I have to say, given that many of the ops on the old list remain
active contributors to the project and are at least periodically (if
not constantly) on IRC, the decision not to contact them for input
before simply removing all of their ops was rather unfortunate. As
someone who has been a channel op as long as I've been an
administrator (and actually a few hours longer), and who had held one
of the highest ops levels in the channel (whereby I could appoint
people to be able to make ops) I find this rather hurtful, and
certainly offensive.
-Phil