#Friendly Channel Operator FAQ v2.0
Contents:
1) What are the responsibilities of a #Friendly Channel Operator (Chop)?
#Friendly Chops are just like any other user, but also have the added
RESPONSIBILITY of helping #Friendly live up to its name. This
means that a Chop has the ability to keep unfriendly people off
the channel by using the resources that Undernet provides.
2) What does one have to do to become a #Friendly Chop?
To become a #Friendly Chop, a user must be a regular on #Friendly
for at least 2-3 months. A user has to be recommended by at least 3
Chops and then the members of OpCom will vote on the user. The
user also has to complete the #Friendly Quiz, which will make sure
the user knows "how" to be a #Friendly Chop. The OpCom Secretary
will then send the results of this vote to Super and he will make a
final decision. If approved by Super and added to the bots, there is
a 2 month probation period. While on probation a new op CANNOT
recommend anyone for Ops and can be removed from the bots without
prior notice if it is determined that they are not complying with the
guidelines, or causing problems on the channel. While on probation
a new op may NOT temp/guest op another user on #friendly. (EX:
/mode nickname +o)
3) How do I recommend someone to become a #Friendly Chop?
Send an email to the OpCom Secretary with the following
information: angel111@alias.undernet.org
User's usual nickname
User's user@host
User's email address
Brief reason why the user deserves to be a Chop
(what sort of contribution can this person make
to the channel by being a auto op)
4) What is OpCom?
OpCom stands for the #Friendly Op Evaluation Committee
It is a committee composed of 7 Chops which will work with
Super to "keep everyone informed of issues related to #Friendly.
This includes new ops, discipline, shit list, bot stuff, and
anything else related to #Friendly."
- quote from one of Super's emails ;>
With the exception of personal conflict between chops, which we
are all mature enough to deal with on our own. Unless the actions,
misunderstandings or interpreted offensiveness affects the open
channel, or becomes continued ongoing harrassment. In which case
disciplinary actions will be taken against those allowing personal
differences to interfere with the spirit of #friendly.
*** See the #Friendly Op Evaluation Committee Guidelines for more
details.
5) Who are the OpCom members?
The current members are:
(Secretary) Angel111 angel111@alias.undernet.org
Mar21 jlnichol@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca
Stever sac76424@saclink.csus.edu
Ifek ivica@ihug.co.nz
Aglaia schwarsu@cps.acast.nova.edu,
Bee sjr@iohk.com
Mopsey mopsey@easynet.co.uk
6) Who is Super?
You better know this one, because he is the guy who has kept
#Friendly running since it started. Super refers to himself
as the channel "maintainer". He runs the 2 bots, SuperBot
and BuddyBot, that reside on the channel. Super is also an
IRC Operator (IRCop) for the Vancouver.BC.CA.Undernet.Org
server, an Admin on #Chatzone (for which he runs a bot called
Chatbot), the Channel Administrator for #CService and one of
the managers of the #Help channel (for which he also maintains
a bot called HelpBot).
7) How should a #Friendly Chop deal with problem users?
First, remember that a "problem" can be very subjective at
times. This document is only a set of guidelines, so all Chops
are expected to use their own sound judgement in dealing with
all situations. If you are unsure of what to do about a certain
situation, then just ask another Chop. If the situation requires
quick actions, then just keep calm, do what you feel is right at the
moment, and you can ask about it later, for future reference.
Following are some guidelines on how to deal with certain situations.
Please try to follow them the best you can, but I will again stress,
they are just *guidelines*.
a) Warning A User:
If a user should begin causing a problem on the
channel, you should first try to warn the user that what
s/he is doing is not nice or is against #Friendly channel
rules. As the Undernet has over 4000 channels at most
times, and each channel its own rules, sometimes a user
may assume that what was accepted on one channel will be
accepted on another channel as well. So *PLEASE* WARN
first.
