==[ GalaxyNet IRC Network - Policy (rev. 10.0.8) ]========================= The official source of this document is located at ftp://ftp.galaxynet.org/pub/galaxynet/policy/policy.txt if there are differences between the ftp site and the Galaxynet Web Site the copy located on the ftp site shall be considered current and official policy. The intent of this policy is not to create law. It's intended to be a guideline for us to follow. But at the same time this policy shall constitute the rules of operation on GalaxyNet. *** Introduction ********************************************************* We shall remain focused on the original concepts of this network,democracy, fairness and teamwork. This network was meant for a place to have fun. Fighting is counter productive to our efforts as a whole. Therefore this policy will serve as a reference as well as ruling factor in cases of conflict as to help reduce differences between user, Oper's, and Administrators of this network. We must all remember the most important element of this network, the users. Without them we might as well just down our servers and go back to using another network. User rights shall be a paramount concern at all times. Users must be treated with respect at all times. If there are any personal problems between you and a specific user, /ignore or /silence them. Never act irresponsible or immature. As an oper you represent all of GalaxyNet. Ill behavior will result in the users not only disliking you, but will change their attitude towards our whole network. Ill behavior may also result in review by the network committee. The purpose of opers is only to assist their administrator in the running of his/her server. Opers shall have no special authority on the network other than to help maintain peace on the network. In the case of a disagreement on how to handle a problem, opers shall yield to an administrator. Kills, glines and expected behavior are detailed in this document. *** Committees *********************************************************** The governing body of GalaxyNet is divided into three groups. The Administrators, Founders and the Network Committee (Net-Com). A routing committee may be established by the administrators. They may serve to help establish better routing for the network by analyzing links. They may also request ping times and/or traceroutes from all the servers. Please provide this information when requested. Upon completion of their analysis they shall submit a report to the adminlist. This would allow the administrators affected to add their input (i.e. even though ping times to abc hub are better the link to xyz hub is more stable). Because new information that would benefit the network is useful there is no reason to vote on these issues. We should if the report and recommendation appears to be reasonable attempt to try the routing change(s). In the case of a routing committee being established the network committee shall provide any assistance requested by the routing committee provided that assistance is within the guidelines of policy. * The Founders The purpose of the Founders to ensure the original goals and intentions are met. The intention of this committee is not to interfere with day to day operations of the network. For the most part normal day to day operations of the network will remain intact. However, this doesn't mean the Founders may not get involved in these day to day operations as they deem necessary. The members of the Founders must abide by traditional network policy while interacting on the network. This means all G line and kill rules do apply. Net-com may suspend the O line or A flag of a Founder just as they would any other operator or admin for abuse. To ensure fairness even these decisions may be reversed by a vote of the Founders. The Founders shall be self governing. A 4 member vote does permit a suspension of another Founder is not to last more than 30 days. The Founders is a 5 member non-elected panel. This shall consist of the following people Chenghwa Gawyn Mark-ATL Rev Rikske Galaxynet appreciates the hard work and efforts by former Founder Dave_S. Your efforts and support in the past were greatly appreciated. There can not be a forced replacement of any of the members. Should one of the members leave the network then the remaining Founders will choose a replacement. The Founders have complete and final authority on all matters related to the network, there shall be no issue out of their scope of authority. Any decision of the Founders may not be challenged or reversed by any other authority. There shall be no appeal process of these decisions. There shall be no time restrictions on their decisions. Once a decision is reached it is to be considered official policy, written into policy or not. Only another vote of the Founders may reverse such a decision. All complaints must go through net-com as outlined by policy. No complaints will be reviewed or entertained by the Founders unless that process is used. Hubs - The Founders may request the addition or removal of C/N pairs on any hub. The hub administrators must comply with the request. Net-com - The Founders vote for and fill 4 positions on net-com. The Founder voting occurs 2 weeks prior to the new-hope nominations. Operators - The Founders may at their sole discretion remove any operator on the network. Policy - The Founders may create or modify policy as deemed necessary. The Founders also reserve the right to interpret the meaning of written policy. This interpretation is