IrcGuidelines

Revision 28 as of 2006-04-06 14:41:51

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attachment:IconsPage/IconWarning3.png This document is a draft and will be presented to the Community Council pretty soon, do not yet take it for granted

Preamble

The #ubuntu IRC channel is growing very quickly, with 600 to 700 people in the channel all the time. Keeping a pleasant atmosphere in #ubuntu has been the main cause for it to be such an attractive place to both new and experienced users. #ubuntu is the home for quite a few people that provide support to anyone that needs it. The operators of the channel do lots of work to keep the channel friendly and to keep people happy.

This is made possible because they adhere to a certain set of unwritten rules, which over time have become stricter. Lately, more people have been wondering about what is allowed and what not, especially since the operators are becoming more strict.

The main author of this document is DennisKaarsemaker. Lots of valuable improvements and additions have been added by MarekSpruell, [:Madpilot:BrianBurger], [:PaulOmalley:PaulO'Malley], MelissaDraper and several other regular visitors of #ubuntu and #ubuntu-offtopic.

We want to discuss these rules with the Community Council before calling them 'The rules Of #ubuntu', they are however the de facto rules so far. These rules should not be limited to #ubuntu and #ubuntu-offtopic, as any channel can benefit from their guidance.

Channel guidelines

The [http://www.ubuntu.com/community/conduct Code of Conduct] should always be obeyed

  • This one should not need further explanation, the Code of Conduct forms the basics of the pleasant atmosphere in Ubuntu. Being nice to each other, being cooperative and respecting each other is a must.

Don't flood the channel

  • Flooding the channel disrupts all conversations. Don't do it. If you want to show large texts, such as errors, use [http://paste.ubuntu-nl.org the pastebin]

Don't use public away messages

  • [http://sackheads.org/~bnaylor/spew/away_msgs.html Really, dont!] Imagine 600 people doing that. It's not a pretty sight. If you use away messages, you will get kicked without warning. Given that you are away, a warning would not help anyway; consider a kick to be a warning since it will be followed by a ban if you don't stop using them. On that same thread, don't spam the channel with the music you are playing currently. This is a help channel, not a social one. #ubuntu-offtopic is the social channel frequented by quite a few users of #ubuntu

Don't repeat your question every few minutes

  • #ubuntu is a support channel, this means lots of people are asking questions. We do our best to answer them all but are not omniscient. If you don't get answers immediately, wait a few minutes before asking again. If it's busy: wait even longer. If no one answers: don't get mad, maybe no one who is around right now knows. You can always try the [http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users ubuntu-users mailinglist].

Bot abuse

  • #ubuntu has an infobot called ubotu. Do not abuse this bot, or use a lot of triggers in a short amount of time. Adding spam or stupid items to the bot will cause you to be excluded from the channel. More info on ubotu can be found on [:UbotuUsage:his wikipage].

English, please

  • #ubuntu is an English language channel. There are [:InternetRelayChat:Ubuntu channels in other languages]. If you speak in #ubuntu in another language you will be pointed to these channels. The infobot has triggers like !es for Spanish, !nl for Dutch, !fr for French and so on. If you continue speaking in another language you will be removed from the channel.

Language and Subject

  • #ubuntu is visited by people whose ages vary, and whose tolerances of language and subject choice vary equally as much. Please be considerate of everyone and keep #ubuntu family friendly. Avoid the use of swearing and touchy subject choices such as race, religion, politics, gender and sexuality. (#ubuntu-offtopic is a better place for that, but be considerate there too).

Don't be annoying

  • Flooding, away messages, repeating and bot abuse are not the only ways you can be annoying. Personal attacks when things don't go as planned, continued misbehaving after you have been advised against, and similar behaviour will be rewarded with a ban.

When helping: be helpful

  • Any help is appreciated of course, but you should help people solve their problems. If you get stuck, say so instead of guessing; someone else will step up and continue. There are heaps of information available on the wiki, [http://ubuntu.cc.com.au in the infobot] and at other places. Try to familiarize yourself with that information. Telling people to RTFM or to "just google it" is not very polite, find them a url or at least give them some directions to documentation they can use. Do not recommend outdated and bad information such as ubuntuguide.org or bad solutions such as using install-css.sh from libdvdread, running java-installer.bin files directly or using automatix. For all these things there are much safer alternatives available.

