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Ban management changes

Saturday, November 3rd, 2012 Write a comment

Here follows a message for our IRC operators, everyone else can safely skip on to the next exciting Planet Ubuntu article which is likely to make a heap more sense to you.

We have been using the Freenode eir utility bot for some time to assist with the management and administration of bans in the #ubuntu channel. There have been a number of issues around this which were discussed at our regular meetings, the overall conclusion was that it didn’t entirely fit our ban management requirement workflow. Some of our best bot-herders, Elián Hanisch and Terrence Simpson, have been working on a replacement tool that can be loaded into our primary utility bot, ubottu. This has been available for testing for a while in the #ubuntu-bots-test sandpit channel (and it is still there if you want to go and play with it).

The @comment command has been extended (in a backwardly compatible way) it can set the ban duration or comment several bans a the same time, the new syntax is:

@comment <id>[,<id> ...] [<comment>][, <duration>]

As you can see, the “duration” is whatever is behind the last comma, if the syntax is wrong then it will just comment the ban as always.

<duration> uses the time units years, months, weeks, days, hours and minutes, it uses fuzzy matching so you can write the partial word or just the first letter. The only clash is with ‘m’, so ‘M’ stands for month and ‘m’ for minute. If no unit is given it will default to seconds.

Duration examples:

1 month 2 weeks 5 min
1M 2w 5m
1M2w5m
(the 3 are equivalent)

Command examples:

@comment 123 this is a temporal ban, 2d
@comment 124,125,126 troll, ban evading, etc, 2 weeks
@comment 127 this ban will not expire, because no duration was given.

The <duration> part is not stripped from the comment, so it will show in the bantracker. And note that even though you can set a ban to expire in 1 minute, it will might take longer to be removed since the time between checks are 10 minutes apart.

To show or change the ban duration there is a new command @duration:

@duration [<id>[,<id> ...]] [<duration>]

It sets or changes the duration of a ban. If you don’t give a duration the bot will reply how much time the ban has left until is removed, if you don’t either give an id the bot will reply which bans are set to expire. If you use zero or a negative number as duration, the ban will be set to never expire.

Command examples:

@duration 123 2d
@duration 123,124,125 2 weeks

The bot will send a notification 10 minutes before removing a ban to the #ubuntu-ops-monitor control channel, so if you are in that channel you should get pinged by name.

In essence this tool allows us to set things like a “24 hour cooling off period” or a 1 month ban on a dynamic IP address and then have the ban removal automatically processed. This process works just as well on quiets as full channel bans if you want to mute a user for a set period to allow them to observe normal constructive conversation prior to participating in it again.

At the moment this new functionality of ubottu is only active in the #ubuntu channel, after a period of bedding in there we may well flick the switch to turn it on for our other core channels.

Filed under News from the IRCC |

 

Call for IRC Operators

Saturday, November 3rd, 2012 Write a Comment

With the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Copenhagen drawing to a close the Raring Ringtail development cycle kicks off in earnest, and our core IRC channels now support users of Ubuntu 12.10 the Quantal Quetzal. Our IRC channels provide excellent live, peer reviewed, technical support and information and are a great communication tool for the wider Ubuntu project. As well as people providing technical support we have a team of helpers who moderate the channels, maintaining a sense of order and decorum in line with the principals of the Ubuntu Code of Conduct by being catalysts and if all else fails using technical measures to exclude spammers and other sources of disruption. We like to kick off each cycle by inviting people to apply to join this team, following the application process for the channel they are most involved in from this list (links are to the relevant launchpad teams to apply to)

If you’re active on our IRC channels and you are available, and if you’ve been aching to help, you should consider applying! You might get your chance if:

  • You are great at resolving conflicts
  • You are very patient. Superhuman nerve control is a basic IRC operator feature
  • You can take criticism
  • You are happy when helping and advising others

In addition to the Code of Conduct http://www.ubuntu.com/community/conduct and our IRC Guidelines https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IRC/Guidelines, you are happy to also adhere to the Leadership Code of Conduct http://www.ubuntu.com/community/leadership-conduct and the Operator Guidelines https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IRC/IrcTeam/OperatorGuidelines

In general, please do not consider becoming an operator because it could be “fun”. It is not, it’s hard work. However, it is often quite rewarding, and you get to operate with a great team of people. You don’t need to be an IRC guru, but you do need to know enough to be able to learn more.

