Channel Rules

Yes, it is no fun, but every channel has its own rules, and we are no exception. Please adhere to these, so everyone can have an enjoyable time in our channel.

Ask questions once. Be complete and concise.
Be polite. Listen. Above all, be nice.

Please use English here - s'okay if not well.
Do not use 31337sp33k, and please do not YELL!

No colors, no blinking, italics or bold.
We've given you warning - a kick is foretold.
-- By sachac

No colors in the channel

This includes bold, underline and background colors, and especially BLINK (this has not been made blinking on request of some operators, but click here to experience the annoyance of blinking text). They are too distracting and annoying.

No profanity

#linuxhelp is a family channel. Show respect to other chatters.

No parroting

Do not repeat yourself over and over again. We all can read, and when someone knows and is willing to help you, he will help you. When you do not get an answer, that simply means no-one knows, or those who know simply do not have the time, or are not in the mood to help. We are all volunteers!

No private messages

Do not send any private messages to anyone (/msg king_Op useless waffle). That is considered rude, and it is annoying when everyone sends private messages to a channel operator. Think about it: 10 operators, and 140 users in the channel who message them privately. You do not want that to happen to yourself either, do you? When an operator thinks the situation needs private, he will take you into private. Besides, when you ask in public, you have more chance of being replied to, and more people can help you. This also includes /query king_op

No scripts

Do not run scripts in our channel. This includes !seen and !ping scripts and on-join invitations or messages. Our channel bot has a seen command, you can /msg LadyByte seen $nick to inquire from the bot if she has seen the nick. You can ping one of the bots (X, LadyByte or HellHound) to see if you are lagged.

No channel-wide CTCP requests

This includes ping requests. They are considered annoying and rude. Also, if you feel the need to know what IRC client someone is using, ask...do not /ctcp version the user.

No advertising of any kind

This includes invitations to other channels. This also includes bashing of any kind.

No ban evasions, no floodnets, no attacks

When you are banned, do not try to evade the ban. You have been rightly punished, and you have to learn of it. Live with it. Evasions will only lengthen the ban duration. No flooding or channel attacks either. (D'oh!) If you need to paste huge amounts of text in order to be helped, use the Paste bin.

No hitting on the women

Treat people with respect. And yes, this includes women. And yes, there are women in #linuxhelp.

No nick stealing

This includes operator impersonation. This is disrespectful.

Do not abuse the bots

Publicly using the bot over and over again is annoying and might cause the bot to have to queue responses. This could cause the bot to lag. The bot recognizes commands in private and will reply to you in private. This saves the channel overhead.

No off-topic subjects

This includes cracking, warez and politics. They have their own channels. Do not talk about them in #linuxhelp.

No stubby sentences

This is where people try and speak really short sentences, like:

lamenick: By the way
lamenick: I don't know what
lamenick: to do about this
lamenick: I'm really confused

Get the idea? It wastes screen space, and people get sick of it pretty quickly. Besides which, if you put TOO many sentences into the channel, you might get banned for flooding. What a waste, eh?

Speak English

#linuxhelp is an English channel. There may be non-native English speakers, but the majority speaks and knows English. If you do not know English, try it anyway. We might refer you to another Linux channel in the language of your preference. But do not keep talking foreign languages in #linuxhelp.