You should mode your room to +s (secret) so that my IRC operators know that they should not enter unless invited. As it stands *only* IRC operators can see the room list on the network. All other users are only aware of the room they are currently in.

I have told all IRC operators time and time again not to enter rooms moded +s unless specificly asked to do so by someone from the room. I have not had this rule broken as of yet. I would understand it happening accidently as I myself forget to check room modes before entering now and then but if this were to happen repeatedly I would take action to correct it.

I understand that the majority of users are not familiar with IRC and are intimidated by the unknown. I thought I explained the aspects of user’s host addresses in the email I sent. If not let me know and I’ll work on writing an essay on host addresses, dynamic and static IP’s, resolving DNS and proxy servers and all other things related to host addresses, their use and purpose. Not that I have that kind of time to invest in such a document but I’ll work on it as much as possible.

No problem Diane

I understand wanting a safe place to chat and that’s why the chat servers obscure chatter’s ISP addresses. But this isn’t done to the extent that a room owner can not use a chatter’s IP or host address to bannish them or manage the users in other ways.

Being cautious about others a person meets online is a good thing. I also think chatters should be more informed about IRC in general and I do hope to tackle this in the upcoming months. There are literally hundreds of IRC networks in existance. Some have over 100,000 chatters online at once. Many of these networks can be a brutal experience for a chatter that is *new* to IRC. My goal here is to make an IRC environment that offers more control for room owners in that other users in other rooms are basicly blind to your room’s whereabouts. Unless chatters know where your website is they won’t know what your room’s name is and this helps ensure that visitors to the rooms are there because they share the same interests. The IRC operators and Admins that help me keep things working are all seasoned IRC chatters. They are used to an IRC environment where chatters can browse the room list from the server and go down the list and visit the rooms. This is something that I have restricted to IRC opers only and as I have said they know not to enter a +s (secret) or +p (private) room without being invited to do so. (not that it can’t happen accidently as stated in my previous post) If I had more time on my hands I too would visit some of the rooms to see what they are all about and meet with the users but more often then not I just don’t have the time. It’s to bad that your room wasn’t more receptive of Luke but “first impressions” don’t always go the right way no matter what. This I understand.