Level 100 Ops on #40+Coffeehouse

GUIDELINES FOR AUTO-OPS ON 40+COFFEEHOUSE 7/7/97

By: Debbie Doyle (Priceless) and Gene DuCharme (MrGene)
Revised September 20, 2000 by Robert Bayles (Python27)

Your job as a channel operator is to maintain a safe, fun, stimulating, friendly place for people to chat. You should greet people and make them feel welcome. Remember, the managers are frequently dealing with channel business and are not active in the room. 

WHEN TO OP YOURSELF

Frequently having too many ops at any given time intimidates some users and should be avoided. The reason we have channel ops is to cover the channel. If there are ops present...then some of them should be OPPED to be prepared should W decide to leave. Deopping after authentication, and relying on controlling the channel by messaging W is all well and good...until W splits off without warning and there is no one to get rid of that clown that comes in bent on causing trouble.

For some months now, channel service operators have been surfing the user lists and purging entries for inactivity. For this reason, it is recommended that all ops authenticate when joining the channel, and then deop themselves ONLY if they are not needed. (Alternatively, any manager can turn off an ops 'auto-op' status on request. You will still be authenticated with W, but you will not be opped automatically. To OP, you will have to message W with -- /msg W op #40+coffeehouse .)

NOTE: If you are purged from the user list by cservice for inactivity (not authenticating) your op status will have to be voted on by the managers as a new candidate for ops. If there are special circumstances which prevent you from authenticating, please let the managers know about it.

WHO TO GIVE OPS

Auto ops should only op persons approved by management. See the Management page for a list of channel managers and their email addresses. 

NEVER OP W!!!!!! It is very easy to assume another persons Emask and nickname, and all auto-ops should be sure of whom they are opping. If in doubt ask a manager or do not op them. Remember, ops are not a gesture of friendship or status, they are to protect the channel. If there is any doubt about whether the person is whom they claim they are, ask them a personal question only they would know the answer to (ie. their wife or husbands name, your name, any personal information only you and they would know about each other and isn't public knowledge). If you are going to be opping people you should learn how to read emasks, or abstain from opping anyone. Never op anyone asking for ops unless W is gone or lagged AND it is another op or manager asking for ops (and make sure they are who they appear to be).

There are a number of things that can happen when you op the wrong person. Worse case scenario as follows: 

You are chatting with a real good friend "BOB45". Bob says he has to leave for a few. You had opped him. He leaves. Someone else in the room who you don't know has been watching how the conversation has been progressing and leaves also. The room is quite busy and there are a lot of people chatting. Shortly the other person comes back as "BOB45" and just continues on with the same conversation. You just naturally assume it is the same person and op him. Unknown to you the fake "BOB45" is running a kill or war script. Immediately all ops are deopped, kicked, and banned. A couple of his friends show up and they are opped by the fake "BOB45". They launch a new bot or two and 10 or 20 clones.

Now folks this is not the end to life as we know it, but some people will be very inconvenienced by this action. The room Owner will have to report the problem to cservice. IRCops will have to come to the room to straighten it out and The room Owner will have to completely reset the room. All this for "Status". 

WHEN TO GIVE OPS

As covered in the previous section, you can op management and auto-ops asking for ops if you are sure it is them. The exception to having too many ops is during periods when the net is unstable (spliting/badly lagged), and when W is absent from the channel. If W is gone, then whoever is opped at the time should op ALL other ops and managers. If there are no other ops in the channel and you feel that additional coverage is needed, then you may give ops to other users that you know and trust. We, as managers, must rely on your judgment here, but remember that you are responsible for those you op.

WHEN NOT TO GIVE OPS

Anyone you do not know asking for ops (politely refuse). NEVER OP W!!!!!!

WHEN TO DE-OP

Only management should de-op people and only under extreme circumstances. The exception is if you suspect that someone got server ops during a netsplit, de-op (Not kick or ban!) them immediately and ask questions later. (NOTE: Changes to W's programming have made this less of a problem, although you should still be on the lookout for people you do not know having ops when a split server rejoins.) 

