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Drama & Politics
- Conflicts that happen
- People banned, fighting, name-calling, etc.
Sources
- http://nykida.net/2010/01/uniting-the-community-reviving-ti/
- David Ellsworth and Bryan Rabeler Calc-TI mailing list posts
- http://tcpa.calc.org/main/oldnews1.shtml
- http://irc.ticalc.org
#ti Netiquette.
As per the request of an unnamed 0wner, I decided to devote a part of the FAQ to netiquette in #ti. There are things you should and should not do.
Don't do what Donny Don't does.
Donny Don't asks for the ROM images of calculators in the channel. ROMs are illegal to distribute because it's the copyrighted code of Texas Instruments. Watching approximately 428394701928742093871208947129874281472389748673967342987234 newbies flood with "GIMME 85 ROMZ OR EYE SHALL H4X0R J00 WIT A SPORK, RASTANB00YEZ" gets rather annoying after approximately 1 second so we tend to greet this sort of behavior with an unwelcome reception.
Donny Don't uses colors.
Donny Don't uses bold or underline in excess.
Donny Don't uses reverse.
Donny Don't uses lame nicknames. You know who you are.
Donny Don't asks for ops before having frequented the channel for three months, at least.
Donny Don't floods the channel with requests to be msg'ed about calculator-related topics.
Donny Don't sets timers all the time.
Donny Don't asks the same questions twice in a ten-minute span.
Donny Don't defies the ops when they tell him to type "/quit newbie-status" to remove the newbie flag on an IRC server.
For a long time, EFnet #calc-ti has been the primary center for TI
calculator discussion on Internet Relay Chat (IRC). It was founded early in
'96 primarily by two people, known as "perki" and "Intel" on IRC. As time
went on, more and more people began to frequent #calc-ti. At this point in
time there are dozens of people who visit the channel every day.
During its lifetime, #calc-ti has gone through many shifts in
administration. Originally the channel was held by bots set up by its
founders. They chose which people should be given ops. Some ops contributed
their own bots to the channel. As the channel grew, it became necessary to
improve its organization; the eggdrop bots were joined into a sharebot
network. All the people running the bots which were accepted into the
network were given "owner" status. I will also refer to this as
"administrator" status.
It takes a certain amount of responsibility to be a good IRC bot
administrator. It is a cooperative effort. One should be able to work well
with the other owners, and to use objective judgment in choosing who should
be given ops, given "owner" status, and in the worst cases, who should be
deopped, banned, or de-ownered. Bot administrators must also maintain the
bots when it is necessary to do so, making sure that they run smoothly in
tandem.
Unfortunately, one particular owner demonstrated repeatedly that he did not
have what it takes to be a responsible bot administrator. He often made
decisions based largely on spur-of-the-moment anger, without consulting
with the other bot administrators first. Decisions such as banning people
because he didn't like them, even when they did not disrupt the channel or
offend any other people in any way. Decisions such as opping and deopping
people when he damn well felt like it, without talking to the other
administrators.
He was one of the original founders of #calc-ti. He is known by the
nickname "Intel".
Eventually the other administrators decided that they needed to do
something about this. They revoked Intel's owner status, as well as his
ops. In response, he took over the channel by force. After a while the
situation became such that he was given back his privileges: a second
chance. But, this cycle repeated several times; Intel was given several
chances to change, and yet it never lasted.
Recently, establishing the most recent cycle, Intel was given ops, but no
owners. This situation lasted for a surprisingly long time; it seemed that
#calc-ti might have finally become stable, as Intel made no attempts to
take over the channel. Recently however, Intel, feeling that he now could
do anything he wanted with his ops, went on doing the same old rash things
that he did before, like banning people on spur-of-the-moment anger.
Upon a unanimous decision (excluding one owner who is on summer vacation),
Intel's ops were removed, this time for good. He promptly proceeded to take
over the channel, using an previously overlooked security hole in one of
the bots. We have since plugged up this hole.
Apparently Intel feels that, since he participated in the founding of
#calc-ti, he should have absolute power on the channel. It seems now that
no matter how many times we deop him, reop him, de-owner him, re-owner him,
etc., he will continue to aim towards gaining what he feels he rightfully
deserves; namely, absolutely control of the #calc-ti channel on EFnet.
Due to several reasons, we have decided to permanently move to #ticalc.
#calc-ti will no longer be supported by our bots; they will no longer
attempt even to join the channel. From now on, #ticalc will be the primary
IRC channel for TI calculator discussion.
Background: Internet Relay Chat (IRC) has a strong tradition within the TI-calculator community, and multiple channels exist which help serve the needs of community members. However, these channels are spread apart, poorly advertised, and the user bases generally does not mix due to past grudges and misinformation spread about “rival” channels. The following is a partial list of currently known calculator-oriented channels:
While past attempts to create calculator-only channels have failed, we attribute that no advertising outside of #tcpa, and a general lack of community cooperation. Through effective leadership ensuring a safe and on-topic environment, encouragement of all programmers and users in a positive manner, and creating a place to share ideas, we believe that #ti can unite the community, while still keeping the distinctive site-oriented channels which are still active today.
Users seeking assistance would be directed to #ti in all situations, and through cooperation amongst current community leaders and forum moderators, we can make this channel successful once again.
