Before you are granted operator status, you need to join your channel and start a
private conversation with the channel robot Z:
Change newpassword with a private password of your choosing. This will become
your op password. We will later review your record and update it so that you will be able
to become an operator.
Next time you enter the channel, you obtain operator status by requesting it from the
robot:
Then you will see a message saying something like mode +o set, confirming that
you have been made an operator on the channel.
It is reccommended that a) either you become operator only when necessary, or b) that
you retain operator status at all times. Changing operator status frequently is the online
equivalent of thumbing your nose up; i.e. you have an unhealthy interest in letting other
people notice that you are the boss.
The Channel's Topic
The Channel's Topic is largely decorative. Visitors will see it briefly when
they first enter your channel. All channel members will see a message notice whenever you
change it thereafter. Also, users who do a channel listing on our server see the channel
name, followed by its topic. If you are operator, the topic is changed like this:
Changing Channel Modes
There are eight possible channel modes. Each mode might be on or off. Channel modes
might be changed by an operator using the /MODE command. Let's now discuss how to
use each mode.
Making a Channel Private
/MODE #Channel_Name +p
A private channel can not be listed with either a /NAMES or a /LIST
command. People using the channel do appear under /NAMES, however, the name of the
channel they are using remains private.
Making a Channel Secret
/MODE #Channel_Name +s
A secret channel can not be listed with either a /NAMES or a /LIST
command. People using the channel can not be listed with a /NAMES command, unless
they are also participating in another channel that is not secret.
Modes p and s are mutually exclusive.
Making a Channel Invite-Only
/MODE #Channel_Name +i
The current members of the channel must use the /INVITE command so that others
may join the channel. Uninvited users can not enter. Note that if all users leave an
invite-only channel, then nobody can enter it! Don't lock yourself out...
Making a Channel Moderated
/MODE #Channel_Name +m
You will use this mode if you invite special (perhaps famous) guests to give online
conferences in your channel. Setting this mode prevents normal users from speaking, unless
you authorize them. You authorize an specific user to speak by using:
/MODE #Channel_Name +v nickname
Making a Channel Password-Protected
/MODE #Channel_Name +k sesamo
Users attempting to enter the channel will be requested to enter the channel's
password. If correct, they gain access.
Locking a Channel's Topic
/MODE #Channel_Name +t
This mode is set by default in all our public channels. If you turn it off, i.e.
-t, then any user in the channel may change the channel's topic (title). This would
lend itself to all sorts of pranks, and mischief...
As it is set by default, only an operator may use the /TOPIC command.
Preventing Non-Channel Messages
/MODE #Channel_Name +n
This mode is set by default in all our public channels. If you turn it off, i.e.
-n, then any user outside the channel (but connected to the server) will be able to
send messages that appear to all channel members. Such a feature is more often abused than
used.
Limiting Quantity of Users
/MODE #Channel_Name +l 10
The example above would limit the channel to only ten concurrent users. By default we
do not limit user quantity on any channel.
We initially create public channels to have mode +nt.
Enforcing Law & Order
Sooner or later, the online equivalent of Saddam Hussein will create trouble in your
channel. He may use foul language, insult other users, send kilobytes of dubious ASCII
art, or engage in any other activity that you deem detrimental to your channel's social
health.
You are paying for a channel. Participation by users is a priviledge, not a right. Like
person's vandalizing your home, you have a right to take corrective action.
We will also take action if a user's activities abuse our network in any way. Two
examples are the use of robots (specially clonebots) and flooding the server.
A robot in this context is software that listens and acts in your channel as if it were
a human user. A more dangerous type of robot is the clonebot. A clonebot attempts
to connect multiple times to the same server in an effort to overwhelm its resources and
lock out other users.
Flooding is a more common occurrence. IRC was designed to handle small amounts of text,
and to give all users equal opportunity to communicate. However, some users feel a
necessity to show-off in different ways. They might send a line of text repeated
ten or twenty times in rapid succession. They might send huge ASCII cartoons that fill out
a whole screen, and make normal conversation scroll out too fast. They might use control
(non-text) characters in their messages, usually to support features that only a given IRC
program understands but others display as garbage.
Our server and robots tolerate some flooding, however, excessive and continuous
flooding is undesirable and should be dealt with. As an operator, you must also use
careful judgement as to when a piece of ASCII art disrupts, or enhances, your chat room.
Ah, yes... you are the boss: do not let the occassional wiseguy user brainwash you as to
what is appropiate or not.
