We now have an IRC server set up, for the sole purpose of delivering
recent changes information. All discussion channels will stay at Freenode.
The problem with using Freenode was that it was hard to maintain, both
for us and for them. We had to use 10 different connections to avoid
flooding off, and if they all connected at once, the server would be K:
lined. Despite the best efforts of the Freenode staff, the exemptions
they set up were not robust, especially when the configuration changed
on either end.
With our own IRC server, we can have a single connection for all
channels. The bot is exempted from flood controls. This makes it much
easier to maintain. We can also create as many channels as we like --
one for every wiki.
We don't want to have to administer a general-purpose IRC server. That's
something Freenode does a good job of and we don't want to reproduce. So
we've patched ircd such that non-opers can't send messages to channels.
Keeping our discussion channels on another network is also useful for
coordination in the event of failure on our network.
The server hostname is
irc.wikimedia.org, that's 207.142.131.229 for
those people still having DNS cache problems.
-- Tim Starling