@offby1 you might have better luck looking for a 'place' that's compatible with Fediverse values (i.e. open, decentralised, and non-exclusionary). Neither Slack nor Discord fit those values.

I see there's a matrix (which is compatible!) channel #freenode_#mastodon:matrix.org presumably bridged from IRC, which might be what you're after.

Fwiw, I'm a long-time Mastodon admin (just setting up my 4th instance as I type) but I haven't joined any messaging groups related to ops.