Channel Rules (For Everyone)
Our Acceptable Use Policy
Thousands of people have played our games, from countries all around the
world, at many different times of the day and the night. In order to make
sure that everyone has a good time, we have formulated the following rules
which lay out guidelines for proper behaviour from all the users of our
game channels. With so many games running, it is impossible to
monitor all the channels all the time. Therefore, we rely on the operators
to enforce the rules, particularly the rules regarding language and conduct
on the channel. The games are designed to be family-friendly, which means
we do have restrictions on language and content, for the comfort and
enjoyment of all.
Channel operators are users entrusted to maintain order on the channel as
well as to correct errors and notify the administration in the event of errors
or mishaps. If you think someone is abusing their operator privileges or
perhaps using them to cheat, please feel free to contact Eingang with
details of the problem.
- Respect
- The most important rule for our game channels is that all people on the
channel must be treated with respect, be they just
regular game players, operators, game hosts ('bots), or game
administrators. Treating people with respect means being polite,
obeying the rules, and contributing in a positive way to a healthy
channel atmosphere.
If you find yourself in a position where you are being verbally
attacked, flooded, or otherwise harassed, please ask the offending party
to cease. If they fail to cease, make use of the /ignore user@host -all
command to ignore any message, public or private, coming from them and
report to the problem to one of the game channel operators. Do not
bother to respond to the person.
If you have a fight to pick with another user, please do it off channel
or in private messages. Respecting other people means letting them
enjoy the game without being subject to any personal problems you might
have with other users. This would, of course, include any slights
aimed at people on the basis of the colour, religion, sex, or age.
- Profanity
- The games are meant to run in a "family" atmosphere, which means,
ideally, no profanity or vulgarity at all. The users on the channel
range in age from 10-80+. While the majority of us are adults and can
handle language that is a little blue, it would be better to keep such
language to a minimum. Going hand in hand with this is a caveat on
language of a sexual nature. Vulgar comments or comments of a sexual
nature are prohibited. This injunction also extends to the development
of categories for any of the games.
The profanity rules do not constitute a violation of the American
Constitution regarding free speech. The rules for free speech only
apply to printed materials and areas of public congress. With these
games, the administrators are inviting you into a private space and
therefore are exempt from the rules regarding free speech. If you find
their rules intolerable, you do not have to visit their "home."
We recognize that, at times, the game can be extremely frustrating.
We would like to suggest that you make use of the following
fun and clean expletives to express your displeasure: Krunk!
Aaaargh! Ack! Wok?! Eep! Krunkola!
- Channel Language
- The official language of all the game channels is English. Unless
the game category calls for something in a foreign language (in
trivia or Chaos), all conversation on the channel and answers submitted
to the bot should be English. Derivatives of English, such as
Singlish, are frowned upon. The games are open to people from all
over the world, so be friendly! Use proper English!
- Category Complaints
- Please refrain from complaining about the Americo-centric
categories. The games have been running for a number of years
now and most of the original players who contributed categories
were from North America, which does the tilt the balance of
play in their favour. Complaining about it, however, does not
do anything and just annoys the other players. Instead of
complaining, why not check out the category writing FAQ and
write your own categories for inclusion in the game? This is
a much more productive action than just complaining.
- Operators
- The operators are on the channel to ensure that the game
runs smoothly. Operators are drawn from the pool of regular
players. Asking an operator to op you is pointless and
futile. If you are a regular IRC user, you probably already
know how annoying it is to be constantly asked for access
on a channel. If you are interested in becoming a channel
operator, check out the FAQ on how to become a operator and
apply!
- Game bots and Errors in the Game
- The game bots are programs, albeit programs with some
degree of sophistication. The game bots have no idea
of what is really right and what is really wrong. All
they can go by is what was programmed into them by
the category writer. Therefore, when the bot claims that
the answer is "Aplpe" instead of "Apple," there is not
much point in abusing the bot about it. Often channel
operators will fix your score in such cases. If not,
you yourself can report the problem using the "/msg
botname /note answer x in category y should be answer z"
so that it will be eventually fixed. Please do not
bother to message one of the channel operators to reset
your score. If they are paying attention, they will
likely fix your score without prompting.
- Flooding
- Flooding is defined as the rapid dumping of material to the channel or
to other users via private messages, or repeated ctcp commands aimed at
another user. Flooding often includes dumping ASCII art pictures to
the screen, large pieces of conversations, textfiles, repeated pinging,
etc. With the advent of colours in Ircle, mirc, and Pirch, dumping
large amounts of coloured text to the channel can also be construed as
flooding. We would request that you keep the use of colours to a
minimum, since not all clients support colour.
- Bot Commands
- Most of the commands that can be issued to the game bots on a channel
can also be sent to the bot via a private message. Repeatedly issuing
"show scores", "show categories," etc. on the channel can be annoying.
Use the /msg command instead to accomplish the same thing.
- Idling
- Idling on the game channels is not permitted except by the game
administrators and the game show hosts ('bots). Most of the channels
have a restriction on the number of users allowed on at a time. If you
are idling there, you are probably preventing other users from
playing.
- Cheating
- Cheating often depends on the game being played. In general, however,
the use of scripts to provide answers to trivia questions, solve Boggle
boards, or provide Chaos category answers would be construed as cheating.
There are some scripts around to help you play the games, such as the
Boggle script and the IRC Game Machine (IGM). These scripts do not
store answers of any kind, and thus are permitted. In a game such as Acro,
cheating would include collaborating with other players on your acryonym
expansion, using multiple nicknames or logins, or exchanging information
about authorship of acronyms for the purposes of gaining points. For all
the games, using multiple logins or multiple accounts to play is considered
cheating as is using a search engine to look up material or keeping lists
of answers. Cheating does not make the game fun for other people and, if
you are caught, can be embarrassing and will result in a ban from all of
the games. (See also the discussion of this in
April, 2000's EinLetter.
)
- Revealing Answers
- In the trivia games, there are moments when it is inappropriate to
reveal the answer to a question, especially during the final round
and during a steal. Please pay close attention to the status of the
game before typing your answer.
- Giving Up
- In the trivia games, it is possible to say "we give up" and have
the 'bot go on to the next questions. The 'bots all ignore repeated
"we give up" commands from the same user for the same question; so
only say it once. Secondly, it is better to have a concensus
on the channel before giving up; try asking if it is OK to give up
before issuing the command.
- Electronic Terrorism
- This category of behaviour includes nuking, sending people viruses
or other programs when they join the channel, and spamming for other
channels, networks, games, or anything that doesn't have to do with
our games. In the case of nuking, firewall logs will be collected and
sent to your ISP and you will be banned from all of the games. If
you're auto-dccing people files when they join, you'll be told to
stop and will be banned until you do so. You may be directed to
an appropriate help channel on viruses or IRC for instruction on how
to do this. If you're spamming inappropriately, you'll be asked to
stop and banned if you fail to stop.
All interactions are logged and will be monitored in the event of a
complaint. Please abide by the guidelines. Repeated violations of the
guidelines will likely result in a global banning from all the game
channels with little or no warning. Permanent channel bans for any user
are the right of the game administrators.
Finally, if you have any complaints or questions about the
channel guidelines, please contact one of the channel operators first and
then one of the game administrators (See the game FAQs for information on
contacting game administrators). We do want the games to be enjoyable
for everyone.
Michelle A. Hoyle
Accpetable Use Policy (Channel Rules),
Last modified: October 8, 2000