If a user is not causing a major disturbance, it's usually
a good idea to try to warn them in /msg. People do not like to
be publically corrected or embarassed. A public warning on the
channel should always precede a kick for anything other than
flooding, clones, gross lewdness, etc...
b) Kicking A User:
If the user shows that s/he is not willing to stop
their actions after a couple of warnings, then they may
be kicked from the channel. A good idea here is to kick
with the reason you are kicking the user, so that they,
and others who may not have seen what the user was doing,
will understand why the user was kicked. Then you may even
want to /msg the user to tell her/him that they are
welcome to return to the channel if they can follow the
rules next time.
Other reasons to kick:
- User has joined the channel with the sole purpose of
displaying a lewd or vulgar message, or something which
is deemed absolutely disruptive to the channel.
- Use your discretion.
c) Banning A User:
This is to be used after a user has repeatedly
been kicked off the channel for behavior that is not
acceptable by our channel rules. This user obviously has
no regard for our channel rules or the other users on the
channel, therefore we have every reason to ban this user
from the channel.
Other reasons to ban:
- Clonebots (multiple bots from the same userid) have joined
the channel. Just a kick usually won't keep clonebots off
the channel because most clonebots are programmed to rejoin
immediately after a kick.
What to do if clonebots show up:
i) Ban the user@host
ii) Kick the clonebots
iii) Inform an IRCop (usually found on #wasteland)
that there were just clonebots on the channel.
Provide any information you can, such as the
nicknames and user@host of the bots. Also, if
you were able to get a log of the occurrence and
can DCC it to the IRCop, that would help him/her
as well. (Those using ircII can /set log on
then do a /lastlog and /set log off to make a
log after the fact.)
Also, BuddyBot remembers all users for about
15 minutes after the user has left the channel.
So, another way to find out who the user was
is to do: /msg buddybot whois nickname
- Again, please use your discretion.
8) How do I kick a user off the channel?
The general format is:
/kick #channelname nickname reason
Those with unix clients can you a * instead of #channelname.
The * is this case represents "the current channel"
9) How do I ban a user?
a) Quick lesson on what a user@host means
Remember, a user@host is always in the form:
nickname!userid@machine.institution.domain
The domain is always the last part
(com, edu, gov, mil, net, etc.. )
The institution is always the next to last
(usually the school or company or provider name)
Anything between the @ and the institution are specific
departments within the institution or machine names
(can be anything)
For example:
Teal!~friedman@moscow.cse.psu.edu
The domain is edu
(Educational)
The institution is psu
(Penn State University)
The department within psu is cse
(Computer Science and Engineering)
The machine name is moscow
b) What about when there are numbers in the @host part?
This is called the IP address. It is usually represented
by 4 numbers (in the range 1 to 254) separated by periods.
This is the actual address of the user's location, whereas
the names that we normally see are just a more convenient
way to remember a person's user@host or email address.
In an IP address, the rightmost number is always the specific
machine that the user is on.
Example:
nickname!userid@number.number.number.machine
c) What does the * in a ban mask mean?
The * (asterisk, or "star") is used as a wildcard. It
basically says "doesn't matter what is in this space"
d) What does the ~ mean in a host mask?
IRC uses the ~ (tilde) character to represent users
whose userids could not be verified, to make sure they
are not fake. There is a program called identd for unix
systems that forces the userids to be verified, but not
all systems have it installed. Also, there is nothing
to prevent slip/ppp users from using different userids.
e) Formats
Bans are in the form:
/mode #channelname +b banmask
On unix clients, this may be used as well:
/mode * +b banmask
The * represents the current channel
The + in front of the b can be omitted.
All examples use the format:
foonick!fooid@machine.inst.domain
or
foonick!fooid@number.number.number.machine
i) Nickname Ban:
A nickname ban can be used to prevent a
particular nickname from being used on the channel.
