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<p>
  Welcome!
</p>

<p>
  Right about now, you're using
  
  <span class="freenode">freenode</span>
  
  for the first time, and someone has told you that you should go to the
  introduction page to find out what it's all about. Maybe you've used
  Internet Relay Chat for several years, and you have a whole set of
  expectations of what IRC is supposed to be like&mdash;if so, you're
  probably a bit confused! We'll try to help you get it sorted out.
</p>  

<h2><br />"What's a Free Node?"</h2>

<p>
  Everyone knows what <span class="freenode">freenode</span> is, and they'll
  be happy to tell you. It's that open source chat network, it's a place
  where bloggers and
  
  <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/">Wikipedia</a>
  
  people go to talk, it's that place where
  
  <a href="http://fedora.redhat.com/">fedora</a>
  
  or
  
  <a href="http://www.gentoo.org/">gentoo</a>
  
  or
  
  <a href="http://www.debian.org/">debian</a>
  
  people hang out. It's a programmers' network, or maybe it's the home of a
  lot of free software projects.
</p>  

<p>
  But <span class="freenode">freenode</span> is very different from what
  you'd expect.
</p>

<h2><br /><span class="freenode">freenode</span> is a <i>Meta-Community</i></h2>

<p>
  Most IRC networks are destinations, places where people go.
  
  <span class="freenode">freenode</span>
  
  is a <i>crossroads.</i> Hundreds of groups and projects use the network as
  a discussion medium. Each group is organized in its own way to achieve its
  own purposes, and all of the groups meet on
  
  <span class="freenode">freenode</span>
  
  to interact. On traditional IRC networks, a channel exists apart from the
  outside world. On
  
  <span class="freenode">freenode</span>,
  
  a channel is an <i>expression</i> of the outside world.
</p>

<p>
  <span class="freenode">freenode</span> is a social networking project that
  spans communities.
</p>

<h2><br /><span class="freenode">freenode</span> is a Way to Think About Community</h2>

<p>
  Traditional IRC networks consist of individual channels without a common
  purpose or agenda. Service is provided by loose associations of autonomous
  server owners, who typically confine their activities to setting server
  affiliation policy, administering servers and controlling large-scale
  server abuse such as clonebot flooding.
</p>

<p>
  <span class="freenode">freenode</span>
  
  was created to encourage scalable communities around groups which produce
  tangible, broadly-licensed creative output. Current groups produce <i>Free
  and Open Source Software</i>, software standards and web content, as well
  as reference material on a variety of subjects. In addition to serving
  such groups, the network provides services to not-for-profit entities and
  to groups associated with web media and blogging.
</p>
  
<p>
  We
  
  have an agenda: we believe that communities work better (and scale better)
  when their members try hard to keep their communities friendly and
  courteous. The environment of
  
  <span class="freenode">freenode</span>
  
  is designed to help that happen. If you've just arrived, please take a
  look at
  
  <a href="philosophy.shtml">the <span class="freenode">freenode</span> philosophy page</a>,
  
  <a href="channel_guidelines.shtml">the channel guidelines</a>,
  
  <a href="policy.shtml">the policy page</a> and
  
  <a href="faq.shtml">the FAQs</a>.
  
  We depend on you to make the network a better place. The links above will
  help you learn how.
</p>

<p>  
  If you've used IRC in the past and find our way of doing things to be
  non-intuitive or problematic, please take a look
  
  <a href="tradirc.shtml">here</a>.
</p>

<p>
  Welcome to <span class="freenode">freenode</span>!
</p>

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