Earthblot terms and policies. Last updated December 23rd, 2007 11:08 AM CST (2007-12-23 11:09 AM)

Our goal is NOT to take away your rights! All this page does is explain your freedoms and make sure Earthblot is not taken down by idiots who we would be unable to protect against. The rules on this page are entirely obvious to anyone who’s ever done anything online, and are mostly here to refer to in case a formal guide is required.

Purpose

Earthblot was originally created by Irayo as a tiny chat server for talking with friends and discussing technology and programming. It has grown from there to a small network. As with any IRC network, users are free to create their own channels and maintain them on their own without any operator consent.

Channels

In no way will Earthblot force the closure of a channel, except when required by law, or when it is known that the channel has been used for illegal purposes, such as the spreading of copyrighted material, etc. Earthblot is not a place for “warez,” hacks, illegal torrents, or any other illegal activity.

There is no official naming scheme for channels, though it is advised that channels be named something useful for easier access. Channels with invalid characters will most likely be deleted, as will channels with words that may be offensive to some.

IRC operators cannot help you with a stolen channel name unless your channel is registered or they know you personally. It is advised that you register your channel for this reason. An operator can help you to do this.

The creation of channels for spam is prohibited, as well as “channel flooding” (that is, creating a ton of empty channels for the purpose of advertising, or for any other reason than to actually use those channels for chat), unless you have permission from a server administrator.

Connecting to a different server on the network or disabling/enabling your virtual host mask to get around a channel ban is not allowed. Bans are given for a reason; talk with the channel owner rather than trying to get around them.

Channel ownership

Channels are “owned” (that is, used, maintained and moderated) by the groups or individuals who created them. Earthblot takes no responsibility for any messages sent or any data produced in channels not explicitly owned by Earthblot (for example, #jcink is not owned by Earthblot). The network may at any time, in its sole discretion, regardless of any past activities in the channel, force any sort of ban, closure, or suspension, or any other type of punishment they deem acceptable, on any channel of the network, in such event that punishment is necessary and valid (that is, if the channel is violating the law or helping to violate the law, we will remove it from the server). Users may challenge an action taken by contacting an IRC administrator.

Because Earthblot does not moderate most channels, we cannot unban you from a channel without proper identification as one of its founders, nor perform any other sort of mode override on the channel except when they believe it is necessary to do so. Earthblot promises that they will never perform a “hostile takeover” of a channel unless that channel violates one of the rules set forth in this document or in any other applicable network rules list; in the event that they do abuse their powers, the offending network administrators will be suspended and possibly lose privileges permanently.

Behavior in channels

Each channel is free to set their own rules, in which case the rules in this section will not apply. In most cases, a violation of a channel rule will not get you disconnected or banned from the network–usually just the channel itself. However, if extreme violations are reported in multiple channels, Earthblot staff can, at any time, choose to ban any user from the network.

In general, it is advisable to have no more than three “clones” in a channel. A “clone” is another IRC client that is run by you. For example, two clones could be observed by connecting both a laptop and a regular computer to the network and joining the same channel. Many people do not like clones as most of the time, clones are idle users. Having an excessive number of clones can also waste everyone’s bandwidth.

Extreme language is frowned upon by many users and as such should be used with caution in most channels (especially public network channels).

Talking in languages other than English is encouraged in channels that are intended for that language, or in multilingual channels, but some channels may prefer to remain English-only, and talking in another language may irritate some channel members. The public channels on Earthblot are all multilingual, though finding an operator who speaks your language could be a challenge.

Those who spam in a channel are likely to be kicked or banned from that channel. Those who spam in many channels are likely to be kicked or banned from the network.

Again, the rules set forth in this section are general defaults for channels which do not have their own explicit ruleset. You must remember that the operators of channels on Earthblot are free to do whatever they want in their channel, and the administrators of the network cannot help you here.

Channel forwards

Earthblot staff may create a channel forward if and when they feel it is necessary. User requests for channel forwards will be taken into consideration, though the reason must be valid. Earthblot will not forward #harharhar to #hehehe, but may choose to forward #earthblot.net to #earthblot, for example. Forwards to nearly-empty channels will not be accepted; channel forwards will only be created to channels which contain a reasonable number of people who could discuss the forwarded topic.

