The RETURN of IRC

[Moira]

Many thanks, I will give that a go soon. I'm going to have another shot at my Virtual Server now.

[nihil]

Hi Moira,

These are my personal opinions as a member rather than a moderator, and in no way should be taken to represent the views of JupiterMedia or their staff.

The big problem with IRC is that it is open to anyone and is unmoderated. In this respect it is similar to unmoderated newsgroups, that are prime targets for spamming.

I guess that the major conflicts of interest are fourfold?

1. The site is owned and managed by a commercial organisation who have a reputation to think of.

2. The primary focus of the site is computer security, so it needs to maintain a professional image.

3. This is a community and family site, so minors are allowed, and even encouraged, to use it.

4. This is an international site, and we need to be a bit cautious as to causing offence inadvertently, let alone deliberately.

Given those constraints, it really isn't practical to have IRC and newsgroups that are officially sponsored by this community and associated with it, yet are totally exposed to idiots.

I am afraid that it is the old story of the minority spoiling things for the majority

[JPnyc]

Nihil nailed it. Couldn't have been more accurate except to perhaps include the possible legal aspect of an unmoderated chat associated with the company.

[Moira]

nihil I agree with what you say. I wasn't aware of the JupiterMedia association with this site (I am quite new to it). IRC doesn't have to be unmoderated of course - but that does rely on channel ops being around and able to deal with whatever turns up. Again, another reason why "being there" is important for a successful channel. Another idea is to bill the channel as "unofficial".

Currently I own and op a few channels (in fact I was once a network admin) and what I found hard to get across to new visitors was that talking about cracking software or asking for music downloads is absolutely taboo. They don't seem to understand that the sponsors of quakenet cannot have this behaviour and their lawyers would just pull the plug. There again, you get these wankers who think applying someone else's crack makes them the ultimate in leetness.

Let them master assembly language and degree level maths and actually make a keygen and I might have more respect (though not approval).

[JPnyc]

Precisely, Moira, and we have the same difficulty on our forums. With a chat, however, you MUST have constant realtime moderation, and we simply can't guarantee that.

[thehorse13]

There are several IRC channels out there where you'll find large pockets of AO members. If you want the server addys, PM me. If you do visit these places, keep in mind that not everyone is a fan of AO. ;-)

--TH13

[Moira]

Many thanks everyone, for the info and thehorse13 I will PM you for more once I get a bit of free time

[Donkey Punch]

I went to visit the freenode channel and nobdy was there. So I went back to the other channel and hung out with BraD again.

[Moira]

I still haven't had the time to try out new irc channels

[cheesegoduk]

and very high signal to noise ratio.

o.O What AO IRC was you in?