessary to act upon it, something he should have known.
+   I've made it no secret that I am not an especially-privileged staff
+   member.
+
+   But to make this abundantly clear: Even if I could comply, I would not.
+   It is not at all clear that he is entitled to access to any of our
+   servers or user data, and he had repeatedly refused to provide proof of
+   this when asked to do so.
+
+   With these circumstances in mind, giving him (or his designated
+   representatives) access would violate the trust of all of our users, and
+   would also be illegal in many of the jurisdictions in which we operate.
+   The founder of an information technology company should know this.
+
+   After Tom was forced to burn thousands of pounds of personal money in
+   order to respond to Andrew's attorneys, they *eventually* provided a
+   sale contract (which I have not seen). The legal opinion is that the
+   contract is valid.
+
+   By the way, when he mentions "the board of Freenode", he really just
+   means himself. This kind of toxic self-aggrandisement is most unwelcome.
+
+
+7) Andrew then followed on with these messages, again to the official
+   network support channel:
+
+   2021-05-12T16:18:27Z <rasengan> Hi Staffers - wanted to write you all a
+     thing trying to clear up the lies going around recently, but dont want
+     to flood, so:
+
+   2021-05-12T16:18:28Z <rasengan> Message regarding recent events at
+     Freenode:
+     https://gist.github.com/realrasengan/88549ec34ee32d01629354e4075d2d48
+     and Message received from tomaw:
+     https://gist.github.com/realrasengan/f569c5e4727d21eb939fff99cb9dc84c
+
+   2021-05-12T16:18:28Z <rasengan> Thanks for taking the time to fully
+     understand the truth.
+
+   None of us responded to this, as Tom was in consultation with lawyers at
+   this time, and we received advice to not interact.
+
+   The claims laid out in the first link are as follows:
+
+
+     A) "Shells sponsors freenode providing 3k/mo"
+
+        This is the first we're hearing of any money being involved.
+
+        Furthermore, since Andrew is the only person left in the company,
+        isn't he sponsoring himself? I'm sure there are interesting tax
+        implications in that ...
+
+
+     B) "Tomaw's team attacks christel [...] and she resigns, unable to deal
+         with the persistent harassment"
+
+        I was a first-hand observer to her departure. This is entirely
+        false. She left us with a 14-paragraph e-mail about it, and signed
+        off with us on good terms at the time.
+
+
+     C) "Rather than allow for a usual grace period after resignation [...]
+         Tomaw's crew abruptly cuts christel's access"
+
+        There is no usual grace period. When a staff member resigns, their
+        credentials and privileges are revoked. This is just good infosec
+        hygiene, and is yet again something that an information technology
+        company founder should be capable of grasping.
+
+
+     D) "Rather than wait until we speak again, Tomaw turns around and
+         changes up the staff and website."
+
+        Tom didn't do anything. We, the staff as a whole, collectively
+        decided that we needed a new head of staff after christel's
+        resignation, and we chose Tom for that position.
+
+        Furthermore, the only website change was the innocuous blog post
+        that he insisted we remove, and it wasn't written or published by
+        Tom; Fuchs is our community and social outreach person, and they
+        authored and published that post. This is indicated on the post.
+
+
+     E) "Given the millions I have injected into freenode thus far"
+
+        I cannot keep a straight face while reading this. The server
+        hardware is sponsored free of cost; we will occasionally receive an
+        invoice for $0, but that's only because of how the accounting
+        systems at some of our sponsors operate. I can't possibly imagine
+        that the few freenode live conferences cost more than 50k; and all
+        of the other miscellaneous expenses (like the renewal costs for the
+        domain names) are well under a few hundred pounds per year.
+
+        Anything he would have donated before Freenode Ltd's acquisition is
+        unknown to me, but that would have been from the position of a
+        benefactor, not a supposed owner. To try to twist this in his favour
+        in this manner turns my stomach.
+
+        In the interest of full disclosure (something Andrew appears not to
+        be capable of [48][49][50][51][52][53][54]), I did receive a
+        reimbursement in the amount of £41.99 when I joined freenode staff,
+        to cover the cost of a hardware multi-factor authentication security
+        token. This was used for, among other things, securing access to our
+        GitHub organisation. This money was provided by christel [55]; where
+        she obtained it from, I do not know. This is the only money that I
+        have ever seen, let alone received, that is in any way related to or
+        connected with freenode.