considered final. Rules - The Founders may create or establish rules as deemed necessary. Servers - The Founders have full authority to remove any server or administrator for any reason. Additionally they have the authority to add a server they will feel benefit the network. Suspensions - The Founders may veto or modify a suspension of an Administrator or operator. This modification may reverse the decision of net-com, reduce or increase the time period. There shall be no maximum or minimum time period constraints. Unlike net-com the time period may exceed 30 days. Veto - The Founders may veto or modify any decision of the Administrators or net-com and net-com's sub-committees. To exercise their authority a 4 member positive vote is required. If one member disagrees they have the option of expressing their dissent within the final decision that's sent to the Administrators or Net-com. Any of the Founders may request access to any of the authoritative lists on the network. This includes but is not limited new-hope and the net-com list. However, if a Founder is not on net-com they may not be interactive on that list. If a founder requests information from net-com, net-com must provide any and all information requested. This includes but is not limited to ballots, complete voting results and copies of complaints. The shall be no information considered confidential in regards to such a request. Information requested shall not be sent directly to the Founder member but instead to the Founder list. * The Administrators: The Administrators as a group shall have authority in most matters. Invoking this authority requires a vote of the administrators and a simple majority will make the decision final. However, any decision of the Administrators is subject to review by the Founder Committee. Any decision of the Administrators may be vetoed or modified by the Founders. The Administrators shall have no authority over the Founders. Any decision reached by the Founders is out of reach of the Administrators and not subject to review. The Administrators may not attempt to change policy in regards to Founder authority. The authority granted the Founders is permanent and may not be modified by the Administrators. Any submission of a ballot of this nature is considered null and void. Administrators will turn over any actions against another administrator or oper to Net-Com for review. Administrators shall never pursue action on their own unless that action is against one of their own opers. Administrators reserve the right to remove opers from their own server for any reason. All administrators and opers are required to subscribe to the announcement list. This is a low traffic list that the network committee and Founders will use to send out announcements critical to the operation of the network. Posting to this list shall be delegated to no more than three Net-Com members and one Founder. The adminlist is not a requirement but strongly suggested. This is where all official Administrator debates and voting occurs. This list shall be limited to server Administrators and Founders only. Persons either not an Administrator or the officially delegated person by net-com to update new-hope on net-com decisions may not post to the list. An Administrator shall have the option of forwarding new-hope to their operators. People not authorized to post to new-hope are subject to the same punitive action by net-com as someone performing an invalid kill on the network. There shall be no official operlist. Opers should voice their opinions for change through their administrator. This doesn't restrict the existence of an operlist. But, it shall not be an official forum for communication. * Committee voting: The committee shall be panel of elected officials along with the 4 Founder elected members. Net-com shall consist of nine members. The administrators by vote may modify this portion of policy to establish more network committeeseats but may not reduce the number of seats to less than nine. The number of network committee members shall always remain odd to help prevent voting ties. To qualify for nomination, the individual must be either an admin or global operator and must be nominated and receive two seconds to the nomination. Self-nomination is not acceptable. Prior to being placed on the ballot, the individual must inform the admin list of their decision to accept or decline the nomination. The committee shall be elected by accumulating the largest number of votes from the administrators. For each open position the administrators will cast one vote. There are four Founder elected members on net-com. With a total of 9 positions the admins will have 5 votes for each of the open positions. The people with the largest number of votes shall be part of the committee. In the event of a tie vote, the administrators shall vote on the two or more individuals separately. The committee shall not consist of over 40% opers (9 members would mean 6 must be administrators and up to 3 may be opers). Should the number of opers permitted be exceeded in a vote the position shall go to the next administrator with the most accumulated votes. There shall be no requirement to have any opers on the committee, voting will determine that. The term of an elected committee member is 1 year. The year is defined by the calendar year. Members elected mid-term are elected only to serve for the remaining term of the person they replace. Committee members may be recalled by 4 administrators requesting the action. A discussion