WHEN TO KICK

Kicking should be done for anyone using offensive language or harassing someone, if they have been warned (if possible or practical) and persist. If it is a problem in DCC or message a log file should be shown before kicking someone. As said before we wish to maintain a safe friendly chatting environment for everyone. 

WHEN TO BAN

Banning should be done only for severe offenses (if possible or practical) or if someone persists in harassing or offensive language. Flooders should be immediately banned. All bans done should be backed up by an emask, log file and reason (please send them to a member of management (see Email addresses). This makes it easier to maintain the banlist when we need to purge it. The room banlist only holds 30 bans. W holds 50. Never remove anyone from the banlist unless you have banned someone in error, this is management's job. If someone who is in the banlist messages you wanting to be removed please refer them to a member of management. 

WARNINGS

As far as practical, or possible, try to conduct warnings by private /notice to avoid embarrassing someone who may be (or become) a friend, and to avoid disquieting other channel users. Be polite until polite fails--more than once a potential problem has become a welcomed asset to the channel. 

DISAGREEMENTS

If you disagree with the actions of another op or manager, question them in private only! Do not engage them an argument in open channel. If you still do not feel that the action was appropriate, send logs and an explanation to Python27.

REMEMBER

The greatest trick of all in mIRC isn't found
in any menu, any help file, or any Easter Egg
conceived in the mind of Khaled Mardam-Bey.
It may take you only a few minutes to find it,
and it may take you years to find it, but you
will discover it eventually, and you'll find
it written everywhere you look once you see
it for the first time.

It is the trick you play on yourself thinking
that IRC is a replacement for real Life.

Gene DuCharme

CHANNEL OPS SCHOOL

SESSION A - SCOPE AND DEFINITIONS: This school is run by the Undernet Channel Service Committee. We provide registration of channels on the Undernet, and the services X and W to hold the channels. This registration provides a channel manager with a flexible tool for managing the channel and handling channel affairs X and W are specialized servers often referred to as bots which actually hold the channel open and allow for control . Now for a few definitions:

The Manager - The user who applies for registration of the channel

Channel Operators - Users given the privilege of being an operator by the manager.

The manager grants them access to the bot.

SESSION C - LEVEL 0 COMMANDS: Now we'll cover user levels and commands:

These apply equally to X and W, and to any users that are added to the database in the bots.

A word of caution here -- *ANY* user with level 1 or higher with AUTOOP ON has all the power of a regular channel operator in an unregistered channel. All regular op commands like ban, kick, etc. are available to them.

Level 0 -- These commands do not affect the operation of the channel, and are mainly used for information. The commands are: access banlist chaninfo help lbanlist login map motd newpass pass showcommands showignore and verify

/msg W access #channel nick to find a users access level on the channel.

This tells you their nick, user@host mask, access level, whether autoop and protect are set, and if they are suspended You'll also notice the letters LMPU, or some combination there of in your access listings. Example : -W- USER: Luser (*!*luser@*.blah.com) ACCESS: 1 LMPU. The "L" stands for loaded into memory. "M" stands for, modified, not saved to disk, the database is saved to disk every 90 minutes. "P" means: has a password. And "U" means: In use.

/msg W banlist #channel shows you the channel banlist. /msg W lbanlist #channel shows the list of bans set through W. However, if the Lbanlist is too big you will get a message from W telling you there are too many entries to display There is a way to see all the entries, but you need to fire up your web browser and visit W's homepage.

The URL for W is http://cservice.undernet.org/ You can access W's databases there. Remember, the two ban lists are totally separate. The channel ban list holds 30 bans. They are set by /mode +b #channel *!*userid@host. The Lbanlist (bot list) holds up to 50 entries. Each ban list has its advantages and disadvantages. The channel list is smaller and is lost if the channel closes (like on a netsplit). Channel bans don't lag when the bot is lagged. The Lbanlist is larger and isn't lost if the channel closes. Bans there can be up to 8760 hours (1 year). For important bans, put them in both lists.

/msg W chaninfo #channel gives information about the channel manager's nick and user@host mask

/msg W showcommands #channel will show you which commands you have available to you on that channel. These depend on the level you have in W for that channel only.

/msg W help command will explain the usage of that command.

