A Head's-Up on Starchat Policy:

[Wendy]

Recently, we lost a loved one (k-lined!) due to a misunderstanding of Starchat services. Consequently, we lost two more players when they went to the admin. to complain/challenge the admin's judgement. Technically, the admin. was supporting the rules of Starchat Services. I found this out when I had a look at the website.

Since nobody else should end up getting booted for something done in innocence, I think it is important to check out Starchat's website if you haven't already. The Acceptable Use Policy and Starchat Services are especially helpful.

http://starchat.net/

The initial person who as k-lined has already been welcomed back. The two who went to talk to admin. (to better understand the situation and the reason for the decision to k-line their friend) are still waiting as decision from the k-line team is pending.

Meanwhile, there is this:

http://starchat.net/services/nickserv.htm

The initial problem was that our player "ghosted" her nickname several times while another user was using it. It is something any of us might do, not having understood the reason for "Registering Your Nickname".

You can find out why nick registration is offered to begin with on that page. It mentions that nickserv is capable of protecting your name, forcing others to choose another name. It does not say that registering your nickname will do that, just that nickserv is able to.

Read the remainder of the page, it is very easy to understand and you will learn of the many capabilities of nickserv. You can also find out what Ghost is supposed to be used for, and what Guard can do for your nickname as well as plenty of other neat options.

I have to make this short, because me and the kid have to get going to school, but please do not mistake my brevity for an unwillingness to help further... I simply have run out of time!

I'll talk to anyone online who has more questions. You can reach me on aim if you are k-lined and unable to be on Star. My aim sn is feudalpsyche.

Talk to you soon! Thanks ya'll for reading.

[Rance]

Thanks for all of the information, Wendy! Those are some damned good links to have up there just so that way something like this can be prevented in the future.

It's comforting to know that the decision based on the other two who were k-lined is pending. Hopefully, with consideration, they can certainly return to the network and the k-lines can be removed. Understandably enough, emotions are high and people are angry, and this is something that with patience should be able to be easily worked through.

What I will add, however, is entirely of my own opinion. Even though I was not around (stupid internet!) when everything went down, I find myself intensely discomforted by what I was informed of regarding the entire situation. My personal feeling is that two people, merely in the interest of defending the presence of their friend, did not necessarily deserve a k-line of any kind of permanence for stating their opinion, especially when the original k-line in question was only in place for two days. Thankfully enough, the bond of the players and the operators in our channel is strong, and it's really awesome to see that everybody is working together to hopefully get a positive outcome in this.

Being that the emotions of both players, operators, and administrators was high at the time, it might be best to remember that patience in this situation is going to be the best asset that there is. I will personally encourage those in question, though the urge may be great, not to evade the k-lines that have been placed. There are plenty of ways for everybody to keep in avid contact, and we definitely don't want anybody to get really slammed permanently for something of this sort.

We, as a channel, as people first and players after that, will stick together through something like this, and I like to think that there will certainly not be any players left behind. I have my own considerations as to what was done improperly towards those in question, but for the sake of the functionality of our channel, definitely be patient and see if these things can get worked out in proper ways. There's a considerate team of operators that are working on the situation, as well as some other players too, so hopefully this can get resolved as soon as possible!

Take it easy, guys!

[Civet]

If anyone needs to get ahold of me send me a private message here on the boards. It'll email me so I'll know that I got a message. Then I can give you my AOL/Yahoo name.

I haven't gotten anything back from starchat.. soooo.. <shrugs>

[Rattrap]

So, one of Nickserv's key services to protect your nickname is Guard (AKA Kill, so far as we can tell). What Guard does is basically make one ID immediately or change their nick to something else. For example, if someone logged on as Rattrap and didn't ID, it'd change their nick to Rattrap3746 or something close to in 30 seconds.

You can turn on Guard as easily as /ns set guard on and you're all set.

This is just to highlight one of the options listed on the links posted above - it would be wise to check those out and familiarize yourself with what else is available and StarChat's Acceptable Use Policy so we can avoid something like this ever happening again!

[Hope]

It may be a good idea in the near future to slap up a command/function list onto the wiki that will be helpful to players with the use of /nickserv and tuck it right under a little help catagory .. I know we have a cutscript on there, all of that could be bundled together?

[Carnath-Emory]

Just in case clarification is needed:

It seems that /nickserv ghost yourRegisteredNickname is to be used only when there's a problem with lag or services. It is not to be used if another person is using your registered nick.

Because that's what guard is for. /nickserv set guard on will prevent other people from using your nick in the first place -- as Rance described, far better than I would have. *g*

[Civet]

I'd like to point out that it doesn't actually SAY when to use and when not to use Ghost on their website. The explanations are also rather vague.

[Carnath-Emory]

Nope, it doesn't. I'm only gleaning this from the logs I've seen; the website is amazingly vague on this matter. Once we can get clarification on these commands, yup, I'll definitely pop them on the wiki, and we'll sticky a post about them in here, too. I've no intention of this occuring again, if we can help it.

[Civet]

<puts up the warning tape>

[Suede]

You-know-who needs to listen to Uncle Ben, "With great power comes great responsibility," and something else I won't say here for the sake of decency.

And it's true, the website does NOT say what you can or cannot use ghosting for.

[Tolleson]

Its a shame it had to happen but ghosting is all too common. Thanks for the links, it might not hurt to keep em handy on a topic (or here - tada -). Hopefully it won't be too long now before we get them back.

[Wendy]

This isn't about anyone in admin. It's about policy, and preventing our players from becoming victims from not understanding it. Our roleplay channel has been closed before. We only have it back because we have been very good with compliances and refrain from gossip.

Please keep your personal opinions outside of this BB discussion. It's important. Thank you!

[ShadowRose]

I like pie.

[Treadwell]

Note that's Spidey's Uncle Ben, not the Uncle Ben of rice fame.

[Carnath-Emory]

... I was honestly wondering what rice had to do with it all, too.