Policy for #winbolo on irc.winbolo.us

The vision for this IRC server (irc.winbolo.us) is to be a tolerable server, in the spirit of Kax's post on WBN. - so tolerable that people enjoy coming and express themselves without feeling so constrained about having to be so careful to step on ops toes - whether it be the server op's toes, or whether it be an op on a bad day.

I feel that the less time an ops power is used, the better everyone feels. Because when someone uses ops, it doesn't just affect that person being the target, but it affects everyone who does not have ops because they don't have any real power to protect themselves. Thus, we have to be very careful about the atmosphere we set in the channel with the way we use ops. To be a popular choice, instead of "we have to go there because we have no choice if we want to play winbolo" We must use ops in a very responsible manner, and be very respectable to people about it when we do use them.

Having said all that, we still need a few basic commonsense policy so that the channel is open for discussion.

With that in mind, here is the list of kickable/bannable offenses from #winbolo:

• Mass flooding by repeating the same line over and over, or pasting a bunch of lines to purposely cause a disruption (pasting 20+ lines of text for reference when it doesn't interrupt a conversation is fine, but pasting 15 lines of text when other people are having a conversation not related to the text is NOT fine. (limited to within #winbolo))
• Screwing up password games as set on the Game Rules page.
• Using a script that causes excessive repeating of stuff. The "Bah" for sheepbot is reasonable, the "gg" script isn't.
• Nick change flood. Excessive nick changes to purposefully flood the channel. (Nick changing though, even if a lot and it doesn't flood the channel is ok)
• Ban Walking

When any of us perform a kick/ban, we’ll need that person to post the log of the incident on the #winbolo-ops forum, further details posted here. The reason is still required in the kick message and/or in the channel before or after the incident from the acting op.

The following can result in a server ban from irc.winbolo.us:

• DoS (Denial of Service) Attacks on anyone (This includes ping flood, hang-up ping and nuking)
• Abusing any of the winbolo.us services (including using nickserv to steal nicknames, and ghost kill their actual owners.)
• Any attempt of hacking the server or services.
• Extreme flooding, flooding to the point to cause the server or services problems (also considered a DoS attack)

On the subject of starting other channels - anyone can do it and set any rules they want - even rules such as "server ops are not allowed into this channel" are fine.

The following, as you noticed are not listed above, and are stuff that is NOT considered to be a kickable offense:

• Insulting someone, whether it is a non-op, op, or server op. (Ops should deal with stuff of a personal manner in the same way a user would, either ignoring them, defending yourself verbally, verbally attack back, laugh it off, etc. In other words, deal with the problem as a normal user would have to, not as an op has the ability to!)
• Having an argument with someone.
• Using Color
• Asking for ops and voice (unless it turns into a flood like behavior)

If there is a behavior that may annoy someone, but is not listed in the kickable/bannable list, then all an op (and non-op) can do is to please ask that person to stop. Sometimes, asking in a respectable manner via /msg without a hint of threat works wonders and helps a lot.. Again, I stress the importance of letting people air their grievances and opinions without fear of retribution in the form of being kicked/banned!

In order to keep the spirit of respecting non-ops and fellow ops, the following are actions not allowed to be carried out by ops (whether they were allowed or not on .com):

• kicking people/banning for fun
• kicking/banning other ops
• kicking people because they insulted you
• putting the channel to a +m (* See exception below)
• devoicing someone a different op voiced
• op/voicing someone then removing it (the only exception is a mistake)
• removing another op's ban (only channel admins/owner may do so in the most dire circumstances - i.e., the op hasn't been around for a while and the situation has been resolved)
• removing another op’s op (-o) (only server ops (ie, admins) may remove an op from a user, and only for extreme circumstances (such as op abusing .us policy, bad script, etc))

If you are an op, and you see someone committing one of the kickable/banable offense, instead of just kicking them outright, *first* /msg them a polite message that *respectfully* ask them to stop the behavior. If they refuse or ignore the request then proceed to kick them with the reason stated in the kick. If they come back and continue the behavior, then go ahead and kick-ban them for a period of time. The reason for a kick/ban is to always be stated, rather in the kick message or in the channel. The goal is to kick the least people possible, and in the event of kicking/banning people, to treat them with the *utmost respect possible*, no matter how rude they are.

#winbolo admins are fi, LRL, sheeps and ud

* (the +m may only be used in extreme cases of a massive attack floods by multiple bots)

Originally written by fi, edited by LRL, with credit to Kax for inspiring this policy.

Originally created on July 23^rd 2003

P.S. you can also look at the FAQ for IRC

Updated Nov 24, 2003: Added Ban Walking to list of kickable/bannable offenses

Updated Dec 17, 2003: Clarified that channel admins may remove an op (this was policy but wasn't really spelt out here), added the PS for the IRC FAQ page and the definition of who the #winbolo admins are.

Updated Jan 4^th, 2004: Added the requirement of posting on kick/ban and clarified the reason statement (below ban walking under kickable/bannable offences

Updated jan 22 2005 - added the exception to +m line