Forum:IRC channel reform

Hello, I'm K6ka, the IRC contact for the wiki. As you may or may not already know, the wiki has an IRC channel on the freenode network, but aside from name and policy, that's where the similarities pretty much end.

The IRC channel is about as separate from the wiki as it can be. Many of the users that frequent IRC seldom or do not edit The Sims Wiki. Some of our administrators use IRC, but often sporadically. And this is where I must point out a fairly serious problem with the IRC channel as wiki activity declines sharply:


 * Currently, as it stands now, we have four tiers of channel operators : non-admin ops, admin ops, bureaucrat ops, and the channel contact.
 * Non-admin ops are users who are not administrators on the wiki, but have been granted the ability to use chanop tools on the channel. Currently, their powers are limited to only being able to kick, ban, and set quiets on disruptive users.
 * Admin ops are users who are administrators on the wiki. Per policy, administrators on-wiki are implicitly chanops on the channel as well. They have all the powers that non-admin ops have, plus the ability to modify the channel topic.
 * Bureaucrat ops are users who are bureaucrats on the wiki. Per policy, bureaucrats on-wiki are implicitly chanops on the channel as well. They have all the powers that admin ops have, plus the ability to modify the channel's access list and to set various control flags that can affect the way the channel operates.
 * The channel contact is the most highly-trusted user on the IRC channel. They are given the "founder" flag and are responsible for maintaining the channel and keeping it well tended.

Our current system, thus, is very centered around the wiki and operates with the belief that administrators and bureaucrats on the wiki will be very active on and proficient with using IRC. This may have been the case in the past, back when the IRC channel (and the wiki in general) was a lot younger and livelier, but it isn't anymore. For one thing, quite a bit of our activity comes from users who are not administrators or bureaucrats, and do not edit the wiki on a regular basis (or at least, not anymore). Meanwhile, many of our on-wiki administrators and bureaucrats are slipping into retirement, either having lost interest in The Sims, or are moving on with life. From my observations, it's easier to stick with an IRC channel than it is a wiki, and with our current system, bureaucrats that have the permissions needed to keep the IRC channel's future alive are fast diminishing.

The IRC channel, in other words, is essentially being affected by a problem outside of its control, through no fault of its own. With the wiki and the IRC channel being so separate as they are now, it makes no sense that, if the wiki falls silent, the channel must go with it.


 * So what do you propose, then?


 * Local administrators and bureaucrats should not be automatically given chanop. This is already *unofficially* done to a degree; when I was made administrator, I didn't become chanop until several months later, mostly because I didn't want it. In practice, I always ask new admins wishing to become chanops whether or not they actually want ops, and if they do, I ask them if they have read up on the many IRC guides out there, but I still have a feeling this is not enough. From my observations, the only admins that are at least proficient with IRC are Wogan and me; all others are not exactly experienced even with things like setting bans and quiets, and I definitely do not want them answering newbie IRC questions. Also, we're having fewer and fewer active admin chanops, and recently the vast majority of operator actions on the channel have been from non-admin chanops (excluding actions that I took). Shifting the dependency on admin chanops away from the channel will be good for its health in the future.
 * Flags normally reserved for admin/bureaucrat chanops only should be made available to non-admin chanops. Like what I said above, what's the point of giving admin chanops all these permissions when they do not know how to use them? If many of them can't set channel bans without using client-based commands I'm not sure if I can trust them to use some of ChanServ's commands, which can seriously damage the channel if misused.

With the latter point in mind, I want to revamp the chanop hierarchy system for the channel and make it less dependent on a user's on-wiki status and more about how trusted and knowledgeable they are in IRC. The current system is listed at The Sims Wiki:IRC Channel Operators. Here are the new hierarchies I propose:


 * HalfOp (Flags +AVeiorv)
 * Can kick, ban, and quiet disruptive users
 * Can op, deop, voice, and devoice themselves at any time
 * Set any channel modes not under an mlock
 * Invite themselves to the channel using ChanServ's invite command
 * Use ChanServ's unban command to unban themselves
 * Op (Flags +AVeiortv) — can do everything a halfop can do, as well as:
 * Modify the channel topic
 * SuperOp (Flags +ARVefiorstv) — can do everything a halfop and an op can do, as well as:
 * Use ChanServ's recover, sync, and clear commands
 * Modify the channel access list (So they may appoint new chanops and remove existing ones. They can also add and remove voiced users)
 * Set and unset ChanServ control flags on the channel (This includes modifying mlock)

The biggest change is the naming of the hierarchies, so that they are no longer dependent on on-wiki statuses. This means that there should be separate processes for attaining chanop on the IRC channel, and simply being an administrator is not enough to automatically get ops. This also means that non-administrator ops can acquire more permissions on the channel (In the event of my prolonged absence, I wouldn't mind a trusted non-admin op becoming the new IRC contact). Secondly, auto-op is not enabled by default, unlike the old system where only administrators were automatically given ops by ChanServ upon joining the channel. Any chanop who wishes to be auto-opped can simply request a SuperOp or the IRC contact for it to be added without further discussion. I also want to implement this change in order to weed out ops that don't know how to manually op themselves on the channel, see the section below.


 * How do we "grandfather" in existing users?

That is a good question. I want to put it out there very clearly that users who are not experienced with IRC should not have chanop. Basically, if you can't set bans, can't change channel modes, can't change the channel topic, don't understand the difference between an IRC network and an IRC channel, don't understand the difference between a kick and a disconnect, don't know how to use NickServ's ghost command, and don't know how to use ChanServ's op, deop, voice, and devoice commands, then you really shouldn't be chanop, because being a chanop requires that you know about these things. However, I also don't want to go and "cleanse" out all admin chanops, so I would like some input on what to do with them.

This is obviously a very significant change that is going to affect a small number of users on the wiki, but it's really time that the IRC channel gained some independence from the wiki.

So, thoughts? (Feel free to ask any question about IRC if you do not know what a term means, because I am aware that 99% of the users on this wiki haven't even heard of IRC) — k6ka  🍁 ( Talk ·  Contributions ) 21:49, June 2, 2016 (UTC)


 * Notes