period of 72 hours will take place on the administrator list server followed by a vote of the administrators. Removal requires a simple majority. The Founders also may recall an elected net-com member with a 4 vote majority. In the case of a recall of an elected member the administrators will elect another person to fill the open position. The Founders make the replacement when the recall involves a Founder elected position. * The Network Committee (AKA Net-Com): Net-Com members shall investigate and/or mediate any difficulties on the network. Net-Com is the core authority for day to day operations on Galaxynet. Committee members shall investigate continuous abuse by a user. They may recommend to the Administrators a user should receive a global kline. The recommendation is forwarded to the administrators for a vote. The Net-Com shall investigate user complaints against any administrator, oper or user. Any complaints involving another administrator, oper or global kline request for a user shall be sent to the Net-Com for review. The committee shall reach a decision within 96 hours (4 days). Include any logs or other documents with your complaint as well. Forged documentation will result in immediate disposal of the complaint. Should the committee reject your complaint, you shall have the right to request a vote of the administrators if 4 other administrators are willing to support your complaint. Net-com may not attempt to reverse any decision made by the admins or Founders regardless of the age of such a decision. This includes any and all rules or policy receiving a majority Administrator or Founders vote. This includes all rules or policy written or not. Net-com may use the resources of the Founders to determine if they have authority on an issue or not. The Founders shall review this query and render a decision within 48 hours. If the Founders find net-com does not have authority net-com may either close that issue or forward it to the Administrators for consideration. Net-com has no authority over the decisions reached by the Founders. Such decisions are to be considered final and can not be reversed or appealed. The Net-Com will handle and take care of GalaxyNet's routing scheme, decide where new servers will be linked, keep track of the ircd versions the servers are running and their configuration. At all times administrators are required to inform the Net-Com of anything that could influence the correct operation of their server, this includes, but is not limited to, machine defects, prolonged network outage, loss of access, etc. Updates to the configuration required by the Net-Com and limited to its authority shall be split up in two levels of urgency: 'Normal' updates, these do not impose any threat to the stability of the network, and 'Urgent' updates, these may influence the good operation of our network and include configuration changes that might lead to net-splits, errors when hub servers link etc. The Net-Com will expect 'Normal' updates to be done within a timeframe of one week, 'Urgent' updates are required to be completed within 72 hours. The required updates will be sent to the server administrator, the Net-Com, the administrators and a mail stating that given server is required to do an update will be posted to galaxynet-announce. The Net-Com will consider a server that fails to meet these timeframes without a valid reason a renegade server and may jupe or permanently delink that server in accordance with the policy regarding forceful delinks. Temporary jupes may be set if the server is causing major network disturbance or is a security risk to the rest of the network. Net-Com may without any voting of the administrators take any action they feel is necessary short of permanent action. They shall always set aside their personal feelings and only consider the best interests of the network at all times. Net-Com members may be recalled by a vote of the administrators for abuse of their authority. Recall proceedings must first be supported by FIVE server administrators. A discussion period lasting 3 days will be followed by a voting period of 2 days. Authority: Net-Com may propose action with no complaint being filed. In effect, a Net-Com member may file a complaint. Net-Com may request an O line be removed up to 30 days. Administrators failing to comply shall have their servers juped until they comply. Net-com may also request an A flag be removed for a period not to exceed 30 days. Net-Com has total authority over the network owned channels except in regards to Founder decisions. This includes the official administrator/oper channel and help channel. Only administrators and global operators are permitted to have channel ops on the official administrator/oper channel. Net-Com has full authority to remove anyone from those channel for any length of time they feel is necessary including a permanent ban from the channel. A single Net-Com committee member shall have the authority to ban administrators or opers on Network owned channels for a time period not to exceed 30 minutes. However, that member must be able to show just cause for the ban. Net-Com must approve a server prior to the server application being sent to the adminlist for approval by the administrators. Net-com may for any reason reject a server application. There is no requirement for Net-com to provide reason to the Administrators or server applicant. Net-com must provide reason to the Founders if reason is requested. Net-Com may permanently delink any new server during