home news about about IRC regulars links

About the VGA Planets IRC channel

This page gives an overview of how the channel is administered, some information about DALnet, and some guidelines to follow while using the channel. It assumes that you have and know how to use an IRC client - if you do not, please click here - it is designed only to outline the differences between the VGA Planets channel on DALnet and other channels on other servers.

Using DALnet

DALnet provides three types of service: chanserv, nickserv, and memoserv. If you are already familiar with DALnet and the use of these services then reading this section is unnecessary.

Chanserv provides services relating to channel administration and security and so I will not cover it here. Nickserv allows nick registration. Once registered with nickserv your nick may not be used on DALnet by any other user. Lastly, memoserv allows notes to be passed between users of DALnet

Registering your nick with nickserv

If you intend to make use of DALnet regularly it is best to register your nick with nickserv. Indeed, to be a permanent op in any DALnet channel you must have registered your nick.

To register, simply connect to a DALnet server and use the command,

/nickserv register <password> <email address>

where <password> is a password of your choice and <email address> is your email address. Nickserv will then send an email to the address supplied with instructions on how to confirm your registration. Once registered you must make an appearance on DALnet at least once every 30 days. If you do not, your nick registration is erased and your nick is released back into the public domain.

Nickserv provides various other commands. They are described in detail on the DALnet site.

Using memoserv

Memoserv provides serveral commands to enable short memos to be sent to any other registered user on DALnet regardless of whether or not they are online. All memoserv commands follow the format:

/memoserv <command> <parameters>

The most useful commands are:

  • send - This sends a memo to someone. The parameters should be the nick of the person to whom you want to send the memo, followed by a space and then the text of your message.
  • list - This command, with no parameters, displays a list of all the memos you have received. To read one, use the read command.
  • del - This may be used to mark a specific message for deletion. Note that the message still exists until the purge command is used.
  • purge - This permanently removes all memos that have been marked for deletion with the del command.
  • read - This shows the memo with number specified by <parameters>.

More information on all of the memoserv commands is available here.

How the channel is administered

The VGA Planets channel is run by a committee of five people who promote and advertise the channel, manage and control who is and is not an op, deal with any major problems, expand and improve the channel, and generally set policy for the channel. At the present moment these five people are:

  • sumdawgy
  • NicM
  • DarthDam
  • Mr_Spaz
  • crewman

In addition to these five there are a number of ops who oversee the day-to-day running of the channel and whose main function as ops is to sort out any minor problems that should occur.

Guidelines for using the channel

If you are always considerate of others and always use your common sense then you should not have any problems on the channel or indeed anywhere on IRC. However, some of the most common faux pas are:

  • Writing completely in CAPITAL LETTERS. Capital letters mean that you are shouting.
  • Asking for warez, or trading or offering in any way.
  • Continuous or gratuitous advertisement messages.
  • Serious abuse of or profanity towards others.
  • Flooding of any description.
  • Sending unwanted DCC file send requests.
  • Using continuous, excessive colour.
  • Excessive CTCPs to the channel (especially, if I am there, VERSION requests).
  • Take over attempts; they can't suceed on DALnet but they are highly annoying.
  • Asking to be made an op.
  • Annoying the operators :-).
  • Anything not here, at the ops discretion.

Any of the above list can get you kicked and/or banned.