[ejj28]

Great insight, makes what they're doing seem even crazier as I'm guessing very few of the remaining user base are going to be happy about the nicknames and channels they're familiar with being up for grabs by anyone. Purely speculation but I'm wondering if they're planning to turn Freenode in to another "free speech" platform, hence their lack of care towards the current users and comments about it being a "sovereign state" as mentioned by other commenters.