Rank and file

I've been with #insurgency since before it existed, along with Kerx and the others (many now who have moved on with their lives). For those of you just tuning in, #insurgency is where lots of those clever little raids you see started out, either merely floated as an idea or full executed, at least everything of the past year. Shuffling around from EFnet, the pathetic womb of IRC, to what was Lulznet (and Raidchan a part, boy oh boy) to the current drama-infected incarnation we call Partyvan. Through the year we have had many interesting people come aboard; this blog is to the imageboard general public so I won't go listing off names, but people have appeared and have risen the little ranks that IRC curses us with, +v +h +o +a and up to +q the master, not to mention various levels of IRCops that run about as mini-gods following and enforcing the flimsy text file that makes up the rules of Partyvan IRC. I'm so glad moot never listened to my stupidity and stayed on Rizon those many moons ago; truly he is wise.

There is a certain thing about IRC and people, moreso IRC and *channers. When people are simply having a conversation, things are skewed by the power some people possess and others do not; this is really the same as Shii's principles of Anonymous. In IRC though, people make their actions with the knowledge that if a single person with power decides so, they can also recieve power temporarily or equally. This leads to two common phenomina, which I shall call the Inherent Tangents of Mode-based IRC Channels.

Tangent A: While on this tangent, people who have power are people who work at the goal of the channel, be it raiding, distro, and other productive activities, or the more common IRC channel type: quality conversation, in addition to good relationships with most of the channel users to the degree that those users are confident in the people in power to protect them from spammers, ban trolls, and "operate" the channel. In a channel going down Tangent A, people who are not in power can either aspire to achieve power by working hard at what they do and being on good terms with the channel people, or alternatively not aspire to having power at all, knowing that it's just a job that someone has to do and that is being done already. I highly enjoy these channels, and most people who are a regular participant in one will understand what I mean; people do not even seek power, it usually just comes upon them because it is the general consensus of the channel that the person will be in power and they are spontaneously given ops. The curtsy rule towards good internet groups says I can't give an example, or everyone would go there and fuck it up.

Tangent B: The spontaneous giving of ops is like the spontaneous sex that these channel types will never have: there is a different method of giving power in this channel and merits may or may not play a part. These channels may start out as Tangent As, but they degrade into what most people refer to as a circle-jerk. Faggotree abounds, and power in the channel becomes a representation of e-peen. The quest for power is done for the sake of power alone and not the knowledge that one could use it well. The removal of power is done on a whim, due to anger, butthurt, or protection from the person it was removed from as they became angry or butthurt. There are a few key phrases used to identify a Tangent B channel, such as:
-"Who deleted my access?"
-"XXX is on a rampage"
-"Can I have ops.."
- "..if I do X?"
- "..if I suck your cock?"
- "..or else I'll -zomg- drop your doxs!"
-"How come UserQ has ops, he doesn't do anything?!"
-"Why don't I have ops, I do everything?!"
-"WHO MADE YOU BOSS?"
- in reply: "USERY WHO KNEW THE GUY WHO BLEW THE GUY WHO MARRIED THE GIRL THAT WAS RAPED BY THE GUY WHO FOUNDED THIS CHANNEL IN 1996"


Tangent B channels are horribly too common, especially on private networks where everyone knows each other; familiarity breeds contempt indeed. We could go on about subsets of these two tangents, but I think it is clear what #insurgency (and other channels, dear Collective) has branched into. How can this be fixed? I've been around the IRC block and have seen a good many implementations of ways to overcome these previously-unspoken tangents. Here are a few techniques that might get your Tangent B channel back to an A:

* Having only one or two ops, preferably a security bot. This is the method seen in #4chan, where ALTERNATIVE holds power; sure, moots comes in every year to celebrate his birthday and there are 3 or 4 halfops like McVacBob, but they rarely enforce power. ALTERNATIVE has a few anti-spam scripts and banned words (Go talk about the lulz in there), and that's it. ALTERNATIVE does have some issues with a few people, myself included, but that is as far as op faggotree goes, and the hundreds of channel users, knowing that gaining power in that channel simply will not happen, do not focus on gaining power and instead talk and work with confidence in their state. If I may steal a joke from Sinfield:



* Having no form of power at all. I have heard that this technique is used on a few IRC networks, where instead of starting a channel with # they use $ or some other character. This creates a modeless channel where there are no ops at all or any form of power or e-peen. There is spam-protection done serverside. That is all that is required. Trolls of course would be a problem, but a dedicated group could pull it off with vigilant, uninvolved IRCops.

* Robot 9000. Not quite an e-peen solution but if /r9k/ is better then /b/ I just have to mention this.

* IRC Holocaust. In this method, all users are wiped from the access list and it is restarted as if it were new. Everyone is told about this, everyone is prepared and agrees it is best for the channel, and a single admin is placed up while everyone else thinks about all the A channels out there and restarts with the original goals of the channel in mind; raiding in the case of #insurgency. However most of the time this results in cries of "WHERE DID MAH ACCESS GO?!," "RAID USER97 WHO DID THIS" and of course the splitting of the channel into various factions which will never be as good as the original. The benefits are that you can create one of the above solution-type channels or properly reset into an A channel.


The final word on this issue goes back to my theory (that has not yet been re-written for this blog) on Nonchalant Internet Observation: Step back from your browser, take your hands off the keyboard, and look at your community pretending you have no involvement. Stop seeking power, fame, fortune, and a gigantic e-peen and think of the point of the site and what made it good. Do not treat it like serious business.


If your channel is rocketing down that Tangent B, talk about it with your channel members, founders, those in power and those who seek it, and consider a change in habits to revert to the good way; consider a Holocaust if your problems are too great to handle. You can quote me on that.