What Is Eris Free Network (EFNet)?

IRC inventor Jarkko Oikarinen designed the Eris Free Network (EFNet) in early 1990. It grew into one of the numerous widely used IRC networks with over 40,000 registered users, 15,000 channels and 60 servers worldwide. EFnet was originally a Finnish-only chat network that allowed users to chat with each other in real time. Eris was taken from Discordianism, an atheistic religion founded by author Greg Hill in 1958. Religion is based on the idea that everything is true, but nothing is false—presumably, because it's all so chaotic, you can't tell what's real from what isn't. The word "free" in EFnet refers to the freedom of information—precisely what they wanted their network to foster by making it easy for anyone to join and participate in discussions about any topic they wanted. EFnet has existed since before the Web; it was one of the first places where people could go online and talk about whatever they wanted without fear of being censored or monitored by anyone else (except maybe trolls). The story of how EFnet was born has been told many times, but always with a different twist. The short version goes like this: Eris. Berkeley. Edu was an IRC server that didn't require users to log in before chatting on channels or setting up IRC servers. At the time, Eris. Berkeley. Edu was the last server that supported this model, and as such, it became a popular choice for those who wanted to run their own IRC networks without dealing with pesky logins (or pesky users). However, some people still wanted to ensure their channels were safe from trolls, spammers, and rotten eggs—so they created "Q-Line" specifications for the servers they ran on and added them to their users' access lists. These servers allowed people who had Q-lines added to their accounts access while blocking everyone else—which meant no more trolls! The servers that added Q-line specifications became part of EFnet!