Rules

Why does #cairnschat need rules?

While we want the channel to be as open as possible to a mature audience, unfortunately a few rules have to be put in place so a few people don’t ruin it for everyone else.  Often we find that those who cause trouble (those we remove and / or ban from the channel)  are those who are most interested in the rules, so here they are.  Really, they’re pretty sensible, and are only in place to make the channel a friendlier place.  Please stick by them and you won’t encounter any problems :)

How the Rules are Enforced

#cairnschat has a team of moderators (commonly called ops, or operators, on irc) who keep an eye on the channel, and make sure the proper conduct is being observed.  Ops have the ability to remove someone from the channel (commonly called kicking), and also ban users from entering the channel, should they repeatedly cause problems.

Ops have their own code of conduct they should adhere to (see Moderation Procedure and Op Rules below).

If you do find yourself on the bad end of a kick / ban, and you don’t see anything in these rules that you’ve done, please let an op know, and we’ll see what the situation was.  Thanks!

Channel Rules:

The following will not be tolerated:

  1. Personal attacks on the channel.  Personal attacks include, but are not limited to:
    • Excessive name calling
    • Rumours about people’s personal lives (slander, see rule 5)
    • Coercion of others into persecution.
  2. Flooding.  This includes but is not limited to:
    • Excessive typing of music lyrics (especially when other users in the channel are actively chatting)
    • Senseless, repetitive floods.
  3. Use of excessive Caps Lock.
  4. Encrypted chat, including binary / octal / hexadecimal encoding, and anything else that isn’t comprehensible to the entire channel.
  5. Slander.  This falls under personal attacks, but really deserves a separate rule.  As a general guideline: if you have something to say about someone, to others on the channel, pm the people you want to tell, and don’t make it a public spectacle.
  6. Users requesting contraband (eg. drugs, pirated music / software) in the channel.
  7. Generally offensive nicknames.
  8. Ban evasion. This will result in an automatic akick, for a period nominated by the SOP putting the akick in place.
  9. Excessive/repeated trolling.  For an explanation of trolling, please see the Wikipedia Entry.
  10. Failure to maintain overall good fellowship / camaraderie.
  11. Consistent unpleasantness to other #cairnschat chatters.

Moderation Procedure:

If any of the rules outlined above are broken, the normal steps to be taken by an op are:

  1. Private message the offender, with a warning regarding the rule he / she has broken, with a request not to break the rule again (this step doesn’t apply to repeat offenders, however).
  2. Impose a short kick / ban on the offender (30 minutes recommended), summarizing the reason for the ban in the kick message.
  3. Impose a longer kick / ban on the offender (24 hours recommended), summarizing the reason for the ban, and the fact that it is a reoffence, in the kick message.
  4. Request that an Akick be imposed on the offender.

Op Rules:

  1. Ops will not ban for petty / personal reasons.  They may ban in the case of personal attacks however.
  2. When an op bans, only that op, or sops, may unban without consultation.   Ops wishing to lift a ban must obtain consent from 2 other neutral ops before they may.
  3. Ops repeatedly breaking these rules may be removed from the Aop list.

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