Date: Tue, 02 May 2000 17:28:54 -0700 From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@zippy.cdrom.com> To: John Papalia <john@jpepconsulting.com> Cc: "Jeremiah Gowdy" <jgowdy@home.com>, smkelly@slashnet.org, insane@lunatic.oneinsane.net, advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD and IRC Message-ID: <19128.957313734@localhost> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 02 May 2000 20:00:57 EDT." <4.3.1.2.20000502195211.00aa9100@mail.jpepconsulting.com>
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> If the channel is NOT associated with the Project, get the FAQ changed. Actually, what the FAQ states is pretty clear though I'll repeat it here since I think people have, nonetheless, lost the thread: From http://www.freebsd.org/FAQ/preface.html#AEN210: Q: Are there FreeBSD IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channels? A: Yes, most major IRC networks host a FreeBSD chat channel: Channel #FreeBSD on EFNet is a FreeBSD forum, but don't go there for tech support or to try and get folks there to help you avoid the pain of reading man pages or doing your own research. It is a chat channel, first and foremost, and topics there are just as likely to involve sex, sports or nuclear weapons as they are FreeBSD. You Have Been Warned! Available at server irc.chat.org. Channel #FreeBSD on DALNET is available at irc.dal.net in the US and irc.eu.dal.net in Europe. Channel #FreeBSD on UNDERNET is available at us.undernet.org in the US and eu.undernet.org in Europe. Since it is a help channel, be prepared to read the documents you are referred to. Each of these channels are distinct and are not connected to each other. Their chat styles also differ, so you may need to try each to find one suited to your chat style. As with *all* types of IRC traffic, if you're easily offended or can't deal with lots of young people (and more than a few older ones) doing the verbal equivalent of jello wrestling, don't even bother with it. ---- All of the above text goes well out of its way to state several times that IRC is not a tech support medium and that if you're easily offended and/or can't deal with abuse, you shouldn't be in IRC in the first place. This whole thread started as a result of someone complaining about the treatment he got when he attempted to use it as such, after all, and I really don't know how we could possibly have made the FreeBSD project's position on IRC or our total lack of responsibility for it any clearer. It's in the FAQ, for chrissake. More to the point, I REALLY don't understand why the user in question took this question up on the freebsd-advocacy mailing list at all. It's like going into the local police station to demand that they force your sister to share her candy with you at home. The officers in question might get a good chuckle out of it the first time, but after 2 or 3 repetitions the whole act would get pretty old and they'd phone your mother to request that you not be allowed out by yourself again in public. The analogy is apt given that we get somebody whining about IRC in this or other freebsd mailing lists about once every 3 months or so, often enough that we went to the trouble to write that FAQ entry about it. If their mother's phone numbers were available, we might go that route too. To put it another way, do not expect the readers of this list to be somehow able to social-engineer EFNET's #freebsd channel into being kinder, gentler or more socially responsible FreeBSD advocates. It's an unachievable and thankless task and a frankly foolish thing to ask of the FreeBSD project. One might just as well ask the readers of this list to capture a Somali warlord or bring a permanant and lasting peace in Northern Ireland while they're wishing for impossible things from inappropriate groups of people. - Jordan To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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