Do not edit this page without discussing any changes with the IRC Operators of #ubuntu-us-la who maintain this page.

Want to talk with members of the Louisiana LoCo Team right now? Join the IRC channel #ubuntu-us-la on FreeNode.

IRC Guidelines

Please review and be familiar with the following information, this is what the operators and the members of the LA LoCo should abide by in IRC

Preamble

Keeping a pleasant atmosphere in #ubuntu-us-la has been the main cause for it to be such an attractive place to both new and experienced users in the state of Louisiana. The users of the channel should do their best to keep the channel friendly so that we can attract users of all kinds from the state.

Please also be aware that Ubuntu channels are logged, many officially and all of them unofficially by individual users, and the contents of all channels are considered to be in the public domain.

Channel Guidelines

These guidelines do not cover every single aspect of the Ubuntu channels' etiquette. Specific practices are encouraged and discouraged, according to these guidelines' intent as well as to practical channel needs. Recommendations from channel operators, including those stored in the channel bots, should be followed.

The 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. Please don't do it. If you want to show large texts, such as errors, use the pastebin

Don't use public away messages

• Really, dont! Imagine 600 people doing that. It's not a pretty sight. Changing your nick to user-away is frowned upon. If you use away messages, you may get kicked without warning. Given that you are away, a warning would not help anyway; consider a kick to be a warning since it can be followed by a ban if you don't stop using them. On that same thread, you shouldn't spam the channel with the music you are playing currently. If you want to set away do it silently with "/away Reason" then when someone uses your name they are told you are away and the channel is not disturbed.

How to ask for help in the channel

• This is a little howto that explains how to get the best out of your experience looking for help this link is not on the Ubuntu site.

Time to ask

• The time of day at which you ask will influence who reads the question. People may not be there with the answers, please be patient.

Don't repeat your question if it is not answered immediately

• We do our best to answer them all but are not omniscient. If you don't get answers immediately, please wait a while before asking again. If no one answers: don't get mad, maybe no one who is around right now knows. You can always try the Forum or Mailing List.

Bot abuse

• We have a bot called ATDT. Do not abuse this bot, or use a lot of triggers in a short amount of time. Doint this to the bot will cause you to be ignored by ATDT.

Language and Subject

• All the #ubuntu channels are 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 all the #ubuntu channels family friendly. Please be aware that there are limits to behaviour and subjects. When using any #ubuntu channel, please avoid the use of swearing and take touchy subject choices such as war, race, religion, politics (unless related to software licencing), gender, sexuality, drugs, questionable legal activities, removing of ones self from the planet are taken to other channels such as #off-topic or ##politics. (Note Freenode Policy when you join those channels.)

Don't be annoying

• Flooding, away messages, repeating, CTCPs 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

• We welcome any help, but we do ask you to stay as helpful as possible. There are heaps of information available on the wiki, the forums, and at other places. Try to familiarize yourself with that information. Telling people to RTFM is not very polite. Please try to avoid outdated, or possibly wrong information.

Please don't bring bots

• There already are 2 bots: locobot (logging) and ATDT (our LoCo's) - there really is no need for more bots.

Please don't enable talking scripts

• This includes !seen scripts, can you imagine if just five or six people had one enabled against ! and someone called it? That's half a dozen lines of spam which is just not needed. Please "/msg seenserv <nick>" instead.

Here are several common questions that get asked time and again

• Common Questions that get asked time and again on IRC, they may save you frustration and time if you check it out.

Disputes

If you disagree with the decision of an operator, then talk to that operator about it in a polite manner. Cursing and swearing will not help, so please don't do that. If talking to the operator personally does not give you a solution you like, you are more than welcome to join the operators channel.

In #ubuntu-us-la-ops you will be able to publicly discuss the matter with other Ubuntu operators. Remember this channel does not exist for you to idle in, it is only for discussions with the ops of the channel.

To get a list of current ops for the LoCo's channel use this command in your IRC Client "/msg chanserv access #ubuntu-us-la-ops list"

Public Logs

Can be found here

Pick the year, then month, date, then select #ubuntu-us-la.html from the list.

Joining IRC

• Check out the Ubuntu help page on Internet Relay Chat. It should clear up most issues you have.

• You can find us on channel #ubuntu-us-la on the irc.freenode.net server, port 8001

• You can use a program such as irssi, XChat, pidgin, ChatZilla,

• Or go here for a browser-based solution. Pick a nickname and hit connect.

Instructions for Pidgin

Assuming Ubuntu is already installed:

1. Click on Applications > Internet > Pidgin Instant Messenger

2. The first time that it is opened, you will be asked to add an account.
3. Click on the Add button, then in the Protocol menu select IRC.
4. Type in your desired screen name for the chat session. You may leave everything else as it is.
5. Click on save. If you see a checkbox that says "Enabled" above it, make sure that it is checked.
6. You will be connected to the Ubuntu chat servers, from which you can have two options:
   • You can join the generic Ubuntu channel, where hundreds of people are available willing to help you.

     • To do this, type /join #ubuntu once you are connected.

   • You may also join the Louisiana channel if you want more local support.

     • For the Louisiana chat channel, type /join #ubuntu-us-la once connected.

7. Ask away!

Instructions for XChat

Assuming Ubuntu is already installed.

1. Open a terminal Applications > Accessories > Terminal

   1. Use the following command to install XChat sudo apt-get install xchat

2. Once install open it with Applications > Internet > XChat

   1. The first time it is opened the Network List dialog will open
   2. XChat uses your Ubuntu login information to prefill the Nickname, Username, and Real Name boxes.
   3. By default the "Ubuntu Servers" will be selected in the Networks portion, this redirects to Freenode, so you can leave it be.
   4. Click on "Connect" once it is ready you should already have autojoined #ubuntu, this channel has 1000+ people regularly, its busy but an always active support channel

3. To join the LA LoCo channel just type /join #ubuntu-us-la into the dialog

4. Chat away!