that servers probationary period of 45 days. However, for this to be done at least 60% of the network committee shall approve of that action. At the end of the 45 day probationary period, the Administrators will formally evaluate the contribution of the server to the network and assess if the server should be permanently linked or permanently delinked. Approval shall require 60% of the Administrators voting approve the permanent link. In the event that less than 60% of the Administrators voting approve the permanent link, the link shall be considered denied, and the server removed Net-Com has the authority to determine length of discussion and voting periods. This covers both Net-com voting and Administrator voting. The Net-Com committee shall handle complaints and questions about the Channel Service, the NickName Service and any registered channel. The network committee is permitted to delegate additional administrators or opers to assist in handling questions and/or problems. To allow these people to better assist users Net-Com may upgrade their services access to accommodate handling problems. The delegated authority may also include assistance in channel registration. The Committee members will handle new channel registration requests, and investigate users or channels abusing the Channel Service. Continuing abuse shall result in either the channel being set in NoOp mode, or the Channel Service being removed from the channel. In the case of a user abusing the Channel Service, his/her record may be disabled to prevent further abuse. Limitations: For accountability purposes the results of all Net-Com voting shall be posted to the Adminlist and Founders. This will prevent a single Net-Com member from making a decision. All decisions must be reached by Net-Com through voting (exception would be a 24 hour ban from network channels, this may be done by any Net-Com personal on an individual basis). When ever possible the network committee shall attempt to mediate a solution to a problem rather than punitive action. For minor violations for first time or infrequent offenses a warning should be considered rather than punitive action. The network committee is not bound by this, however it's strongly suggested. When considering requesting an O line be removed by an administrator that administrator shall be contacted and allowed to take action at the server level. If the server administrator chooses to remove that O line based on evidence against his oper for the requested time period, Net-Com shall drop the complaint and consider it resolved since it was handled by the Server administrator. Net-Com may not make decisions contrary to the spirit of Galaxynet. At all times decisions must be made using current approved policy. At no time may decisions be based on personal bias. If a complaint is filed against a Net-Com committee member that member shall have no voting privileges on that complaint. Other Net-Com members must place their friendships aside when handling this type of complaint. Only policy and the benefit of the network as a whole should be considered. At no time may the network committee change policy. Policy changes must be approved by a majority of administrators of this network. Suggested Actions Minor violation for a first time offender or infrequent offender should result in a warning. Severe violations of policy First Offense: 7 day suspension Second Offense: 14 day suspension Third Offense: 30 day suspension Fourth Offense: permanent removal These are suggested actions only. Other factors can and should be considered such as typical behavior of that oper on the network, frequency of abuse, how well the oper works as part of the team and remorse. If it's been a substantial amount of time between violations of policy that should be a consideration as well. Net-Com Voting: There will be a 3-day discussion period and a 2-day voting period. After the voting period is over, the number of votes for YES, ABSTAIN, and NO will be counted. If there are more YES votes then NO votes, then the total vote shall be YES. If there are more NO votes then YES votes, then the total vote shall be NO. There shall not be minimum votes required to vote on an action. Any net-com member may provide their reason(s) for disagreeing with a decision within the official notification. Appealing a Net-Com Punitive action: Any punitive decision by net-com may be appealed with the support of 3 or more operators. The appeal must be accompanied by supporting evidence as to why the appeal is being made. This appeal must be sent to the new-hope list. Net-com shall be required to forward all related communications to the new-hope list so the admins will be working with the same information used by net-com. The admins shall discuss this for a period of 72 hours followed by a voting period of another 72 hours. They may modify or suspend the net-com decision. This means the admins can vote to reduce or increase the net-com punitive action. Unlike net-com the admin voting can result in a permanent removal of an O line (net-com is permitted to remove for only 30 days). The results of the vote and the decision reached must be posted to the announcement list so all are aware of the outcome. The admin decision may be appealed to the Founders. At their sole desecration the Founders may either consider a reject such an appeal. *** Voting *************************************************************** To ensure each server has an equal vote only administrators are eligible to vote. This is 1 vote