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

The #ubuntu IRC channel is growing very quickly, at the moment of writing there are 600 to 700 people in the channel every day. Keeping a pleasant atmosphere in #ubuntu has been the main cause for it to be so nice. #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 all 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 with operators becoming stricter. That's why I decided to write this down.

I 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.

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!] Image 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.

Don't repeat your question every few minutes:

• #ubuntu is a support channel, tha 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 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 only:

• #ubuntu is an English-only channel. There are a lot of [:InternetRelayChat:channels in other languages]. If you talk on #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.

Don't be annoying:

• Apart from flooding, away messages, repeating and bot abuse there are much more ways you can be annoying. Many people for instance continue misbehaving after they have been advised against it. Such 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 is 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. Telling people to RTFM or [http:///www.justfuckinggoogleit.com JFGI] is not done, 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.

The operators in #ubuntu all signed the Ubuntu Code of Conduct, most of them are Ubuntu Members too, 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 himself 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 of anything you don't agree with available. So far this measure has been needed less than a handful of time, 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, plain a*holes - they all visit Ubuntu from time to time. If someone is abusive, warn him. If someone won't learn or gets agressive, remove him from the chat. If someone is (accidently) flooding: mute him 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 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). Especialy Seveas often stays 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 )

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 privelege 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.

Use remove rather than kick:

• Freenode has teh 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 realy 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.

Comment on your bans:

• (Work in progress!) There is a bot in #ubuntu that logs all kicks/bans/removes/mutes. You can comment on your actions on http://bugbot.ubuntulinux.nl/bans - this is really useful to keep track of both abusive users and bans that are around for too long.