+
+
+   2021-05-12T16:33:17Z <rasengan> As I'm sure you have taken the time now
+     to digest the messages -- as you all know, I am the man of second,
+     third, and infinite chances. I love this world, I love freenode and I'm
+     going to continue doing everything I can to stay true to who I have
+     strived to be. This won't make me waiver. If any current or former
+     staff wishes to talk this through, don't hesitate to send me a message
+     privately. I believe a lot of what's happened here is forgivable and I
+     am more than willing to give second chances and move on. If you would
+     love to keep freenode running, we would love to have you. Please let me
+     know!
+
+   Andrew, we do not need your forgiveness, for we have done nothing wrong.
+
+
+
+This situation is intolerable, and I suspect it is only going to get a lot
+worse in the immediate future.
+
+The freenode user base should consider very strongly that a hostile entity
+is now in operational control over the network, and is in posession of your
+data.
+
+Given the bad faith on the part of Andrew & christel (not disclosing to us
+the nature of ownership of the network, not providing a contract of sale
+until forced to do so, public inflammatory statements and lies about staff
+on the part of the former, etc.) I hereby resign from my volunteer position
+with freenode staff, with immediate effect. I am not willing to work under
+Andrew Lee.
+
+To the remaining staff; it has been wonderful to know you all, and work with
+you these last few years, and I hope to join you in future endeavours.
+
+Please perform the usual immediate revocation of my staff credentials and
+privileges across the network, the webserver, and the GitHub organisation;
+and remove my subscription to the staff mailing list. I promise to not whine
+publicly about it.
+
+
+
+As a parting gift, I leave you all with this little nugget:
+
+2021-03-15 21:21:47 <rasengan> I have not, am not, and will not interfere
+  with the operations of freenode outside of when asked for help
+
+
+
+Sincerely,
+Aaron Jones (amdj)
+Former freenode staff / Development Team
+PGP [56]: 97D5 8E60 7188 C8C9 8648 1CB7 6A2F 8980 0051 9052
+
+
+
+[1] https://github.com/aaronmdjones?tab=overview&from=2019-03-25&to=2019-03-28
+[2] https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10308021/officers
+[3] https://web.archive.org/web/20170412203731/https://freenode.net/news/pia-fn
+[4] https://www.shells.com/l/en-US/team
+[5] https://freenode.net/acknowledgements
+[6] https://web.archive.org/web/20210423231439/https://freenode.net/news/freenode-reorg
+[7] https://github.com/solanum-ircd/solanum
+[8] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/298
+[9] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/299
+[10] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/300
+[11] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/301
+[12] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/302
+[13] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/303
+[14] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/304
+[15] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/308
+[16] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/313
+[17] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/315
+[18] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/316
+[19] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/317
+[20] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/319
+[21] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/320
+[22] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/321
+[23] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/322
+[24] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/326
+[25] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/327
+[26] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/328
+[27] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/329
+[28] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/330
+[29] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/333
+[30] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/334
+[31] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/335
+[32] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/336
+[33] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/338
+[34] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/344
+[35] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/345
+[36] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/346
+[37] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/347
+[38] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/352
+[39] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/353
+[40] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/355
+[41] https://github.com/charybdis-ircd/charybdis/pull/359
+[42] https://github.com/atheme/atheme/graphs/contributors
+[43] https://github.com/solanum-ircd/solanum/pull/116
+[44] https://github.com/orgs/charybdis-ircd/people
+[45] https://freenode.net/kb/answer/namespaces
+[46] https://twitter.com/ariadneconill/status/1392995496403341313
+[47] https://distfiles.dereferenced.org/stuff/nirvana-log.txt
+[48] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25575227
+[49] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25892692
+[50] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26332711
+[51] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26357681
+[52] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26443975
+[53] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26570656
+[54] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26879957
+[55] https://imgur.com/a/UNlVRkI
+[56] https://keys.openpgp.org/vks/v1/by-fingerprint/97D58E607188C8C986481CB76A2F898000519052
+
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