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Why do you want to talk to an
IRCop?
First, realize that the job of the IRC operators (IRCops
or OPERs) is to run the servers. They are not "IRC
cops" and they do not enforce laws or monitor
people for bad behavior. Opers can sometimes help you
if somebody is viciously attacking you or your
channel, running bots or clones, or otherwise
violating the rules of that server. These rules are
spelled out in the message of the day for every
server, type /MOTD server.name.here to read
them.
If another user is being abusive or insulting or
flooding, use the /ignore commands provided
with your client for this purpose. You may also want
to change channels, nicks, and even servers, if he is
persistent. Considering there are tens of thousands of
people on IRC, IRCops cannot possibly keep up with
your personal problems, nor is it their role to punish
people for profanity, pornography, "unfair"
kick/bans, etc.
A word on channel takeovers. The maintenance of a
channel is the responsibility of the ops of that
channel. It's often too late once a channel is lost,
because the takeover artists can close the channel so
that even opers cannot figure out who to sanction.
Also, since channels are not owned, even the few opers
who might care about this issue will not interfere
based on your word alone, so if your channel was
'stolen' by a another IRC user and not a bot, it's now
theirs unless you can come up with some good objective
proof. So know the people you decide to give ops to.
These days, it is best to require a password as well
as checking the other person's user@host before giving
ops.....from every person, every time. This is very
important.
Now, if you still want to talk
to an IRCop
If you're really sure you want to
talk "live" to an oper, make sure you find
one from the server that the abuser is using. Do not
bother the opers from your server unless the abuser is
also on your server. To find out what server the
abuser is using, do /whois nickname-of-abuser.
Then type /MOTD server.name.here to read the
rules of that server. If the server /MOTD says
to send logs of abuse to an email address, that's what
they want you to do, don't waste your time trying to /msg
the opers.
Remember, If an oper says they will not or cannot
help you, please respect the answer. Opers are
usually volunteers, they are not paid by you or
anybody else, so they are not obligated to do anything
for you.
I
found an oper to help me, how do I send them a log?
Do not copy and paste
unexpected or uninvited information to an IRCop.
Most
IRCops do not run mIRC, which has separate windows for
each messager. If you copy/paste the flood of the
abuse you just got to an IRCop you will most likely
get /killed. (When a user pastes 20 lines of floods or
abuse to my screen without warning, it totally floods
the information I am working on off the screen. I
don't know it is a copy, I think I am being
attacked.) Information of more than 2-3 lines probably
would be better sent as a /DCC file send of a
log.
Make your message count.
Opers
are busy. they do not want to have to beg you for the
pertinent information. (Sometimes a user takes so long
to get to the point, that I have lost the thread of
what they are talking about. If the channel name is 3
screens back, it takes me more time to put all the
information together) So give the oper the nickname of
the abuser and the channel involved, and if it is a
bot, any information you have to show why you think it
is one.
If you do email, please be sure
you are emailing from an address that will accept a
reply.
I
have spent many hours writing a helpful reply to
users, only to find they are undeliverable.
How
to actually make a logfile
Okay, if you need help on how to
make a logfile, here are some hints for some popular
IRC clients:
mIRC (for Windows)
Type
/log on or click on the upper left-hand corner
of the window and select the logging option. The log
then starts to capture what passes through that window
from that point in time. If the info you want to save
has already passed, backscroll the window with the
Page-Up key and highlight the text you wish to select,
which saves it to a buffer. Select Clipboard, Notepad,
Windows Write, or another text editor, then use the
Ctrl-V command to paste the block of information to
the screen. Save the file, and it is yours. Save as
many windows of text as you need. If the window has
been closed, unfortunately, that information is lost
if it was not logged before closing.
For the Win 3.x
program, one can select another application with the
CTRL-esc keys to get to Program Manager.
PIRCH (for Windows)
PIRCH
has logging options to select the logfile directory,
and whether to Auto-log. Later versions of PIRCH also
has a /set logs on(or off) command line to
toggle logging at the command line. Check your /help
files for more information on this.
WSIRC (for Windows)
CHANNELlog
will toggle logging on/off for WSIRC.
ircII (for UNIX, VMS, Windows,
etc.)
For
ircII, you may choose the name of the logfile you
desire with: /set logfile new.logfile.name.
Otherwise the default IrcLog name will be used. (don't
forget that UNIX is case sensitive, so you have to use
the caps in IrcLog to find it) Use /set log on
and /set log off to open or close the file. The
information is saved to that file on your shell
account, and subsequent openings/closings will append
information to the file. If you use /quit to
exit IRC, the file is automatically closed.
To capture
information that has passed previously, open your
logfile as quickly as possible, and then use the /lastlog
command to scroll the information from your lastlog
buffer into the opened file. It will capture much of
what has happened. However, there may be things, like
channel parts/joins that do not show up with the /lastlog
command.
After /quit'ing
IRC and returning to your shell, you would use any
text editor, like pico, vi, or emacs to read it. If
you have it, the pico editor is the easiest to use,
since it is similar to the Pine email editor. If you
just want to view it, the 'more' command will show you
the contents of your file, one page at a time (hit
space to advance to the next page). For example: more
IrcLog
If you are using
a mouse-compatible interface, or a communications
program like Telix, which has a screen capture ability
(alt-I for Telix allows you to take a 'picture' of a
screen. ), a true backscroll will serve you well,
since more channel information like join/parts will
show up. The true backscroll for ircII is managed with
3 commands, ESC-p (hit "escape" key, then
hit "p" key) for previous half screen at a
time, ESC-n for next screen, and ESC-e to exit from
backscroll and return to end. (Remember the ESC-e so
you can get back to your command line.) When using
backscroll, use the ESC-p command twice to get a full
screen change, then take your screen image capture.
Ircle (for Macintosh)
It's easy
to log stuff in Ircle and other Mac clients. Simply
select the text you want, copy, go to a text editor
such as SimpleText or BBEdit, paste, and save. If the
text extends beyond the current screen, you can just
use the mouse to select and scroll up while holding
down the mouse button. You can also
"shift-select" the text: click on the first
word, use the scroll bar to go to the other end, then
hold down shift and click on the last word to select
everything in between. Ircle also supports automatic
logging if you want to routinely log everything, see
File / Preferences / Logging.
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