I've already mentioned age/sex checks as a pet peeve. They are symptomatic of a class of users I call HNG's when I'm being polite. Horny net geeks come in both sexes. Some even pretend to be a different sex, presumably because they can't get cybered as themselves. They have a right to pursue happiness on IRC, but not in this channel. You may have seen me call somebody on "trolling" in the channel. Trolling is advertising for cyber, anything from "Who wants to get it on?" to "Hot 21/M - msg me!" We aren't attempting to ban netsex (heaven forbid!), we just prefer that those who seek it do so one-on-one and that they not harass other users if they don't get what they want.
Picture trading is also permitted, as a means for members to get to know one another better. We don't care if you want to give away R or even X rated pictures of yourself, just don't hawk them in the open channel like a street vendor or offer pictures purporting to be of your significant other, commercial or amateur porn, or child pornography of any sort or you will be kicked from the channel. Female members wondering if their pictures are acceptable are free to submit them to the channel owner for consideration
We don't allow harassment of other members. The basic rule of the Tub is "Play nice." Annoying or abusive visitors should be placed on ignore if possible, rather than being kicked. I've learned from experience that most of these pests are simply seeking attention and that ignoring them is more frustrating to them than the negative attention of a kick. In fact, if you want a good giggle, don't put some dork on ignore when everyone else does and watch his frustration as he realizes no one even sees the garbage he's spewing out. This isn't always possible or desirable, especially in the case of flooders or takeover artists. Before placing a kick on someone, we prefer a background poll of the other ops present using PIRCH's /OPNOTICE command (more on this later), except in emergencies. If a single kick serves to cure someone's attitude problem, fine. If they return to the channel and continue their undesirable behavior, try a ban through K9, being sure to specify a time and adding a comment to the ban so we know what it's for. In the case of minor pests, try a five-minute ban. This is long enough that most of these characters will go off looking for another channel to bother rather than waiting for the ban to expire.
In general, my philosophy is to do online what you'd do in real life. Would you walk into the corner tavern, tell everyone how big your equipment is and ask every woman in the place if they want to screw? If you did, would you get a punch in the mouth? Why expect anything different online? It applies to both sexes, though when a female nick appears in the channel claiming 38DD boobs and asking for the hot guys, my first reaction is to do a whois on the assumption that it's a guy who wasn't having any luck with the "any hot chicks wanna cyber?" approach. In one case, I replied to such a user with "Why would you want to know that Paul?" The idiot actually asked how I knew his real name and seemed more insulted than embarrassed when I told him it was in his whois. I really was rolling on the floor laughing over that one!
Essentially, the following list contains the reasons I see for kicks and bans, though most of these aren't automatic. I do think ignore should be used first, except in those cases marked with a +.
Popups and Waves
As a group, the Tubbers seem to be both popup-happy and wave-happy. I have no problem with this; I'm as crazy as the rest of you. Please try to bear in mind, though, that when the Tub is crowded a lot of large popups going off at once can constitute flooding, in that they make it difficult for everyone else to talk. Try to limit large multiline popups to less active periods or at least warn people when you're about to trigger one. If someone is going to run a large popup, especially an image, please avoid typing till it's done so that it isn't chopped up. The same holds true for waves. I know that I have PIRCH configured so that an incoming wave replaces one currently playing, so if a new wave is triggered before the current one finishes, I lose it. Some people have the opposite setup, so they won't hear your wave if another one is playing. Try not to flood the channel with waves, though I know that sometimes it's hard to gauge, particularly if you don't have the wave that's playing. We encourage everyone to share their popups and wave files, but we also like to acknowledge creativity. If you know the author of a popup, a little note to that effect is appreciated. I use the copyright symbol, © [Alt+0169], on my own popups and those that I steal if I want to acknowledge the creator. Removing such notices when you "borrow" someone's original popup makes it look as though you're trying to claim authorship yourself. I propose that the "citation for popup theft" popup not be used as long as someone acknowledges authorship, but encourage its use in those cases where someone implies original authorship by removing those notices.Kicks and Bans
I would hope that we could all have fun in the Tub without the need for kicks or bans, but this isn't always the case. On the other hand, newcomers to the Tub who see too many people getting kicked may well decide that this is not the place for them. Kicks should only be done by consensus, except in emergency. In the case of a personal attack on one of the ops, that op has the privilege of doing the kick -- so wait your turn, it'll come. I won't kick someone because of the other channels they're in, as long as they aren't in kiddy porn or abusive channels. Just because someone's in #Cybersex doesn't rate a kick; too many of our own members spend a significant amount of their time in the back rooms. If they're logged into #KiddieSex, #Rapesex, #KidSexPics or the like that's a different story. The same is true of the neo-Nazi who came into the channel a while back...I banned him until the year 2011.
