On 19 May 2021, freenode was taken over by an abusive troll named
Andrew Lee (rasengan)... As a result references to freenode below
refer to freenode as it existed before 19 May 2021. (or its
successor libera.chat from that day onward).
Links to the freenode website have been replaced with the
archive.org snapshot from September 2020.


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IRC (except freenode) is dying from incompetent channel operators
September 12th, 2020
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=> According to Pingdom, Internet Relay Chat has lost around 60% of its

users (and a similar percentage of channels since 2003...


I am of the opinion that on at least one of the traditional big-four
networks, UnderNet, it's mostly because of incompetence on the part of
channel owners.  On UnderNet, channel operators often leave their
channels on moderated mode +m for years on end and do not voice new
users to their channel in a timely manner, the X user level 25 of
"trusted channel regular" is basically never used either...

Additionally many channels on UnderNet that would otherwise be good are
allowing well-known trolls to have free reign of the channel, which is a
great way to ensure new users bail quickly.


Meanwhile while UnderNet declines, freenode grows leaps and bounds, the
biggest difference I see between the two networks is that freenode
actually encourages communications and discourages trolls; typically
without doing silly stuff such as leaving channels on moderation for
years on end.


UnderNet channels could really do a few things to help themselves out:

=>

1. Read freenode's channel guidelines and modify them to their channel's

   specific needs, and actually follow them.

=>

2. Read freenode's catalyst guidelines and modify them to their

   channel's specific needs, and actually follow them.
3. Take your fucking channel off of +m mode when there isn't active
   trolling or botspam occurring; consider using +r instead.
4. If you find yourself using +m mode more than a few hours a day, you
   need level 25s in your channel to voice people, your stupid bots and
   UnderNet's services (X) are not reliable enough to do it on their
   own.
5. Ditch the trolls. Seriously, if Rocz, Gamertony, OldOneEye, or any
   other troll that nearly everyone on the network knows from a decade
   back is an active member of your channel, then you are probably not
   a good operator.
6. Consider if you channel actually has anything to do with its primary
   topic... For example, if your channel is about a well known

=> /political/ science fiction series, but you ban all conversations of

   politics, you're the epitome of an incompetent channel operator.
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Comments have been left on this post:

amen. a troll took over efnet #Amiga a few years ago and kicked all the 
mods. he was a seriously satanic pommy too, pmming you and trying to 
enlist you. the mods were simply lax.They had it coming.
Posted Sun Sep 20 02:15:06 UTC 2020 by 89.45.90.46
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