IRC rules

[bubs]

I don't agree with these suggestions hufflaw

The second rule about not breaking synirc's rules is sort of unneeded. So is the 4th about teaching other people to cheat, since, unless I'm really missing some juicy things while I'm asleep, it hasn't happened once yet.

I'm sure we've had people come in the server and be like "oh man i just found a crazy bug if you do this and this it'll crash the whole whatever", and while it probably isn't necessary to talk about synirc's rules, I also can't see a harm in it. We don't want our channel getting banned for people posting piracy or anything, and since we've decided that it's become necessary to codify this shit, we need to be sure to try to include as many relevant things as possible, because now that there's a list of rules there's gonna be rules lawyers.

Also the "offer some respect" is, I feel, worded poorly. We don't need to respect anyone, I don't exactly want respect from the players just because I'm an admin. It'd probably be better worded like:

"5. Don't use slurs." And just leave out that bit about respect. To hell with respect.

It's just a way of saying "don't be an asshole all the time"

"6. Be respectful of the channel. If you feel like talking about particularly controversial topics like (including but not limited to current politics, racial tensions, religious freedom) you are expected to take it elsewhere if an admin tells you to." Though didn't people already do this?

No they get banned. In all seriousness, some people have done this and sometimes it does happen, but these rules are for us as well. This is a subtle way to say "Don't ban people for talking about stuff, ask them to take it outside and only ban them once they start being destructive and/or obstructing dickheads"

The seventh one is less of a rule and more general life advice, kind of out of place to put in a rules page.

Agreed.

"8. Kicks are for jokes more often than not, we fully expect you to immediately rejoin."

A lot of the time kicks are jokes, but sometimes they aren't and we don't want people getting confused. I think its best to let them use their judgement to figure this stuff out. Saying "we kick people all the time as a laugh" is a bit different than "most kicks are jokes". It could lead a player to get kicked and not take it as a serious warning, despite it maybe being one.

"9. Sometimes the chat goes into strange and weird places, unlike the game servers we are far more lenient on crass and uncomfortable topics in IRC, you will not be banned for such topics unless they are actually against human decency."

Vague and dangerous, this leaves it up to peoples judgement as to what makes a Topic "against human decency". I think this is pretty much covered by the earlier "if an admin tells you to shut up, shut up" rule.

I dunno though, it seems like these rules are mainly: No IC in IRC, do what an admin tells you if they tell you to knock something off, things are crass on IRC. It seems like we mainly need a list of things admins will ban you for, rather than a list of suggestions for how you can talk on IRC.

I prefer a big list fulla crazy catchalls so that we can point to it whenever we want and not have people try to weasel their way out of it by waving the rules in our face. The more specific we get, the more we have to fight against our own rules.