Please be aware that some applicants will not become operators for various reasons. This will not necessarily be because we think you would make a bad operator. Only a limited number of operators are ever needed, some timezones are better covered already than others, and so on. We are particularly interested in applications from people who are frequently online during the 00:00 UTC to 08:00 UTC timeframe. There are quite a few people who have already applied to a team, you don’t need to re-apply we will process all the pending applications.

IMPORTANT: Please follow the application process https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IRC/IrcTeam/OperatorRequirements and additionally note your available times on your wiki page. Having your wiki page listed on your LP page is also useful to aid us in finding your information.

We look forward to your applications!

Filed under News from the IRCC |

Rock on with UDS Raring Ringtail

Sunday, October 28th, 2012 Write a Comment

This week is the Ubuntu Developer Summit, where all the planning for the next release of Ubuntu happens. This cycle the gathering is in Copenhagen, the home of Lego, pastries, The Little Mermaid and bacon. If you are not going to be there in person, don’t worry because you don’t need to miss anything, you can recreate the atmosphere of being there simply by frying some Danish bacon, whilst listening to the sessions over the live streaming audio, and interacting with the people in the room over IRC.

The schedule for the week is online, please remember that if you are participating remotely you should not mark yourself as essential for anything but you can mark yourself as attending sessions and it will build up a calendar for you – things can and do get rescheduled to make sure that session leaders don’t have conflicts so be prepared for things to move about.

Each meeting will be allocated to a room, and each room has it’s own icecast stream and IRC channel. There is a link on the schedule to join the room IRC channel (it is a little speech bubble) but if you want to join them all in an IRC client then here is a handy cut and pasteable joining list:

/join #ubuntu-uds-b3-m1

/join #ubuntu-uds-b3-m10

/join #ubuntu-uds-b3-m2

/join #ubuntu-uds-b3-m3

/join #ubuntu-uds-b3-m4

/join #ubuntu-uds-b3-m5

/join #ubuntu-uds-b3-m6

/join #ubuntu-uds-b3-m7

/join #ubuntu-uds-b3-m8

/join #ubuntu-uds-b4-m5

/join #ubuntu-uds-b4-m6

/join #ubuntu-uds-b4-m7

Filed under News from the IRCC |

IRC Operator Training Classes

Friday, July 20th, 2012 Write a Comment

As part of our regular operator induction process we are running some classroom sessions on being an operator and our infrastructure, the first two classes in this series are:

26th July 17:00 UTC – Introduction to being an IRC operator
with instructor Miia Ranta (Myrtti)

2nd August 13:00 UTC – A grand tour of the channels and bots
with instructor Lorenzo J. Lucchini (LJL)

Both classes will start in the #ubuntu-classroom channel on freenode but may bounce about into other channels from there.

we would be delighted to have a strong attendance for these sessions, particularly from those operators who are new this cycle.

Filed under News from the IRCC |

Join the discussion in #ubuntu-discuss

Monday, June 25th, 2012 2 Comments

Today we are opening up a new IRC channel, #ubuntu-discuss, a place to chat about Ubuntu. This builds on our existing set of Ubuntu related channels

#ubuntu Our primary support channel. Here anyone can come and ask a question about their Ubuntu system and help other people with problems or issues they have running Ubuntu.

#ubuntu-offtopic This is our informal community cafe, where Ubuntu community members can relax and chat about anything (within sensible boundaries) Ubuntu related or not, from Rhythmbox to kittens.

#ubuntu-discuss Our new channel in the lineup, this is for discussions that are not support related but are about Ubuntu. These might include speculation about future directions, interesting products with Ubuntu pre-installed, the latest posts on planet Ubuntu or anything else that is Ubuntu related. Kitten discussions probably don’t belong here, unless the kitten in question is surprisingly adept on the command line.

This may prompt a few questions and we have tried to anticipate some of the most important ones, feel free to ask more in the comments:

Does this mean we can’t talk about Ubuntu in #ubuntu-offtopic?

No it doesn’t, we want to retain the relaxed atmosphere and chatty discussions of Ubuntu and everything else in #ubuntu-offtopic.

