[H-source-users] freenode IRC channel and project registration

[bill-auger]

yesterday, damien and i thought we were opening a new #h-node channel
on freenode; but it turns out that ChanServ was already in it -
ChanServ reports that the channel has not been used by humans for years
and it is not possible for anyone else to become op - the channel
was founded in 2016 by nick: 'foss'; which is not a nick i have ever
seen on freenode, and does not correspond to any nicknames on the team
rosters - does anyone on this mailing list know the person who uses
that nick? - during 2016-2017 the project was not under active
development; so its not clear who used that the channel nor what for -
if that is all correct, then this could simply be a case of
name-squatting

i asked the #freenode op: 'e' how to salvage the #h-node channel,
who suggested that we would need to register the project as a formal
freenode group, in order to lay claim to the channel name - i am CC'ing
this to both the h-node mailing list and the freenode group managers

the #hnode channel is available; but we should probably prefer
the hyphenated: #h-node, simply because the branding, the website URL,
and the end-user client software names are hyphenated - on the other
hand, if we use the #hnode channel, there would be no imperative to
register a formal freenode group - as i understand, the main benefit of
that is precisely to protect the branding name from misrepresentation,
and secondly that it offers a project-branded cloak


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the remainder of this message is for the benefit of the freenode admins
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the channel name we are interested in is: #h-node

h-node is a website and a co-operating desktop client software, both
GPLv3 licensed, for compiling and maintaining a database of computer
hardware that is known to function properly using only freely licensed
firmware/drivers (e.g. those included with the linux-libre kernel used
by FSF-endorsed distros)

for membership verification, i can refer you the project website[1]

on that page, you will see that the source code is hosted in two repos
on savannah - if you click through to the 'h-client' project and look at
the membership page you will see my name - if you click through to the
'h-source' project and look at the membership page you will see the name
of Damien Zammit ('damo22' on freenode) - he is also idling in the IRC
channel now

a discussion took place this week about re-vitalizing the project
after some years of stagnation, where the original project lead:
Antonio, endorsed Ian to be the acting project lead, and some new
people, including myself, were accepted onto the team[2]

Ian is now denoted as project admin on the membership pages of both
savannah repos - i think he has a registered nick on freenode; but im
not certain - he would the most suitable primary contact, however -
myself, Damien, and also freenode user 'Ark74' could be the secondary
contacts


[1]: https://h-node.org/source/notes_0.2.html
[2]: http://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/h-source-users/2019-03/threads.html