Example:
You want to ban the nickname "foonick"
/mode #friendly +b foonick!*@*
or, for short
/mode #friendly +b foonick
AKA "the nick foonick at any userid @ any host"
Remember: If you ban a nickname, this does not
prevent a user from coming onto the channel with
one nickname, then changing it to the banned
nickname. However, if a user is using a nickname
that is banned, s/he will not be able to speak on
the channel.
ii) User Ban:
This is used when you want to ban a particular
user from the channel.
Example:
You want to ban user foonick, who has the user@host
~fooid@machine.inst.domain
/mode #friendly +b *!*fooid@*.inst.domain
or
/mode #friendly +b *!*fooid@*inst.domain
- The *! means you don't care what the persons
nickname is, it could be anything
- The *fooid means you don't care if the userid has
the ~ or anything else in front of it or not.
- The @*.inst.domain or @*inst.domain means you
don't care what machine the user is on, because if
you banned by specific machine, the user could just
switch machine and still get in the channel.
(Yes, there are plenty of users who wouldn't know
they could switch machines and get into the channel
if you actually specified the machine name in the
ban, but disallowing all machines is the accepted
practice for banning a user on IRC)
Say you want to ban foonick with the user@host
~fooid@number.number.number.machine
/mode #friendly +b *!*fooid@number.number.number.*
Again, you don't care what machine the user is on.
iii) Site bans (Host bans).
This ban is only used when there are problems
from multiple users from the site, or when a
user evades the bans by changing his/her userid
and returning to the channel.
To ban an entire host:
==> First, remove all user bans from that host.
A site ban *will not* go up if there are users
banned from that site already.
Then:
/mode #friendly +b *!*@*.inst.domain
or
/mode #friendly +b *!*@*inst.domain
This means any nickname, any userid, any machine
from the host, is banned.
10) How do I unban a user?
Unbanning is basically the same as unbanning.
The general format to unban someone is:
/mode #channelname -b banmask
You must specify the complete ban mask, exactly as it is
in the banlist, to unban the user.
To unban *!*fooid@*.inst.domain
/mode #channelname -b *!*fooid@*.inst.domain
To unban *!*fooid@*inst.domain
/mode #channelname -b *!*fooid@*inst.domain
Even though these 2 bans have basically the same effect while
up, they need to be specified exactly to take down.
11) Are there any other documents that pertain to #Friendly?
Yes, there are a few:
The Friendly FAQ
The Friendly Times
The Friendly Papers
#Friendly Op Evaluation Committee (OpCom) Guidelines
12) Who can I get these documents from?
All documents, including this one, can be received
via DCC from BuddyBot.
To receive all friendly documents:
/msg BuddyBot get friendly.*
To get a list of available files:
/msg BuddyBot files
or
/msg BuddyBot ls
To get a specific file:
/msg BuddyBot get filename
For more information on file transfers with BuddyBot
/msg BuddyBot get buddybot.info
13) Are there any other documents that will help me to learn more
about the Undernet?
Yes, there is also a general information document which I have
written up. This document gives many source of information both
on IRC and off. Some things included are a list of help channels
on the Undernet, the directories at the Undernet FTP site to find
things such as Undernet and IRC Documents, IRC Clients and Scripts.
Also, is a listing of WWW pages and Usenet groups which pertain
to Undernet and IRC are included. Lastly, is a few random IRC
commands that may come in handy. This document is called
sources.info and call also be received via DCC from BuddyBot.
/msg buddybot get sources.info
14) Anything else I need to know?
Just remember that being a Chop is a privilege. It is a
responsibility that you are expected to be able to handle.
Also remember that IRC is for fun, so you are expected to
have fun while helping to keep it fun here for others.
Lets make sure #Friendly continues to live up to its name.
_____________________________________
#Friendly Channel Operator FAQ
Update October 1996
Angel111@Wizard.com
Version 2.0
Teal!friedman@cse.psu.edu
Version 1.0
11/20/95
HTML on 11/7/96 by Stever (sac76424@saclink.csus.edu)
Back to my #Friendly Page