GeekShed IRC Network
Manners and Polite Behavior on GeekShed
Mar 16th
When you connect to GeekShed, you are bound by the GeekShed Terms of Service, linked in the footer on every page. If you’re new to IRC, you should also know about netiquette, that’s the expected standards of behavior and common courtesies for online chatting. The word netiquette is a combination of net + etiquette. It’s the etiquette, or manners and polite behavior, for the network.
Good and polite users on GeekShed will follow these general guidelines:
- Be nice and helpful to new users. Everyone was new at some point.
- Do not type in all caps. That’s like shouting in the real world.
- Best to avoid AlTeRnAtInG cApS too.
- Do not flood channels or private messages with ASCII art. Ask first if you have something to share.
- Avoid calling people names or insulting them. Words like moron, n00b, and retard aren’t very nice.
- Ask before you send someone a private messages, notices, and or CTCP requests. It’s like whispering in someone’s ear without permission.
- AME and AMSG should be used sparingly, and only for very important messages. Broadcast messages that are sent to every channel you are in are considered impolite.
- Avoid changing your nick frequently. It gets annoying if you are changing to nicks like Steven|school, Steven|work, Steven|afk, Steven|bacon, and Steven|eating. Just choose a nick, and stick with it. It’s unlikely anyone needs that much detail on what you’re doing.
- Read the online help on the website. You can find the answer to nearly every question on the site if you look for it.
- If you can’t find an answer, please ask. Don’t ask if you can ask a question. Just go for it.
- Make sure people understand your tone. On IRC, we can’t see your face or hear your voice.
- Avoid flame wars, trolling, and spamming.
- Remember that GeekShed has international users. Don’t make fun of people who have trouble with spelling or grammar.
In channels, try to follow these suggestions:
- Check the topic and entry messages for details on specific rules and the purpose of a channel.
- Spend some time idling and watching a channel before you jump into the conversation. Don’t just barge into a conversation.
- Keep channel business in the channel it belongs in. Do not bring a problem with one channel to another one. Check the Channel Bans Appeals page if you need to appeal a ban on another channel.
- Always ask before running scripts or away messages in a channel.
- Ask before sharing links in a channel—and be sure that any link you share is virus-free and appropriate for the age-level of the people in the channel.
- Don’t ask for ops or voice. Most people consider it rude.
What if someone isn’t being polite on GeekShed?
- If you are a channel owner, you can ask the person to leave or ban the user. Your channel can have whatever rules you like.
- If someone is being impolite to you personally, ask the person to stop. If that doesn’t work use the /ignore command. It’s usually something like this: /ignore nick. For example, to ignore the nick RudeUser, you’d type /ignore RudeUser — check the documentation for your IRC client for more details.
Generally, you should not report impolite users in #help. Just use /ignore. There is no network rule that says people have to be polite, so network staff will not reprimand people who are impolite.
Beware though.While netiquette is not a network matter, every channel can have its own rules. Being impolite and ignoring these guidelines may get you kicked or banned from channels that do not tolerate rude users.
—Posted by tengrrl/bunny
GeekShed Embed v2 Released
Mar 10th
NOTE: This is a plugin for users of the self hosted wordpress.org software; it is not for users of wordpress.com. (Although I would love it if at some point in time… well, that’s me dreaming…)
As I posted last month, I have been working on updated to the GeekShed Embed plugin for WordPress that I wrote. This update provides shortcodes to easily embed the TFlash client, the userlist, and the userbadge that GeekShed provides for its users.
In addition to the TFlash shortcode, the plugin now offers a settings page where you can input the options (similar to our chat generator) and select the page that you want TFlash to appear on; TFlash will appear on that page without requiring you to copy and paste any code at all. This settings page also allows you to set more than one channel; simply enter the channel names as you would in a regular client – e.g. #chan1,#chan2,chanN. There are additional usage notes on the settings page.
Although the plugin has not been tested in a WordPress MultiSite environment, the plugin uses the built-in settings API that WordPress offers, so it is very likely that it will work (please let me know if you use WPMS and if the plugin works or not).
