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- DISCUSSION: IRCnet rules
On this page, I will discuss IRCnet and IRCnet rules & policies a bit more
detailed.
Pretty much like in real life, we need rules to govern our social
behaviour in online chats. While other networks implemented a rather
strict set of rules, e.g. registered channels and nicknames, IRCnet stands
out against the crowd by an almost total lack of rules.
If you belong to the older generation of chatters, you will remember BIC,
which was something like a half-assed attempt to combine IRCnet's
traditional anarchy with a loosely-knit coordinating structure. Needless
to say, it was a total failure.
Now, instead of setting up and enforcing a set of rules, IRCnet's ircd
software developers tried to mitigate shortcomings in IRC protocol by
adding sophisticated patches. Thanks to features like nick delay, channel
delay, netsplit mode, +R (channel reop) mode and the unique id of
nicknames, it's practically impossible to collide someone or to takeover a
channel (without being opped before).
So, here we are: are there any rules on IRCnet? Yes, in fact there
are, the two basic and most important ones being:
nicknames are not owned,
channels are not owned.
What can we learn from these rules?
Well, since nicknames are not owned, noone has a right to use a certain
nickname, no matter whatsoever. (Except for ircops, they may kill anyone
who's using their nick, but that's a different story. Morale's defined by
those in power, you know)
Furthermore, since channels are not owned, a takeover is perfectly
legal. How's that? As I explained before, it's virtually impossible to
gain channel operator privileges without being opped by a legit channel op
first. As soon as you are +o, you are a legit channel op yourself, so you
may do whatever you deem best. Like, kickbanning everyone else, for
instance :-)
Allmost all takeovers today happen because some channel op betrays the
other ops, thus abusing their trust. Consequently, this is rather a social
abuse than an IRC abuse!
There's an extremely simple, yet appealing logic behind that.
Unfortunately, many ircops as well as lusers fail to recognize this
coherence.
The outcome is even more chaos: some ircops still regard takeovers as
abuse and kill/k-line offenders, others don't. Even worse, most ircops
only act if they are asked to by someone they are friends with and ignore
all other msgs or mails.
Yep, that's unfair: if you know an ircop, you get 'em k-lined. If you
don't, you really have bad luck. Some are more equal than others.
That's why I execute a strict, but fair rule: takeovers are not abuse,
we will not react on takeovers, unless there is clear evidence of criminal
actions (e.g. DDoS, hacking).
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