per administrator. If an administrator owns 2 or more servers he/she shall be eligible for 1 vote only. The goal here is to keep the playing field level for everyone. If an admininistrator wishes to permanently transfer the administration of a server to someone else, information regarding who the proposed new administrator is shall be forwarded to the administrator mailing list, along with all server configuration information, including hardware, software and services provided on the machine. The administrators will then vote on whether to approve or decline the proposed new administrator. Transfers proposed 60 days or less before an official network committee nomination/voting period will not normally be accepted. If circumstances require the change during this period, the new admininistrator (if accepted by the administrators) shall not be eligible to participate in the voting. An administrator, as officially recognized by GalaxyNet, can delegate the responsibility for the server to any of the server global operators. The delegation gives the operator the voting privileges on New-Hope and any other rights assigned to the official administrator, except delinking the server. If an administrator has several servers linked the delegation of duties will apply to all the servers. The global operator is also required to have access to the servers configuration file. This request for delegation can only be made by the official administrator via new-hope and can be for any period of time. If the delegation is at least 14 days or is not specified, approval should be sought in the first instance from Net-Com who will then notify new-hope. If the period is not specified, the delegation is deemed ongoing and can only be removed by an e-mail to new-hope by the administrator making the original delegation request. New-hope may object to the appointment and call for a vote to validate the delegation. The only exception to voting eligibility shall be if an administrator has been recommended for removal. He/she shall not have the right to vote on that action. All major decisions shall be subject to vote, administrators will have 72 hours to vote. These decisions shall include: 1) Forceful removal of a server (60% majority required) 2) Forceful permanent removal of an oper (51% majority required) 3) Global Klines (51% majority required) 4) Policy changes (60% majority required) 5) Recall of a network committee member (51% majority required) *** Server Code ********************************************************** No administrator shall install a patch which increases vulnerability to the network or that has an adverse effect on it. This includes ircd patches that allow opers to perform mode changes without being a valid chanop, or that circumvent channel bans. All patches that are not part of the ircd-glx must be voted on before any server may install them. When a new ircd version is officially released, all servers must upgrade within 30 days. Any servers that haven't upgraded after 30 days without a valid reason may be temporarily juped or permanently delinked, depending on the decision of Net-Com and the Administrators' voting results. *** Channel Registration ************************************************* Users are limited to registering one channel each. To register a channel you must have SIX supporting users. You can register GalaxyNet's Channel Registration Service while connected to GalaxyNet. (/msg Nova HELP). The network committee will verify the supporters via email, and check the channel prior to registration. Channel registration does not imply approval of your channel or its contents. It's up to the channel owners to maintain legal content on their channels. GalaxyNet shall not be liable for any actions on any channel. *** IRC Operator/Administrator Guidelines ******************************** On network owned channels administrators and opers will always behave in a civil manner. This means no name calling and no swearing. It shall be understood that occasionally a word will slip out, however if it's frequent Net-Com shall have authority to ban you. General chit-chat on the network owned channels shall be permitted, however this conversation must be civil at all times. If a user requests assistance that conversation shall take highest priority. The network owned channels are not the place to test your IRC scripts or use encryption. If you feel you must use encryption or must test your script please use your own channel. Should you desire to argue you are required to either take it private via /msg, email or to another channel. The channel #opers shall be delegated as the official argument channel. Although #opers will be the official argument channel it's strongly suggested you treat everyone with respect. #opers shall have no rules other than you may not ban any oper from that channel for any reason. If you get angry at a user then it's probably time for you to step away from the keyboard for a short while. Good judgment eludes most people when they are angry and that is bad for the network. In reality there is no reason to become angry, this is just IRC. Wallops shall be restricted to important messages only. This would include "xyz server will be restarting or will be down for x hours, clones detected on xyz server is there an oper from that server online". Wallops shall not be used for general conversation, that's what channels are for. Global messages shall be used ONLY for critical messages to users. Such as "Channel services is being worked on, please