Session Start: Sun Aug 25 22:02:35 2002 EDITED FOR FILE This session is about those little things.. why things are the way they are If you have questions, type /msg #SLIRC your question here and we will get to them First often asked question is: Why dont we have a nickser/chanserv Answer: We dont have a nickserv because its been seen not necessary It's been brought up a few times.. but it is subject to abuse .. and takes a lot of babysitting .. I will get to that in a bit As for chanserv .. we have one .. it is CStar hi Cstar is a chanserv, but it just shows up in channels as a 'bot' when actually its a server unto itself. Cstar performs authentication services .. which is one reason we dont need a nickserv for channels. Cstar needs a matching mask, userid and password in order to authenticate users and gives you the freedome to use any nick you like. In 6 years we've not run into a conflict that needed or required a nickserv to resolve. And remember a nickserv doesnt stop spoofing. If a nick 'expires' and someone else picks it up . .you STILL need to verify who you are talking to hope that answers your question scraggles we dont fight over nicks this way ok As many know, we have a requirement that it takes 7 supporters to register a channel That is a compromise between zero and 10 .. the lowest and highest numbers in common use and it is related to another question .. why isn't it automatic? Why does it have to be set up in person? Maintaining a CURRENT channel list is a bit of work for the staff here.. that is done willingly Mainly it is to ensure that the list is an honest list.. of real people who ARE using channels Other nets let the channel lists just grow forever We prefer this method .. for one thing, folks who want to open a room know that the list is pretty close to current topcis The reason we require 7 supporters.. and that we verify them.. is so that we know there is some effort being put forth on YOUR part to get a channel registered before we go to the trouble to getting it set up.. and have at least a little assurance it wont be taken down in a few days. We do that because we set them up in PERSON.. We try very hard to do all we can for new channel owners Each channel is set up by a channel services rep so that we know folks understand cstar at least as well as needed to run the channel, make ops, set defaults and other things Plus the people get to know US, how to reach help and everything else Many nets have 'distant' staff who barely know the users and the users dont know them We prefer our way... its more work but its worthwhile we believe Anyway thats the long answer for why 7 supporters Another question asked is: 'Why 45 day expiration on channels' ? Well .. it needed to be SOME number.. so 30 was too short and two months is a long time Unregistered channels are free to do what they will Scraggles And if the owner hasnt been on ONCE in six weeks, there is a good chance the channel is abandoned We do send out reminders to be sure it is.. and if no reply we close it Again.. this keeps the channel list here accurate as well as we can Unless they have a bad topic then staff will say something to them in the channel The last couple of topics here.... First is .. why do we require channel names and topics to be english? The reason is in our Charter.. we try to make this a safe place to chat for the whole family ... and we cant really do that if we can't read the channel names and topics. Note we dont really care if the chat is in another language, but we do need an equivalent in topics just so we know whats up Otherwise,we come and ask and probably get in the way of your chat ..so this way is easier Last but not least .. Why do we let channel owners do what they want (within limits of the charter)? The answer to that is simple.. StarLink-IRC is a cyber village.. and the channels are the houses As long as the rules of the net arent being broken, then its up to the owners and ops to handle it as they would their own home. Its not a perfect model, but its the one we use here. SL-IRC isnt like most other chat nets, and we are somewhat proud of the difference. If there are any other questions about the 'quirks' about this net, please go ahead and mention them. Thanks for your time. thanks Itsy thanks Itsy! thanks itsy well done... thanks Itsy thanks again, Itsy! thanks Itsy :) Thanks Itsy thanks, itsy thanks Itsy :) * Byron^ says thanks to Itsy Thanks Itsy thanks Itsy :) Ditto from here Itsy. very nice, Itsy thank you Itsy you keep stats on usage? like number of people on at any given time? we are a bit quirky :) but good quirky :) type /lusers heh Wullie actually ty itsy for historical stats check www.netsplit.de quarks are what ya gota look out for! ok they keep stats on every network out there oh cool b'marked Session Close: Sun Aug 25 22:02:43 2002