LUGOD Freenode IRC Chat HOWTO Tim Thatcher, sys at lugod v1.0 31 January 2017 Information about the management of the club IRC channel. ------------------------------------------------------------------ TOC 1. Introduction 1.1 Purpose 1.2 Copyright 2. The LUGOD IRC Channel 2.1 Connecting to #lugod 2.2 Becoming or Assigning a Channel Operator 2.3 Channel Operator Duties and Responsibilities 2.3.1 Updating the Topic 2.3.2 Kicking and Banning 2.4 Managing the IRC Channel With Freenode 2.4.1 Group Registration Status 2.4.2 Hostname Cloaks 3. Closing 3.1 Additional Help ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Introduction 1.1 Purpose LUGOD has maintained an IRC channel on the Freenode network (http://www.freenode.net) for some time. This HOWTO is intended to guide future officers in managing the channel and IRC-related issues. 1.2. Copyright This document is Copyright (c) 2017 by Tim Thatcher. This HOWTO is free documentation; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This document is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You can obtain a copy of the GNU General Public License by writing to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Or, read it here: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html 2. The LUGOD IRC channel 2.1 Connecting to #lugod http://www.lugod.org/irc/ contains details on how to access the chat channel, and some helpful commands to get you started if you're unfamiliar with IRC. 2.2 Becoming or Assigning a Channel Operator IRC channels are maintained by channel operators, or "ops". Ops are designated in the channel userlist by a "@" prefix before their nicks in the /NAMES or /WHO output. To be a channel operator, a user must first have a registered nickname with Freenode's NickServ. See https://freenode.net/kb/answer/registration and read the output of "/msg nickserv help" for more information about how to register a nick. The user must then be granted privileges using ChanServ by an existing operator. See the output of "/msg chanserv help" for more information on how to grant privileges. Once you are granted privileges, you can use ChanServ to enable operator status at any point. Read the output of "/msg chanserv help" for more information. You can safely de-op yourself if you don't want to wear the "@" in front of your nickname all the time, and use ChanServ to op yourself again later. 2.3 Channel Operator Duties and Responsibilities 2.3.1 Updating the Topic Channel operators can change the topic banner of the channel, using the /topic command. Ideally, the banner will be updated regularly to reflect current information about the next meeting. The current topic is a good, if somewhat long, example template to use: Linux Users' Group of Davis, CA (http://lugod.org/) // Next meeting: Mon. Jan 16: "Taming a dinosaur with Docker and JavaScript" + anniversary party @ Smashwords // SPECIAL ELECTIONS: Pres & Vice Pres! Email nominations: typescript@lugod.org // See also: http://www.lugod.org/meeting/upcoming/ // Always looking for speakers! http://www.lugod.org/speak/ (Note: Line breaks were inserted for formatting in this document; the /topic command does not actually accept line breaks.) Read the output of "/help topic" in your IRC client for more information on the /topic command. 2.3.2 Kicking and Banning Ops have the ability to remove disruptive or otherwise abusive users from the channel, either temporarily or permanently. LUGOD is a relatively small channel, so disruptions are thankfully rare, but ops should be familiar with the /kick and /ban command usage at a minimum. Use the banhammer wisely. Typically it's reserved for serious disruption, spamming, malicious behavior or otherwise abusive activity. Don't boot people just based on whether or not you agree with what they're saying, no matter how much you dislike [vi|emacs|systemd|initd|$distro]. 2.4 Managing the IRC Channel with Freenode 2.4.1 Group Registration Status LUGOD is registered with Freenode staff as an "official" group or project. This comes with the benefit of Freenode being aware that we have staked our claim to the #lugod channel, and protects the channel against malicious takeover attempts. The group contacts authorized to interact with Freenode staff as of January 2017 are Bill (root) and Tim (sys). Outgoing root and sys officers should make sure that the new officers have group access in case changes are needed in the future; visit https://freenode.net/groupreg for more information about what the benefits and responsibilites of group registration or contacts are, and how to update group contact information. 2.4.2 Hostname cloaks Freenode offers the ability to have a hostname cloak for registered groups. Cloaks superficially hide your IP address/hostname when you connect to an IRC channel on Freenode, but the primary purpose is to show affiliation and support for a group or project that you're affiliated with. For more details on cloaks, visit the Freenode User and Project Cloaks page at https://freenode.net/kb/answer/cloaks. Without a cloak, when a users joins/parts/quits a channel, other users will see a message like the following: -!- username [~username@some.ip.address.comcash.net] has joined #lugod The same [~username@some.ip.address.comcash.net] information will also be available via the "/whois username" command. When a cloak is enabled, the output on will change: -!- username [~username@lugod/members/username] has joined #lugod or -!- username [~username@lugod/officers/sys] has joined #lugod In addition to showing support for a group, the output of /who can also be tailored to show information using cloaks. For example, the output of /who lugod/officers/* will show a list of any users online with LUGOD officer cloaks. See below for more information on cloak structure. 2.4.3 LUGOD Cloaks and Cloak Structure Guideline LUGOD group contacts have the ability to request lugod cloaks from Freenode staff members. All cloaks must begin with "lugod/". The recommended cloak structure is as follows. For officers (that use IRC and would like a cloak), the group contact should ask a Freenode staff member (nicely!) to please assign cloaks to the appropriate officers, using these conventions: lugod/officers/root lugod/officers/sys lugod/officers/typescript lugod/officers/devnull Retired officers may at their option take a lugod/member/username cloak, or maybe something along the lines of lugod/officers/retired/username. If a non-officer is interested in a cloak, it's up to the discretion of the group contact/officers. Remember that they'll be wearing our club name publicly, so it's recommended to only hand them out to regular LUGOD chat users/club members, rather than total internet strangers. The member must also be registered with NickServ. The procedure is the same: the group contact must ask a Freenode staff member (nicely!) to apply the cloak. For regular members who ask, please use the convention "lugod/members/nickname". Other cloaks under the lugod/* schema are at the discretion of officers and/or group contacts. 3. Conclusion 3.1 Additional Help Should you need any additional help or questions about IRC or Freenode, consult http://www.freenode.net, or visit #freenode and ask for assistance. For LUGOD-specific questions, bug a LUGOD officer in #lugod, use the mailing list, or come to a meeting!