Does the IRC Council just hate kittens?

No, kittens are lovely, here is a picture of one just to prove how much we like them.

At what point should users get directed to #ubuntu-discuss?

If users in #ubuntu (or other channels) want to talk about Ubuntu rather than get help on an immediate support issue then either #ubuntu-offtopic or #ubuntu-discuss might be appropriate places to suggest for them. Use your judgement and personal preference on this. The “!discuss” factoid has been added to the bots.

When in #ubuntu-discuss, at what point do we direct people to #ubuntu-phone, #ubuntu-TV, etc?

If people have a query about a specific project or product then it would be great to inform them of the more focused channels that are available, however discussions of these products are totally within the scope of #ubuntu-discuss.

What if we can’t think of anything to say?

There will be links to articles on planet.ubuntu.com (and maybe some other interesting places) announced in the channel automatically to spark conversations.

Filed under News from the IRCC |

New IRC Operators

Tuesday, June 5th, 2012 Write a Comment

Following on from our previous call for operators, plus all the various applications to the channels that have been made over the past few years, we had a large number of operator applications. Quite a few were old applications or from people who are not currently active in the channels they applied for so there were a lot of “not this time” emails that got sent out. Sorry if you got one of those and really wanted to contribute as an operator, please feel free to apply again and if you are known as an active user and positive contributor to the channels you applied for then no doubt you will get accepted next time.

Congratulations to:

kkathman on becoming an op in #kubuntu-offtopic

bkerensa, cprofitt and djones on becoming ops in #ubuntu

chu on becoming an op in #ubuntu-offtopic

holstein, astraljava and scottl on becoming ops in #ubuntustudio

darkwing on becoming an op in #ubuntu-devel

and to all of our new operators on joining the ops team.

Filed under News from the IRCC |

Ubuntu IRC Council Position

Thursday, May 17th, 2012 1 Comment

There is currently an empty virtual seat on the IRC Council and we are now accepting nominations to fill it. If you are an Ubuntu Member with a competent technical knowledge of IRC, a passion for IRC and a willingness to help maintain effective governance of our IRC community then you could be the leader we are looking for.

The Process
You can read about the Charter and Appointment Process for the IRC Council here https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IRC/IrcCouncil
It starts with an open call for nominations (you are reading it now), applicants will make themselves known to the IRCC via an email to irc-council@lists.ubuntu.com and will fill out a wiki page outlining their work in the community and why they would be a good candidate.

The current IRCC will administer this process and at the end of the nomination period will provide a full list of applicants to the Community Council along with any feedback and comments for the CC to review.

The Community Council will set up a vote for the Ubuntu IRC Members to vote on qualified candidates

The Community Council will then finalise the appointment, which will be for a term of about 18 months, expiring concurrently with the sitting IRCC.

Timescales
Nominations are open now, until the end of May (midnight UTC to be precise, but don’t wait until then). There will be a short gap while feedback is considered and the vote is set up, then the vote will be open for 2 weeks.

Voting Details
Voting will be done by the Ubuntu IRC Members group using the Condorcet Internet Voting Service at http://www.cs.cornell.edu/andru/civs.html and we will be using the Schulze method for completion. The voting group is made up of people who have been awarded Ubuntu Membership and consider themselves stakeholders in our IRC system, if you think you should be in that group and are not then you do have time to apply for membership if you have made a significant and sustained contribution to the Ubuntu Project. If you are already an Ubuntu Member but not in that group then please contact a member of the IRCC to be added.

If you have any questions about the process, or the IRCC and what we do, then please find us on IRC

Filed under News from the IRCC |

Call for IRC operators

Friday, May 4th, 2012 2 Comments
The IRCC is now taking applications for a number of new operator positions across several channels.