The plugin does reside in the WordPress Plugin Repository, so it can be installed via the Plugin Installer in your WordPress admin section, and if you already have it installed, will notify you that there is an update available.
If you require any assistance in using the plugin, please leave a comment here or at the plugin page here. Also, comments and/or suggestions are always welcome.
Note2: It can take a little bit for the WordPress servers to process that the plugin has been upgraded. Please be patient.
As I posted last month, I have been working on updated to the GeekShed Embed plugin for WordPress that I wrote. This update provides shortcodes to easily embed the TFlash client, the userlist, and the userbadge that GeekShed provides for its users.
In addition to the TFlash shortcode, the plugin now offers a settings page where you can input the options (similar to our chat generator) and select the page that you want TFlash to appear on; TFlash will appear on that page without requiring you to copy and paste any code at all. This settings page also allows you to set more than one channel; simply enter the channel names as you would in a regular client – e.g. #chan1,#chan2,chanN. There are additional usage notes on the settings page.
Although the plugin has not been tested in a WordPress MultiSite environment, the plugin uses the built-in settings API that WordPress offers, so it is very likely that it will work (please let me know if you use WPMS and if the plugin works or not).
The plugin does reside in the WordPress Plugin Repository, so it can be installed via the Plugin Installer in your WordPress admin section, and if you already have it installed, will notify you that there is an update available.
If you require any assistance in using the plugin, please leave a comment here or at the plugin page here. Also, comments and/or suggestions are always welcome.
Note2: It can take a little bit for the WordPress servers to process that the plugin has been upgraded. Please be patient.
Channel topic on your site – using Javascript
Mar 3rd
We have set up a JSONP service to allow you to use a simple bit of Javascript to get your GeekShed channel topic on your website. This has been possible for a while with PHP (http://www.geekshed.net/2009/10/topic-rss/), which provides a more flexible solution. This, however, cannot be used on hosting services that do not support PHP. The Javascript method works in all modern browsers and doesn’t require anything special on your hosting server.
All you need do is paste the following code into your page’s HTML where you require your topic to be shown, change phil to your own channel name (without the #) and style it all appropriately:
If you’re stuck, ask in #help.
All you need do is paste the following code into your page’s HTML where you require your topic to be shown, change phil to your own channel name (without the #) and style it all appropriately:
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
jQuery(document).ready(function() {
var channel = 'phil';
jQuery.getJSON("http://rss.geekshed.net/jsonp.php?channel=" + channel + "&callback=?",
function(data) {
jQuery('#geekshed-topic').html(data['topic']);
}
);
});
</script>
<div id="geekshed-topic"></div>
If you’re stuck, ask in #help.
TOS Change
Mar 1st
We have today, after much discussion, changed our terms of service. The reason for this is that the way it was previously done was confusing for users. The terms of service were previously called “Rules” and featured prominently on our site. Many users confused these with a definitive set of laws for which punishment would surely be issued if they were broken. This is not the case. They are a set of guidelines to ensure GeekShed remains “a free to use and family-friendly Internet Relay Chat network”.
Some parts of the terms of service are legacy remnants which have been removed due to no longer being relevant. Others have been refined to make them more clear. We have also removed the following clause:
This has always, throughout the history of IRC, been considered common courtesy. It was, on reflection, an oversight to have this in our terms of service and as the network has grown, we are becoming unable to handle the number of complaints about PM without permission.
In the near future, we will post an article for newer users of IRC which details the expected standards of behavior and common courtesies – ‘Netiquette’. EDIT: here it is!
Our refined TOS can be found at http://www.geekshed.net/tos/. If you have any questions on this, feel free to ask in #help or as a comment on this post.
Some parts of the terms of service are legacy remnants which have been removed due to no longer being relevant. Others have been refined to make them more clear. We have also removed the following clause:
Do not send Private Messages, Notices, and or CTCP requests to a user without his or her permission.
