Appropriate Use Policies
To make your visit as safe and enjoyable as possible, PurpleSurge has devised a set of standards that all users and staff must follow.
NOTE: PurpleSurge will not unban you from a chat room. If you were accidentally or wrongfully banned from a room, you will need to speak with the person who banned you. If you cannot get in touch with this person, then we suggest seeking help from the website where you logged into the chat. For inquiries about network related bans, you may contact kline [at] purplesurge.com. Again, we will NOT unban you from a specific room.
PurpleSurge General Policies
(1.) No flooding of any kind.
(2.) No fservs, XDCC, or any type of filesharing bots allowed.*
(3.) Spamming and flooding the network is not allowed. Flood bots will be killed immediately.
(4.) Stealing channels or nicknames is a wrong thing to do. Do not attempt it.
(5.) Users may group up to 5 nicknames within a group. Only one nickname group is allowed per user. Special exceptions for a separate bot group are available with pre-approval from an IRC Admin.
(6.) Ban evasion will earn you a g:line. Don't try it.
(7.) Do not use the official channels to idle in or cause conflict. These channels are for assistance only.
(8.) Do not beg for network status.
(9.) Users are encouraged to use /ignore to avoid private harassment. PurpleSurge is not responsible for resolving personal issues and offenses.
(10.) Distribution of child pornography (including sharing external URLs) and solicitation of sex to minors is forbidden.
(11.) Transmission of hate material and propaganda is prohibited. This policy DOES NOT limit free speech, which channel operators govern themselves. This DOES protect against hatred toward any group of people through a channel name or channel topic, or mass distributing unwanted hate material to users.
(12.) All bots (clients without humans) must set +B on join. (Non-bots are not allowed to have +B set)
(13.) Auto-ghosting features within IRC clients must be disabled. Use /nickserv recover as an alternative to repeated ghosting in order to keep someone off your nick.
(14.) BotNets are frowned upon. You better have a darned good reason to have one.
(15.) Impersonating IRCops, or pretending to be one, is strictly prohibited. It is not tolerated, as it can be dangerous and degrading to unknowing users. (remember, you can always tell if someone is an IRCop by their /whois)
(16.) You must be in a channel at all times.****
Channel Policies
(1.) No channel takeovers.
(2.) Only one services bot may be assigned to a channel at a time.**
(3.) All other rules are to be set by the channel founder.
Offenses and Consequences
A first-time offense to any one or more of the above policies:***
Warning from a PurpleSurge operator
A second offense:
Kill from the network
A third offense:
24-hour ban from the network
A fourth offense or greater:
15-30 day network ban
Special Cases:
* There are very very rare cases in which this rule can be overridden, cases are dealt with on a case by case basis. If you are going to ask for permission, you must be able to prove that you own the full copyright of ALL material hosted on the bot(s). Ask in #Help for any questions.
** Service bots are considered to be "BotServ" bots, this does not include personal, eggdrops/windrops or mirc bots, please remember to have your bot set +B on connect. Limit 3 bots per channel (1 BotServ/ChanServ, and 2 Personal bots). It is up to the channel founder to limit personal bot usage.
*** Permanent bans and k-lines are given only under certain severe circumstances, which include but are not limited to, purposeful circumventing of network security, releasing of passwords or other private information, or identifying under another user's name, with or without his/her consent.
**** Many floodbots/spambots/cambots stay out of channels and flood/spam channels/users from outside. Occasionally there is a scan to detect users not in channels. It will either warn you, disconnect you, or ban you.
Special Notes and Considerations
In the rare event that we believe security could be compromised, IRC administrators will put the network into "defcon" which forces channels to have +R temporarily. While this is extremely rare, it is done to protect the network and our users from flooding and other interferences.
Please be courteous to our staff, they are all volunteers and are not required to be here and are not paid (I know, so hard to believe!) Most staff members got their positions by contributing to the network, please do not ask to become a staff member. If you really want to help out, bring legitimate users, and help new users learn how to use the network.