I don't know what the organizations' issues were, but when I use IRC, I'm typically idle in several rooms and only rarely post anything. That doesn't mean I'm not reading the contents regularly. But it does mean that the bridge would terminate your session and you'd have to go through the whole process of connecting to the desired rooms from scratch.
I found this burdensome and incompatible with the way IRC is used, so I decided some time back that I wasn't going to use Matrix as an IRC bouncer any more. (Which also means that most of my use of Matrix has ended. I'm in several rooms where there were less than 10 posts total so far in 2023, and now I find myself not checking regularly ... and naturally notifications are turned off.)
It seems that #Freenode registered Libera dot net in order to trick people into using their #IRC network instead of #Libera.Chat's network.
Such scumbags. If you're still using Freenode, what are you waiting for? About the only thing they haven't done yet is publicly expose the identities of IRC users.
> Any limitation of range of civil discussion on a topic annoys me. It's information suppression. Fascism pretending to have manners
Not wanting to join the conversation, but anyone that has a spouse knows there are some things you cannot say if you want to continue having a good relationship (or perhaps having any relationship at all). The exception is when one party bullies and controls the other party so thoroughly that they fear not that the other party will escape, ending the relationship.
I'm no longer there ( #Freenode ), having moved to the #LiberaChat, #OFTC, and #Rizon #IRC networks. Thus, I do not know whether the rumored "coronavirus is a hoax" / "vaccines kill" and racism is a major part of Freenode's remaining membership.
Pretty overwhelmingly against remaining on #Freenode. Seems pretty scattered on whether to choose #LiberaChat, #OFTC, some other #IRC network, or self-host.
You can move to #LiberaChat, to #OFTC, to #Rizon, etc. Or use #Matrix or an #XMPP MUC instead of IRC. Just don't "wait and see" and be surprised when your channel is targeted.