* #ubuntu
* #ubuntu-offtopic
* #kubuntu
* #kubuntu-offtopic
* #edubuntu
* #ubuntu-mythtv
* #xubuntu
* #xubuntu-offtopic
* #ubuntu-bots
* #ubuntustudio
* #ubuntu-server
* #lubuntu
* #lubuntu-offtopic

(that is everything except #ubuntu-meeting #ubuntu-ops #ubuntu+1 which have slightly different rules)

If you’re active on our IRC channels and you are available, and if you’ve been aching to help, you should consider applying! You might get your chance if:

* You are great at resolving conflicts
* You are very patient. Superhuman nerve control is a basic IRC operator feature
* You can take criticism
* You are happy when helping and advising others
* In addition to the Code of Conduct http://www.ubuntu.com/community/conduct and our IRC Guidelines https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IRC/Guidelines, you are happy to also adhere to the Leadership Code of Conduct http://www.ubuntu.com/community/leadership-conduct and the Operator Guidelines https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IRC/IrcTeam/OperatorGuidelines

In general, please do not consider becoming an operator because it could be “fun”. It is not, it’s hard work. However, it is often quite rewarding, and you get to operate with a great team of people. You don’t need to be an IRC guru, but you do need to know enough to be able to learn more.

Please be aware that *many* applicants will not become operators for various reasons. This will not necessarily be because we think you would make a bad operator. Only a limited number of operators are ever needed, some timezones are better covered already than others, and so on. We are particularly interested in applications from people who are frequently online during the 00:00 UTC to 08:00 UTC timeframe. There are quite a few people who have already applied to a team, you don’t need to re-apply we will process all the pending applications.

IMPORTANT: Please follow the application process https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IRC/IrcTeam/OperatorRequirements and additionally note your available times on your wiki page. Having your wiki page listed on your LP page is also useful to aid us in finding your information.

We look forward to your applications!

Filed under News from the IRCC |

UDS-Q IRC Channels

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012 2 Comments

Welcome to the start of the blog of the Ubuntu IRC Council, we will use this for various announcements and articles, but as always we will try to announce things first in our regular IRC meetings and on the mailing list. In our most recent meeting we touched upon some preparations for the forthcoming Ubuntu Developer Summit, we are working on scheduling an IRC related meeting during the week, more on that later.

The Ubuntu Developer Summit is a week long series of 1 hour meetings or workshops spread across 19 rooms of a hotel in Oakland, California (left hand edge of America, half way up), each room will have live streaming audio and a projector of an IRC channel so that remote participants can listen in and participate back via IRC. You can browse the schedule for each day and choose what meetings you want to go to, find the room it is in and join the corresponding IRC channel on the freenode network.

The channels are:
#ubuntu-uds-grand-ballroom-a
#ubuntu-uds-grand-ballroom-b
#ubuntu-uds-grand-ballroom-c
#ubuntu-uds-grand-ballroom-f
#ubuntu-uds-grand-ballroom-g
#ubuntu-uds-grand-ballroom-h
#ubuntu-uds-junior-ballroom-1
#ubuntu-uds-junior-ballroom-2
#ubuntu-uds-junior-ballroom-3
#ubuntu-uds-room-201
#ubuntu-uds-room-202
#ubuntu-uds-room-203
#ubuntu-uds-room-204
#ubuntu-uds-room-205
#ubuntu-uds-room-206
#ubuntu-uds-room-207
#ubuntu-uds-room-208
#ubuntu-uds-room-210-211
#ubuntu-uds-room-212

and finally the main channel for the keynote and plenaries and general chit chat is #ubuntu-uds

and in a convenient format for pasting into a regular IRC client:

/join #ubuntu-uds-grand-ballroom-a
/join #ubuntu-uds-grand-ballroom-b
/join #ubuntu-uds-grand-ballroom-c
/join #ubuntu-uds-grand-ballroom-f
/join #ubuntu-uds-grand-ballroom-g
/join #ubuntu-uds-grand-ballroom-h
/join #ubuntu-uds-junior-ballroom-1
/join #ubuntu-uds-junior-ballroom-2
/join #ubuntu-uds-junior-ballroom-3
/join #ubuntu-uds-room-201
/join #ubuntu-uds-room-202
/join #ubuntu-uds-room-203
/join #ubuntu-uds-room-204
/join #ubuntu-uds-room-205
/join #ubuntu-uds-room-206
/join #ubuntu-uds-room-207
/join #ubuntu-uds-room-208
/join #ubuntu-uds-room-210-211
/join #ubuntu-uds-room-212

/join #ubuntu-uds

We look forward to working with you to plan the work for the Quantal Quetzal cycle!

Filed under News from the IRCC |