When action becomes necessary, you should first give a private verbal warning and
request that the user refrain from the activity in question. If necessary, identify
yourself as the channel's operator. For most persons, this should be all that is needed.
However, professional troublemakers may require military action, if only to prove that
you have authority to set channel rules.
Your second warning should be to kick the user out of the channel. This can be
done with the following command:
/KICK #Channel #nick reason
Substitute the name of your channel and the nickname of the troublemaker. The user gets
kicked out of the channel, but not from the server. It is essentially a slap on the
wrist. The user can come right back in without penalty. If they return to the channel and
behave themselves, then all is well. Most true troublemakers will rush right back in, and
try to make your life miserable, however. That's your cue to implement a final solution...
In extremis, you may ban a user from the channel. The command used is /MODE #Channel
+b; however, the actual form of the invocation is sort of an art form. If not careful,
you could ban more users than the one you intend to. On the other extreme, the ban could
be so weak that the original troublemaker can re-join the channel using a different
nickname, different username, or even different Internet account!
In the following examples, let's assume that your channel is called #Borinquen
and that the troublemaker's nickname is BadBoy, identified as user guest,
and connecting from the machine trouble.funcity.edu.
The first thing to note is that the /MODE +b command does not identify the
target victim by nickname, but by something known as a hostmask. The
hostmask is a complex pattern identifier that includes the nickname, a username, and a
machine's hostname, or IP address.
Using the most specific form, our sample troublemaker could be banned using this
command:
/MODE #Borinquen +b BadBoy!guest@trouble.funcity.edu
If BadBoy is in channel #Borinquen, he is immediately kicked out and can
not come back in. Your problem is solved... well, not quite...
If BadBoy has a little knowledge, he will now change his nickname to something
like BadKid. Next thing you know, he is back in your channel... laughing at your
naiveté!
You could ban him again using his new nickname, but that could boil down to a contest
of who has more time available to waste. The bad guys usually have more free time and he
can change his nickname ad infinitum. Therefore you want to make a ban that will cover all
possible nicknames; you do that like this:
/MODE #Borinquen +b *!guest@trouble.funcity.edu
The * before the ! is known as a wild-card. It will match any sequence of
characters. In this case, it will match any nickname.
One would think that the above would do the trick, but it again fails. BadKid
will be back in the channel in a minute or two. What happened? Well, he went back to his
IRC software, clicked on a menu titled something like identd server, and changed
his username from guest to something else. And went marching right back in into your
channel. Therefore, we must use an even more general hostmask:
/MODE #Borinquen +b *!*@trouble.funcity.edu
Now, that's one ban BadKid can not circumvent, unless he happens to have a
second Internet account somewhere else. If he does, you can ban his second account too.
Changing Internet accounts is not nearly as easy as changing nicknames.
There is one problem with the above command, however. Can you spot what it is?
Essentially, no user accessing from the machine trouble.funcity.edu will be able to
enter your channel. This could be unimportant, or it could be unacceptable. Here is where
good judgement is required. In general, you can get away with banning a machine like this
if you do it for only a few hours, and then later lift the ban.
If the troublemaker is accessing from a dialup account, you can go ahead and ban his
machine or machine number like this:
/MODE #Borinquen +b *!*@sanjuan-208-135-3-150.coqui.net
or
/MODE #Borinquen +b *!*@207.41.111.144
This can be done because the probability of another user using the same assigned IP
number after the troublemaker hangs up is remote. You should still lift the ban after a
few hours.
You should avoid making commands that ban too many users unnecessarily. For
example, the following command bans all users from coqui.net from entering your
channel:
/MODE #Borinquen +b *!*@*.coqui.net
The following command bans everyone from entering your channel:
/MODE #Borinquen +b *!*@*
Clearly, you do not want to lock too many people out by accident.
Lifting a Ban
You can get a listing of all active bans in your channel:
/MODE #Borinquen +b
You lift a ban by using the -b channel mode like this:
/MODE #Borinquen -b *!*@sanjuan-208-135-3-150.coqui.net
Granting Operator Priviledges
You should let us know who will be the official operators for your channel. Under
unforeseen rare circumstances, you might need to grant somebody else operator status.
Assuming the new operator's nickname is goodboy, you would do it like this:
/MODE #Borinquen +o goodboy
You would remove goodboy's operator status like this:
/MODE #Borinquen -o goodboy
Note that once goodboy becomes an operator, he could become a badboy and
remove your operator status! Only grant operator priviledges to persons you can trust.
This is all that you need to know to start operating your channel. As with most
things, hands-on experience is essential. If your channel is successful, you will get
plenty of experience.