be patient it will return shortly". Any global message not critical to the network as a whole shall be considered grounds for a complaint being filed. Opers shall not get involved in channel politics at any time. Users will fight, let them resolve their problems. We are not a police force. Should the dispute involve a registered channel where someone has taken it over, inform a member of the network committee or an administrator with access to Pulsar's commands. Exception to this would be channels owned by administrators or opers, they may operate their channel as they see fit. Disputes on network owned channels shall by resolved by the network committee. Opers are not to use channel services to give themselves ops, remove bans on themselves or otherwise disrupt the operations of a channel. You are only to use these functions when either a) you are requested to do so by the owners of the channel, or b) in an extreme emergency that can't be solved any other way. Abuse will be reprimanded appropriately. Pulsar administrators reserve the authority to issue and revoke all flags on services subject only to review by the Founders. However, Pulsar Administrators are required to remove a flag at the request of Net-Com. Pulsar administrators reserve complete authority over the administrator flags ssued on services. However, Pulsar administrators are required to remove n administrator flag at the request of Net-Com. Opers should not split their server from the rest of the network for personal reasons. Servers should only be squited when they need to be rerouted or to solve a net desynch. Administrators are responsible to maintain their configuration in accordance with network requirements. These requirements include U: lines and H: lines. U:lines are not to be used without approval. If a node poses an immediate danger to the stability of the net the HUB may temporarily remove the c/n pair. But, the stability of the net must be at risk and you must have proof to this effect. All servers are required to disable reliable clock, and have the following lines in the configuration files: U:services.galaxynet.org::* U:services2.galaxynet.org::* The network committee may update the required U: line policy. However, they are limited to changing required U: lines only. Any other change to policy requires administrator voting. Administrators may not issue more than FIVE global O lines. Servers on probation status shall be limited to TWO global O lines. There shall be no restriction for local o lines but local operators are subject to all the same restrictions as global opers. In the case of multiple O lines for a single individual, only the first O line shall count toward the total. The services machines (services and services2) will be considered to be servers for the purposes of granting global O lines; restricted to the following: 1) Those members of the network committee and sub-committees who find themselves without a global O line due to unforeseen circumstances. The purpose of these global O lines is to ensure that the work of the network be done in an efficient manner and as a consideration to the work of the members of these committees. These members will normally oper using backup O lines. Upon termination of the members' activities in the committee or sub-committee, the services O lines will terminate and the former member must seek a global O line on another server. In any event, these O lines will be valid for no more than six calendar months. Net-com may request the admins to vote on an extension of the six calendar month period to extend the life of the temporary O line an additional six calendar months for any individual. 2) To provide a permanent "in memoriam" home for the O lines of IRC operators who have been nominated and seconded by server admins to the Network Committee as having given exemplary service to our network but who are no longer able to contribute because of death or disability. These O lines will be homed on services2.galaxynet.org. 3) To provide a permanent home for the O lines of IRC operators who have three administrator sponsors to the Network Committee as having given outstanding service to our network but who are no longer contributing due to changes in their lives, families, careers, etc. These O lines are subject to the authority of net-com and are subject to all the same rules and regulations of other operators. A simple majority of net-com or by a unanimous decision of the services administrators the O line can be revoked without the operator having any type of recourse. Either method of removal shall not be overturned by the other authority. For special cases a server admin may apply to the Network Committee for additional O lines. They must show just cause for the exception. When the operator or operators who were granted O lines under this paragraph leave the network or find a global O line on another server which is within the limit of 5, or if any other global operator on that server relinquishes his/her global O line and thereby frees an O line within the limit of 5, the additional O line or lines will expire. No other operators may be assigned to those O lines. If the admin feels it is necessary to again have more O lines than the limit, another application to the Network Committee must be made showing just cause. O: lines granted as a courtesy to administrators and global opers on other servers shall not count toward the total. Global opers with O lines on more than one server will be primary on one of those servers and