Don't ask for operator privileges

  • It won't help. Whenever #ubuntu needs new operators, we will ask the helpful and polite members of the chat whether they want to take the responsibility. Don't ask to become an operator, you will only be ignored. Being an operator in #ubuntu is not a privilege, it's a responsibility.

Don't abuse the !ops trigger

  • Ubotu has a trigger called !ops which will call all #ubuntu operators. This trigger is only to be used in case of channel abuse (flooding, trolling etc...). Abusing this trigger for other things will lead to you being excluded from the channel.

The operators in #ubuntu have all signed the Ubuntu Code of Conduct. Most of them are also Ubuntu Members, which means they are active contributors to Ubuntu and the Ubuntu community. This however does not mean they stand above others. They do their best to keep #ubuntu a friendly place, but they're also human so they make mistakes. If you disagree with the decision of an operator, then talk to him about it in a polite manner. Cursing and swearing will only get you ignored. If talking to the operator personally does not give you a solution you like, then talk to another operator. If neither helps, write down the issue and bring it to the [:CommunityCouncilAgenda:next Community Council meeting]. You should make full, unedited logs available of anything you don't agree with. So far this measure has been needed in less than a handful of instances, which is a good indication that simply talking to operators will work.

Whatever you do in case of conflict: Do NOT go to #ubuntu-devel. #ubuntu-devel is for development discussion, not for escalating issues from #ubuntu. The people in #ubuntu-devel can't and won't help you.

Operator Guidelines

Stay friendly

  • Trolls, flooders, people with no social skills; they all visit #ubuntu from time to time. If someone is abusive, warn them. If someone won't learn or gets aggressive, remove them from the chat. If someone is (accidentally) flooding: mute or remove that person and give the url to the pastebin (don't forget to unmute when you think the flood is over). Never swear at people though, always stay friendly. If you remove a very abusive person, don't respond to the cheering you will get. Don't be surprised at the abuse and swearing in private messages you will get either.

Know thy channels

  • There exist quite a few special purpose Ubuntu channels on FreeNode, These are all listed on the InternetRelayChat page. Memorize this page so you can direct people to the correct channel when needed.

Don't stay +o for long

  • After you did what you needed the operator privileges for, de-op yourself again. Staying +o for long times is not really useful (and you'll attract all questions - which may not be what you want). Especially Seveas since he often stays as an op for too long - don't hesitate to deop him or others when they do that. (And since I'm Seveas, I'm allowed to complain about him Smile :) )

Don't use ignore

  • Even when people are very offensive to you in private chat, don't use your /ignore function. You gave up that privilege when you opted to accept the position. A soft-ignore (aka simply not responding) works also. If you /ignore too much, chances are you miss problems in the channel. Do not filter your channel info (joins/parts/klines etc). These also hold much info. It is also recommended that you disable the Freenode filter that filters out private messages from unregistered users. /msg nickserv set unfiltered on

Use remove rather than kick

  • Freenode has a rather nice /remove function that lets you kick a user without actually kicking. To the user (and all others) it seems as if he has simply left the channel with a special part message ("Requested by your_nickname"). This has the advantage that it does not trigger evil auto-rejoin scripts.

Use mute rather than ban

  • Another nice thing on the freenode servers is the mute function (/mode hostmask_or_nickname +q). This will not ban the user, but prevent him from sending text to the channel. Useful to stop (accidental) floods.

Ban on sight

  • So far there have been very few really abusive users. These users are added to a special list in ChanServ that prevents them from ever entering the channel again. If you think someone qualifies for this list, discuss it with the other operators in #ubuntu-offtopic.

Clean your bans regularly

  • #ubuntu is big, 700+ users on a daily basis. It is unavoidable that people will be banned. Make sure that you look at the banlist from time to time and clear old bans you have set. The bantracker will help.

Comment on your bans

  • Ubugtu logs all kicks/bans/removes/mutes in #ubuntu, #kubuntu, #ubuntu+1 and #ubuntu-offtopic. You can comment on your actions on http://bugbot.ubuntulinux.nl/bans.cgi - this is really useful to keep track of both abusive users and bans that are around for too long.