FTR I believe I am still the only person with the highest level of privileges on that channel. I have never heard of any of this.
You'd better go back there and /kick some folks. If you don't use your power people will wrest it from you! They've already established a new government - constitution and all!
(ironic)
#lesswrong on Freenode, which used to be the official unofficial LessWrong channel, has been re-designated as a private hangout reserved for, roughly, ggreer/AngryParsley, efm, realitygrill, rsaarelm, ksotala, gwern, Grognor, chelz, cwillu, Boxo, nshepperd, ivan, mstevens, and jandrog. You're still welcome to speak there, but only if whatever you're saying is interesting/important to one of them and the op.
For less constrained conversation, go to #lesswrong-alt (unregistered; recommended by #lesswrong's op), also on Freenode.
EDIT: #lesswrong's rules have been changed to "behave like decent human beings, give ops liberally to channel regulars, don't ban without warning or if most people disagree". This PSA is hereby retracted.