/msg W map gives information about how the IRC servers are linked.

/msg W motd displays W's message of the day.

/msg W show ignore shows a list of users W is ignoring

To set a password the command is newpass. To send a password, use pass OR login. And if you have no password, use login as described below.

To set a password in W for that channel use /msg W@channels2.undernet.org newpass #channel password. Notice for W it's channels2

To Authenticate yourself with W use /msg w@channels2.undernet.org pass #channel password. Also, you can use /msg w@channels.undernet.org login #channels password.

If you have no password. You MUST send /msg W login #channel.

If you have a password, you only need to send pass OR login. Remember, if the U doesn't show in an /access command, then the user is NOT yet authenticated. It's a good idea to have everyone set a unique password. As of November 01, 1996, all users with access to X or W will be required to set and have a password for access. You can also setup a password for a user when you first add them to the userlist database. We will cover this when we get to the adduser command later in class. A password is important for your protection. Many people don't set passwords because they think it's a hassle. This leaves them vulnerable; userid's can be changed pretty easily. If you don't have a password, someone else could fake you.

The verify command is used to determine if a user is an authenticated IRC Operator, CService Helper, or CService Administrator. Typing /msg W verify nick will let you know if the person claiming to be a CService representative is authentic Most others will be shown as not authentic Cservice anythings..... There are however, a few authenticated CSERVICE troublemakers. These people have proven over time that they are dedicated to causing CService trouble.

SESSION D - LEVEL 50 THRU 100 COMMANDS: The next level where new commands are introduced is level 50 The two new commands available at level 50 are kick and topic. These allow a user to kick someone or change the channel topic even if they are not a channel operator.

/msg W kick #channel nick reason will kick someone off, and they will see the reason you supply.

/msg W topic #channel topic will change the channel topic. If AutoTopic is turned on by the manager, this can be overridden every 30 minutes by W and the topic restored.

The next command level is 75. The commands added at level 75 are ban and unban.

The usage is /msg W ban #channel nick/nick!user@host duration level reason NOTE: ban duration is expressed in hours. Duration, level, and reason are not required for a ban, it just gives you more control over what happens. Remember, bans set by /msg x ban... are set in the Lbanlist. You must /msg W Lbanlist #channel * to see them, NOT /msg W #channel banlist. "banlist" is for viewing channel bans (/mode +b) , "Lbanlist" is for the bot list. Ban levels are important. For example, a level 20 ban will not keep the user off of the channel, but will prevent them from being opped. A level 75 or higher ban will keep them out entirely. The unban command has the same syntax and is used to remove a ban. You cannot remove or set a ban that's higher than your own access level.

The next level is 100, this confers full access to all op commands on the user. In other words, this level is just like being an op in an unregistered channel but allows the user to execute the commands through W without having ops. The new commands at level 100 are op deop invite suspend and unsuspended. This is the first level at which your access will allow you to op yourself through W. Lower levels of access have to be opped by a channel op, they cannot op themselves. Also, no user level lower than 100 can get ops if the channel is SET to StrictOp mode ON.

It's important to note that at level 100 the potential for abuse exists. Deopping and/or kicking the Cservice bots is theoretically not possible, however, if for some reason an operator is able to kick or deop the bot, that is considered abuse of the UnderNet Channel Service, and may result in your channel being NoOped or Purged.

To op someone Use /msg W op #channel nick To deop someone type /msg W deop #channel nick

To have W invite someone to a channel. type /msg W invite #channel nick. You can also use this from outside the channel to invite yourself to the channel. Just authenticate with X/W for that channel and then send the invite command --- /msg W invite #channel <yournick> . you can use the invite on yourself if someone sets +i on your channel, invite yourself in.

Suspension temporarily stops a user's access to X or W The command is /msg X suspend #channel nick duration [s|m|h|d] s, seconds, m minutes, h hours, d days An example to suspend Joe for 3 days would be /msg x suspend #here joe 3 d

To unsuspend type /msg W unsuspend #channel nick

With regard to security and opping: Anyone you give ops to, whether or not they have access to X/W, can kick and ban users from the channel. In practice it's probably best not to op anyone who has less than 100 access.

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