The Ubuntu community uses freenode for all of their IRC channels. As a result, freenode is frequently mentioned on wiki pages, blog posts, emails, etc. Even though freenode is mentioned in so many places, many people still fail to properly write it. For example, it is very common for people to say Freenode or even FreeNode. Instead of trying to correct everyone individually, I decided to simply blog about this.
It is not FreeNode. It is not Freenode. It is freenode!
Nathan Handler's Blog 
/me slaps his own wrist.
Does it really matter though?
death to capitalization! it’s so redundant we have two keys for it.
nobody capitalizes on irc anyway. why should anyone capitalize an irc network’s name? would be silly wouldn’t it!
No, it’s Freenode. They get to choose their name but English is still English. There are rulez ya know. *grin*
Yup, English is English. Here’s a good analysis of this topic: http://www.theslot.com/webnames.html
Well, if no one else can call themselves Freenode, then it is a proper noun and needs capitalized. If any of us can start our own irc network and call it freenode, then you are right.
Alex’s link on this is great. English is Enlgish. That doesn’t change because people in IRC are too lazy to hit the shift key.
Thanks Alex and Nnonix.
I 2nd what Aoirthoir An Broc said. PLEASE.. let’s not bastardize the English language any more than it already is.
I will assume this is partially directed at me. =) I consider myself corrected; thanks. (I guess I just assumed it should be treated as a proper noun…)
Interestingly enough, 2 of the top 4 links from the Google search page for that keyword are “wrong”:
http://www.google.com/search?q=freenode
The first one looks like Google’s mistake, but the page with the Java applet is one of freenode’s (almost did it again) own pages.
Mike, it SHOULD be treated as a proper noun because it IS a proper noun. The OP was WAY off.
To what extent can organizations bend the rules? (Should we complain to Apple that it’s not “iPod”, it’s “IPod”?) To me, writing it with a capital letter is still the intuitive/right thing to do… but who am I to decide? Maybe we should all just agree to not be too pedantic. =)
Mike, the problem isn’t that I am running around telling people to capitalize Freenode, but when I am challenged on it by folks telling me NOT to do it, I speak up.q
Empathy spells it as “FreeNode” (eww camel case!). I filed a bug! https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/empathy/+bug/569276