their O line shall count toward the total on that server. Required P: line at this time is P:*:*:*:6660 Recommended I: lines are as follows. The are highly recommended but optional. I:*@*:1:Unresolved:: I:Resolved:5:*@*:: I:*@*console*:1:*@*console*:: I:*@*port*:1:*@*port*:: I:*@*slip*:1:*@*slip*:: I:*@*ppp*:1:*@*ppp*:: I:*@*dial*:1:*@*dial*:: I:*@*modem*:1:*@*modem*:: I:*@*dynip*:1:*@*dynip*:: I:*@line*:1:*@line*:: You should /msg $servername prior to using /die. Allow your users a few minutes to change servers prior to downing it. The same goes for rebooting or rerouting the server. A server crash, understandably, will not give you the chance to notify your users. The /kill command should be used only if other methods do not work. Warn the user first, if they persist then go ahead and kill them. You must put a valid reason in the /kill comment. Idiot, lamer, twit, etc. are considered invalid reasons. At no time shall vulgarities be used as part of the kill reason. If invalid reasons are used that shall be grounds for a complaint. Opers shall be required to attempt to contact an administrator or oper on the remote server when ever their kill requires a cross kill. This will allow that remote server to decide if a local gline is a better approach to a problem. Please wait at least 60 seconds for them to respond. If an administrator or oper is not available on the remote server you may proceed with action against the user following the guidelines detailed below. Before killing you are required to ask the user to discontinue. Being polite at this time is critical if you expect the user to comply. Most users will discontinue cloning and/or flooding if you ask them to do so. Whenever possible when dealing with clones you should kill the cloner only. This will usually result in the cloners' client disconnecting the clones for you. * Reasons to /kill or gline: 1) Clonebots (defined by more than 5 clients from the same host, run by the same user). If the clones keep coming back a local oper should add a local gline to stop the clones. If there are no local opers online at the time, or if the clonebots are on more than one server a temporary GLINE should be set for the appropriate hostmask. NOTE: There is a difference between clonebots and a user having more than one real connection (although it is unlikely anyone with over 5 connections is actually using them all as real clients). If you are not sure something is a clone ask another oper for help. WARNING: Unix shell machines support many users and it is possible for a single Unix machine to have 100's of users logged in and on IRC. If you kill everyone off a Unix machine where all the users are actually different users you may be subject to a complaint. Take a moment to find out before you take action. 2) Floodbots (these deserve instant death). Notice this says BOT and not USER. 3) Persistent CTCP flooding of users. Opers please use /ignore or /silence. 4) User requests you to kill his ghost. Make sure the hostmasks match, please. 5) Spambots are valid kills. Before you do kill it you are required to monitor it for a few minutes. If it's going channel to channel then on the 3rd join do kill it. If it persists then request it to be glined. 6) Users who are using our network to spam for another IRC network may be glined on sight without warning provided that such spam consists of contacting users directly via on-join or on-part messages, global messages to -i users, or channel-hopping spamming. Simply having a channel with the name of another IRC network, or having a topic in a channel which mentions another IRC network will not be grounds for action of any sort. 7) Global messaging spammers advertising porn and sex sites may be glined without warning. Users who "team spam" with one client in a channel passing on-join info to another outside the channel may also be glined without warning. 8) Abusive users. Users which are using their connection to IRC to harass, to pass trojans or viruses, to stalk other users, to inflict damage upon another users computer or system may be glined provided that an A-flag (or higher) oper has determined that these actions are part of a pattern of abuse and not isolated incidents. The user must have been warned repeatedly. * Reasons NOT to /kill: 1) A fight on a channel. It's not our place to get involved with channel politics. They have the ability to ban the user from the channel. It's not YOUR fight. 2) Someone calling you names. You have the option to use /ignore or /silence. 3) /msg floods are not consider flooding and should be resolved with /ignore or /silence. Teach users to do this whenever applicable. 4) Channel flooding shall result in a channel ban only. This however is under the control of the registered channel operators. If they allow channel flooding on their channel then leave it alone. 5) You may not kill a registered channel op for banning you or anyone else. It's their channel and they have the right to ban, including banning operators. 6) Repeated kills of a user are not acceptable. Either ask a Administrator to globally gline the user or contact a Oper on that server to have them locally gline. Kill messages are seen by users and Oper's alike. It is a bad image to pass to the users to see a Oper repeatedly killing a user off IRC. 7) Opers are not permitted to kill other opers just for the fun of it. This not only looks bad to the users but serves no useful purpose. 