This has always, throughout the history of IRC, been considered common courtesy. It was, on reflection, an oversight to have this in our terms of service and as the network has grown, we are becoming unable to handle the number of complaints about PM without permission.
In the near future, we will post an article for newer users of IRC which details the expected standards of behavior and common courtesies – ‘Netiquette’. EDIT: here it is!
Our refined TOS can be found at http://www.geekshed.net/tos/. If you have any questions on this, feel free to ask in #help or as a comment on this post.
If You Use The Mibbit Chat Widget…
Feb 13th
If you use the Mibbit chat widget on your site, please ensure that server messages are visible to users. Having it disabled makes it so the server and services messages to the user are not displayed, and this can cause confusion (e.g. when the user is using a registered nick and all of a sudden their nick is changed and they don’t know why, when they are trying to change their nickserv settings and see no feedback from services, etc.)
To enable the server messages, look at the embed URL that you are using. If you see
Thanks to MikeWard1701 for bringing this to our attention.
To enable the server messages, look at the embed URL that you are using. If you see
noServerNotices=1, you should either set it to 0 or remove it entirely.Thanks to MikeWard1701 for bringing this to our attention.
GeekShed Embed v2
Feb 9th
EDIT: This post is about a WordPress plugin that has been written. It is NOT about the TFlash client itself. No updates for the TFlash client are planned at this time.
About six months ago, I (Ryan (ninja in #help)) created GeekShed Embed, a WordPress plugin so that GeekShed users that use WordPress to power their website could easily embed a GeekShed chat room into their site. At the time, I promised that there would be updates; however, I did not have time until recently to do anything with it.
Most of what I wanted to add has been already added to it, but I wanted to ask the community and see if there was anything that you can think of that should be included, or if there were any bugs that you have run into.
So if you have a suggestion for what should be included in the update, or have run into a bug, please leave a comment here with details. Assuming it’s nothing too far-fetched, I should be able to include it in the update.
Note: if you have run into a bug and are reporting it, please include the WordPress version you are running, and whether it is WordPress MU/MS or a regular WordPress installation.
About six months ago, I (Ryan (ninja in #help)) created GeekShed Embed, a WordPress plugin so that GeekShed users that use WordPress to power their website could easily embed a GeekShed chat room into their site. At the time, I promised that there would be updates; however, I did not have time until recently to do anything with it.
Most of what I wanted to add has been already added to it, but I wanted to ask the community and see if there was anything that you can think of that should be included, or if there were any bugs that you have run into.
So if you have a suggestion for what should be included in the update, or have run into a bug, please leave a comment here with details. Assuming it’s nothing too far-fetched, I should be able to include it in the update.
Note: if you have run into a bug and are reporting it, please include the WordPress version you are running, and whether it is WordPress MU/MS or a regular WordPress installation.
Does GeekShed spy on channels or private messages?
Feb 7th
In short, no. We value your privacy and, as a company, we do not store any logs of any conversations, private or otherwise. There are a few exceptions which I shall explain below:
Posts such as “ADVISORY: How to tell if your Unrealircd network is spying on you” found here are simply ignorant scaremongering. GeekShed has modules which hook into channel and private messages – for example, we have a module to block private messages when umode D is set. These modules are all in the interest of our user’s security and suggesting that hooking into channel and private messages inherently means that a network spys on its users is just silly.
You can see the full and current source code for our ircd at http://code.google.com/p/gs-ircd/.
If you have any questions or issues, feel free to come and chat to us in #help.
- All network staff log the channels that they are in and the private messages that they receive. These logs are typically for the sole reference of that staff member but may be shared with parties who have sufficient jurisdiction to obtain them, if required. We may also call upon users to voluntarily provide logs of channels or private messages, if required.
- GeekShed operates a spam filter to help keep the network safe from spam. When the spam filter is triggered, the user who triggered it is always notified. In addition to this, network staff are notified of the violation and are provided with the full message that triggered the spam filter. This helps us to identify sources of spam and quickly remove these from the network.
