Freenode Founder Rob Levin (aka lilo) Has Passed Away

Freenode

Rob Levin (“lilo”), the founder of the popular IRC network Freenode, passed away today at the age of 50 in Houston, TX.

Here’s the global notice that was posted to Freenode:

On the 12th September Rob Levin, known to many as Freenode’s lilo, was hit by a car while riding his bike. He suffered head injuries and passed away in hospital on the 16th. For more information please visit #freenode-announce

Freenode has over 30,000 daily users chatting on 10,000 IRC channels, including those for WordPress, BarCamp and SuperHappyDevHouse.

Laughing Squid sends our condolences to Rob’s family and friends.

UPDATE: A quiet channel as been setup at #lilo-memorial for reverent idling and #lilo-mourning for discussion.

Thanks to Barry Abrahamson for letting us know about this sad news.

Scott Beale
Scott Beale

Scott Beale founded Laughing Squid in 1995 in San Francisco and is currently based in New York City. When not running the blog, Scott can be found posting on Bluesky and sharing photos on Instagram.

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