We intend not to replace current channels, but to supplement them in a constructive fashion, where development and help can take place above partisan bickering.
DJ Omnimaga - January 1, 2008 07:46 AM (GMT)
Due to events happening in #tcpa in the past 2 years non stop involving slander, libel and defamation (false stuff said about me intended to ruin my reputation, and repeatdly to make me feel even more angrier, thus, not letting me any chance to restart a new reputation) against Omnimaga as a whole as well as myself, I have no choice but to block access from all #omnimaga users who also frequent #tcpa IRC channel on Efnet. We have got enough spies coming from there who only look at the negative happening in the IRC channel and report it in #tcpa to start anti-Omnimaga discussion, intended to convince me to shut down the entire site I've worked on for almost 4 years while contributing to the TI Community for 6 years and since it is getting impossible to detect them as people who thought who were nice spied we have no choice but to block everyone from this hateful channel.
That ban will last until further notice. Anyone known to visit #tcpa on Efnet who will join #omnimaga on unitedti.org will be banned.
If the anti-Omnimaga bashing doesn't stop within the next week in #tcpa, Omnimaga will cease to exist, forever.
Yeah such bot would be best kept for other channels like #thebot.
This is why when spam seems to last for a short while I try to make people stop because otherwise it gets out of control. This was nothing compared to what happened in 2006, though (Randomist and Cure777 got banned from #omnimaga, #unitedti, #lobby then G-lined from the Dragon-Fire network for endless spamming one night. The next year, Randomnist kept testing scripts and ignoring warnings to make him stop. He got banned from #omnimaga, #unitedti, #tcpa, #calcgames and I think even #cemetech. Getting banned from #omnimaga and #tcpa at the same time was something very rare.
Another thing I am noticing lately is that it seems people are kinda pushy about trying to make me change my way of running stuff like contests and rules. I even saw accusations that we were fighting against Cemetech on IRC, which is not even the case. I am starting to wonder if the later isn't partly due to the nick changes that occurs in #omnimaga sometimes. It can be seen as trolling elsewhere.
One of the main problems that has plagued the IRC channels within the TI community has been that the conversations have repeatedly been off-topic and the environment very critical. In particular, the environment was not really safe for beginners, as older members tended to discourage new programmers and users from asking questions; it was a negative atmosphere, and it really wasn't a safe place to share ideas.
(http://web.archive.org/web/20000524152759/http://tcpa.calc.org/main/oldnews1.shtml)
IRC Channel Takeover / Recovery May 16th, 2000
Tonight at 10:00 CST, our Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel (#tcpa on EFnet) became infultrated by Idiots. After our botnet went down, we lost our channel operator status, and Scott Noveck (the Prime Idiot of TI-Calculators) announced that our channel was opless to other IRC-goers in #ti. We were defenseless, and unable to recover our control of this widely-used and important method of communication; however, not all is lost. For the time being, we have committed to congregate in another channel (#tcpa2 on EFnet) while our primary one is unavailable. If you wish to join us in IRC, please head on over to #tcpa2 now, where our regular discussion of TI-Calculators and Assembly Programming will take place. Also, it would be a great help if anyone has the means to recover our channel for us, thanks…
Update: We recovered operator status in #tcpa at 10:30 CST. Thankfully, we now have our channel back to normal, and can resume our regular discussion and progress among our members, and other visitors in IRC. The new title for Scott Noveck still stands, and he will be referred by the name 'Prime-Idiot' from now on. This also goes to show us that there are people out there who are power-hungry, yet are so naïve to want to control an insignificant channel such as ours. This need for dominance only brings out their immaturity, lack of self-confidence, and weakness. We hope that You (reader) will do your part to obey proper 'netiquette', and respect other people. Only j00 can prevent IRC stupidity!
There is also a channel called #ti-files which contains discussion regarding the
Ti-Files website. #ticalc is the main TI calculator IRC channel though. They
are both on the EFNet IRC Network.
Ok, let me clear this one up really fast. I did take over the #ti-files
IRC channel a few times. That happened at least 15 months ago. I have
since learned my lesson and haven't done any obnoxious behavior on IRC
since then. The "bad atmosphere" that you refer to here is not caused
by the ticalc.org members. Most people on IRC know that #ti is the
place where most supporters of ticalc.org hang out. Well, I was the
only active member of the staff that hung out there. I tried to be as
kind as I could to the newbies. However, some of the other people,
mostly channel operators, were not. They would, and still do, ban newbies
if they ask stupid questions or appear to be annoying. These incidents
should not be blamed on me.
I noticed the following text was placed on the Ti-Philes web page:
Well, it seems that the ticalc.org crew has once again taken over
#TI-Files. Oh well, it seems that this is just standard procedure now.
This won't affect how this site
is just updated — we just thought you might like to know about the
relative maturity levels of the two sites.
I would just like to point out that ticalc.org in no way took over your
#ti-files channel. I know for a fact that some people that may like to
visit ticalc.org took it over, but no ticalc.org staff member took it
over. So please stop blaming the site itself for your problems.
Thanks.
—
Bryan Rabeler
gro.clacit|relebarb#gro.clacit|relebarb