User names and nicknames

There is no enforced policy regarding nicknames or usernames; however, Earthblot IRC staff reserve the right to ban any nickname or username that they so choose for any non-name-related reason. To discuss a ban, please contact the Earthblot staff by e-mail or in IRC.

Impersonating a service (NickServ, ChanServ) or network administrator or operator is also not allowed, due to possible confusion and/or “phishing” attacks, and your connection will most likely be killed from the server.

Advertising

Advertising for any commercial reason is prohibited.

Advertising of other IRC networks or servers is frowned upon, especially advertising your own network, except for the purpose of suggesting an IRC server link to the network, or unless advertising a specific, active channel on a popular IRC network (for example, #gentoo on freenode.

Host cloaks, etc.

Host cloaks (virtual hosts) will be provided for users who own the domains they are cloaking. We will also provide cloaked hostnames in the form “cloak.<username>” for those who would like to hide their DNS hostname.

Please request a host cloak through HostServ!

Remember that disabling/enabling your virtual host mask to get around a channel ban is not allowed.

Logs and Privacy

Earthblot as a network does not keep any logs of any channel conversations or private messages. Passwords are encrypted on the server and cannot be retreived by any administrator. While specific users (including administrators) may log a channel or a private conversation with that administrator, the server does not do this, as it would be a severe violation of their right to privacy. To put it simply, your channel will not be logged unless someone who is in the channel logs it. Because you cannot know when someone in the channel is logging, it is always a good idea to use private messages when discussing important information such as passwords.

It is important to note that Earthblot is also linked with the Lostmoment network, outside of the United States. Policies regarding rights to privacy only apply to clients in the US and who are connecting to a US-based Earthblot server. Earthblot cannot vouch for the security of transmissions taking place over the ocean or in other countries. In addition, IRC is not encrypted by default. To help with anonymity and security, we do allow the use of Tor proxies–that is, until they are over-abused.

It is also important to realize that network operators and administrators cannot rely solely on channel or private message logs, when those logs have been sent to them by Earthblot clients. These logs could be fake or modified in some form from the original conversation. Operators and administrators are, however, allowed to use logs that they have collected themselves when determining punishments. However, with a sufficient amount of other proof, client-submitted logs can prove useful in tracking a violation of the rules, so it should never be assumed that an operator will not accept your logs of a particular incident.

In certain cases, when asked by a client of Earthblot, a network administrator may join a channel to keep logs in case of a dispute at a later point in time–like a witness to a conversation.

Behavior towards Earthblot staff

We hope, but do not require, that all users are polite when talking to Earthblot staff. We understand that having your nick or channel stolen might make you angry, but we will be much more likely to want to help you if you’re cheery about it. In most cases, the staff of Earthblot is not at fault. Earthblot staff, like all other users, have the right to ignore any user using extreme language or assaulting them verbally. However, Earthblot staff will not ban a user from the network for this.

Bans

In the first six months of service, Earthblot did not have to ban any user, host, or IP from the network. However, if you are banned, please keep some things in mind.

First of all, you were probably banned for a very good reason. You should have been warned by a network operator before being banned unless it was very critical that you be banned immediately. Check the rules above and make sure you didn’t violate any of them.

Second, claiming that “you didn’t know it was against the rules” isn’t an excuse. These rules are basic and general and can be viewed at any time on the server using /rules. The basic rules are linked from the login message.

If you were not warned, or if you think that you were banned in error, please contact Earthblot administration at admin @ earthblot . net. Circumventing a ban is NOT the proper response and will get you banned again.

Website and Logo

All images and content on this website, including those in the background, the logo, the sidebar link script, the stylesheet, color scheme and layout are Copyright © 2006-2007 Irayo and Earthblot IRC. All rights are reserved. Anyone using this content will face a harsh warning, and most likely a ban from the network until the offending images are removed. Legal action will be taken if the content is not removed in a reasonable amount of time.

Lostmoment

Earthblot IRC network is currently linked with another network, Lostmoment. It is important to note that all rules that apply on Lostmoment also apply here; likewise, since the networks are linked, a violation of an Earthblot IRC policy may result in a warning or ban even if you’re connected to Lostmoment. The rules of both networks apply, but they are very similar.

Changes to these policies

These policies may change at any time. Check back for periodic updates. Users will not be e-mailed by Earthblot staff regarding changes to this document unless specifically requested.