- Very rarely we are forced to run our services package in debug mode on the live network in order to diagnose and fix problems with it. This causes all messages seen by services bots to be placed in a debug log. Messages that are logged are private messages to services (e.g. identification to NickServ) and channel messages in any channel with a BotServ bot assigned. We will always notify you when services are going into debug mode.
- All unauthorised messages to OperServ are logged. This is mostly so we can help users who might be looking for another command as there’s very little reason to attempt to use OperServ, except in error.
- All messages sent through services bots with “/bs say” or “/bs act” are logged. This is the default behavior of our services package but is something that we are looking to change soon.
Posts such as “ADVISORY: How to tell if your Unrealircd network is spying on you” found here are simply ignorant scaremongering. GeekShed has modules which hook into channel and private messages – for example, we have a module to block private messages when umode D is set. These modules are all in the interest of our user’s security and suggesting that hooking into channel and private messages inherently means that a network spys on its users is just silly.
You can see the full and current source code for our ircd at http://code.google.com/p/gs-ircd/.
If you have any questions or issues, feel free to come and chat to us in #help.
New Swedish Server – Greenbean
Feb 6th
Kottizen, a new user to GeekShed but a long time member of the Anope and UnrealIRCD support communities has kindly donated a server on behalf of the datacentre he works for, connect2ip.se. The server is located in Växjö, Sweden and adds another great European leaf to the GeekShed network.
We thank Kottizen for the donation of Greenbean and hope it shall benefit our European users.
We thank Kottizen for the donation of Greenbean and hope it shall benefit our European users.
Guess who’s back? Back again!
Feb 4th
Kyle previously joined the GeekShed staff back in late 2009 (original post) but he left to pursue other life interests. He has, though, realised that GeekShed is a pretty fantabulous place to be and is back with avengence.
We’re pleased to have such an experienced and friendly staff member back on the team.
We’re pleased to have such an experienced and friendly staff member back on the team.
Twitter in your channel
Jan 18th
GeekShed provides a twitter bot, aptly named “Twitter”, to provide you with a twitter feed in your channel. It’s very easy to use and doesn’t require that you give over your twitter login. Remember, GeekShed will never ask you for your Twitter login! To use it, follow these simple steps:
All of the commands below need to be done in a PM (private message) with the bot (Twitter).
!register fred asecretpassword
!pin fred asecretpassword 5984934
If this is successful, the bot will tell you so.
!addchan fred asecretpassword #fred
You can do this command again to add your twitter feed to more channels.
If you have any issues with this, please let us know in #help.
All of the commands below need to be done in a PM (private message) with the bot (Twitter).
Register with the bot
Send a PM to the IRC user “Twitter” with the !register command. The syntax of this is: !register <username> <password>. Username and password are the credentials you will use to log into the bot in future. An example of this is:!register fred asecretpassword
Allow the bot to read your twitter feed
When you register, you will be presented with a URL that you must go to and log into your twitter account. Click the “Allow” button and you will be given a PIN code. Now return back to the bot and use the !pin command to tell the bot what your PIN number is. The syntax of this is: !pin <usernam> <password> <pin>. An example of this is:!pin fred asecretpassword 5984934
If this is successful, the bot will tell you so.
Add your channel(s)
You can add up to 10 channels to the bot. You must be an op in a channel in order to add the bot to it. To make the bot announce your tweets in a channel, you need to use the !addchan command. This will make the bot join that channel if it’s not already in there. The syntax of this command is: !addchan <username> <password> <channel>. An example of this is:!addchan fred asecretpassword #fred
You can do this command again to add your twitter feed to more channels.
Tweet and wait
Due to the limitations of Twitter’s API, the bot looks for new tweets every 60 seconds. Within 60 seconds of you tweeting, your tweet will show up in all of the channels you have added.Other commands
You can delete your account and remove the bot from a channel using other commands in the bot. PM the bot “!help” to see these commands.If you have any issues with this, please let us know in #help.