8) Any other reason not covered by Reasons to /kill. Global G: lines may only be set if the offending client(s) are on more than one server, or if there is no local oper available to add a local gline. You must announce via a wallop you intend to gline a client and state why. Should an IRC Operator be found to have abused/misused the commands available to him/her, a ruling will be held by the Net-Com as to what actions shall be taken to prevent another incident. It should be stressed that NO ONE is to be excused from abuse of power, even if it involves the administrator of a server. Authority not delegated to the administrators, opers, or users by the GalaxyNet policy, and which are not prohibited by the policy, are reserved for the individual servers respectively. Individual server administrators have the right only to decide on matters relating to their local servers which are not covered by GalaxyNet policy. *** User behavior (includes administrators and opers) ******************** Users are not to flood under any circumstances. Violation of this will usually result in a local gline on the server. Persistent flooders may be klined from the entire network. Non-hostile bots are permitted. Bot policy varies from server to server so check with the server administrator prior to using his/her server for your bot. Clonebots are prohibited and if you frequently launch clones you will find yourself with a global kline. Clonebots are defined as more than 5 clients from the same host, run by the same user. Our channel services will auto-detect these and will not show a any favoritism here. If your script supports nethack protection turn it off. There is no reason for it. GalaxyNet servers can't be used for netsplit hacks. *** New server links ***************************************************** All new server applications will first be forwarded to Net-Com so that all incomplete, forged or otherwise ineligible applications may be removed prior to them being submitted to the administrators for a vote. Servers which are rejected must wait three months before reapplying. New servers must be announced to the adminlist BEFORE they are linked. If the server is not run by the administrator of the machine, permission must be obtained prior to announcing the link. If needed this can be checked via email by the Net-Com. There will be a period of 72 hours for anyone to ask questions or make complaints about the new link. If there are no complaints, the Network Committee will decide who the new server will get as their primary, secondary, and backup links. If there are objections to connecting the new server the Administrators will vote on whether to link it or not. There will be a 7-day voting dead line. A majority (60%) of yes votes is needed to pass the new server application. The new server will be evaluated for a period of 2 weeks. During this time the server won't have voting privileges, but can still observe the voting process via the adminlist. The server will stay a leaf for the duration of the evaluation period. One exception to this rule is a net merge, which is further described below. If there are any complaints about the new server after the evaluation period, the Administrators will vote on whether to keep or disconnect the new link. The same rules apply as for the new server application vote. Servers of unacceptable bandwidth, (less than 128k), shall be rejected with a notice being sent to the administrator of the server stating the grounds of why his server could not be linked. Servers that are rejected for other reasons should also be followed up with a message from a member of the Network Committee stating the reason why the server was not linked. New servers will be on a 45 day probationary period. During the probation period that server may not maintain more than TWO global O lines on their server. Their local o lines will not be restricted. Servers that are absent from the network in excess of 15 days will be automatically delinked and must go through the standard server approval process again if they wish to relink. If a server administrator knows that his server will be down in excess of 15 days, he must request a leave of absence for a specific period of time from the administrators. The administrators may or may not, at their discretion, grant this request. *** Net merges *********************************************************** Servers linking in as a group will be evaluated as a group, not on a server-by-server basis. During the evaluation period the merging net will stay linked as it were, with only one server connected to the galaxynet HUBs at one time. This rule only applies to large networks that will take a long time to integrate into the existing net. Networks composed of less than 7 servers will be linked individually. If, after the evaluation period, there are complaints about any of the new servers, the Administrators will vote on whether to keep or disconnect the new net. The same rules apply as for the new server application vote. If the net merge passes the evaluation period the new servers will be divided and linked in the best way possible. The Network Committee will take care of this. *** Server names ********************************************************* All servers will be designated with a name in the galaxynet.org domain. Only domain names in the following formats are allowed: city.state.country.galaxynet.org (example: atlanta.ga.us.galaxynet.org) city.country.galaxynet.org (example: amsterdam.nl.galaxynet.org) domain.country.galaxynet.org (example: winternet.us.galaxynet.org) GalaxyNet services are exempt from this rule.