[wp-hackers] IRC Problems

[Ryan Duff]

Anthony Cole wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm new to this list, but allow me to introduce myself. I've been
> hanging around in #wordpress for a while now, and I'm pretty active in
> those parts. A few of you probably know me, but more or less, I'm kind
> of new.
> 
> Now, over the past few months, something has gone horribly horribly
> wrong. As the reputation and size of the WordPress irc channel has
> grown, so has the need for moderation. The troll average has gone from
> every few months to every few weeks on average now. It's a total mess
> when they come in, because photomatt isn't usually around or tells us to
> just ignore them. Heck, I've even gotten lilo involved and I have him as
> saying that the channel policies we have are completely opposite of the
> freenode policies. photomatt told me that operators aren't meant to
> babysit channels, which, in a sense they are. The policy of freenode
> isn't not to have operators at all, it's just not to flash their
> operator privileges. We need to have some policy or appoint some
> operators to do something about this, because it's getting more and more
> out of hand.
> 
> Just this morning, we had a lively bunch of about five from the GNAA
> (troll group, google it) come in and just start DCC'ing everyone with an
> exploit, and it took me forever to get ahold of someone who could help.
> And there have been countless others as well. The karma feature was
> disabled on wpbot because of a 13 year old ADD spoiled brat with a
> Macbook Pro who kept bragging and eventually discovered the karma
> feature. And there have been more before that that deserved to be kicked.
> 
> I know this has been beaten to death time and time before, but something
> needs to be done about this once and for all. The wordpress irc channel
> is a trivial part of the wordpress community.
> 
> Regards,
> Anthony Cole
> aka lightdifference.


This has come up numerous times before and its the same thing...
photomatt says that #wordpress isn't for support so he really isn't
concerned with what goes on in there. It has even come up at meetups
before. I have tried numerous times to get it through their head that we
do need ops, for the sake of the channel and decency of the community
and he seems to care less.

There was at one point, a time where we did have a troll, and he did
give someone ops for about 2 days until the person ended up getting
banned from freenode.

This is why I have given up on #wordpress and the community in general.
His lack of care (for lack of a better term) is what drove me away.
Wordpress is a great product, but when the community goes to shit, well...

I used to be in the forums alot as well as on #wordpress and the mailing
lists.. since the meetup where we fought over ops and he still declined
to do anything about it... I have pretty much dropped myself off the
map. From what I've read in the forums and the mailing list, I know
there are others that have taken similar actions and removed themselves
from the community.

Matt, if you're reading this... for the sake of the community, please
try to understand that giving ops isn't asked for as a status issue, but
for the good of the community.

Previously we have gone through the issues of how to pick people and how
it will work... please solicit 5-10 long-time active participants in
#wordpress and see if they will volunteer. I know most aren't around all
the time, but if you get a group of 5 that agree, someone should be
active at most times.

-- 
Ryan Duff
http://ryanduff.net
AIM: ryancduff
irc.freenode.net #wordpress #plogger