Banning Idlers in #ubuntu-ops

[Mark]

Hey ho,

On 10/13/07, Joseph Price <pricechild at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> That topic has been there for some time, at least since the IRC
> Council's creation. It has been enforced by more than half of us. (I'm
> reasonably sure that infact not one member of the Council have a problem
> with this practice but I can't check for definite at this time because
> of timezones.) As always, the practice is up for discussion in -ops or
> at the next council meeting if you have any queries or suggestions.

  When is the next Council meeting, they don't seem regular, and
perhaps that's why such a decision wasn't discussed at a Council
meeting. For now, further discussion here seems appropriate.

  Anyway, the current policy seems to be any non-ops who aren't
talking at that time. Perhaps this was a decision taken by the
council, and not just ad-hoc put into the topic of the channel after
suspicions about someone running a botnet in #ubuntu also idling in
-ops -- which is always how it seemed to be enforced previously to me.
Certainly a little discretion was used, blanket kicking everyone is
possibly an immediately more attractive solution; however I think it
is harmful in the long run.

  There are a number of people who are regularly on the ubuntu irc
channels who find it helpful to be in #ubuntu-ops to mention potential
trolls ahead of time, point out behaviour not quite worthy calling
!ops for (and to idle in #ubuntu-ops to see if the ops have already
been alerted to such things, or to ask a specific op about the person
because you can see they are active). If there happens to be a reason
why such people shouldn't be allowed to "idle" in #ubuntu-ops I'd be
in very interested to know it. Only allowing them in to report
something minor then leave would seem to have a (overly melodramatic
phrase approaching) chilling effect to me.

  I am a bit surprised at such a decision to enforce this more
rigorously, without any sort of public discussion or even mentioning
of the new policy to this list. The IRC Council isn't a democracy, no,
however in other Ubuntu governance there is a best effort to be
transparent unless very strong factors are involved (such as an issue
being of a highly personal nature), and feedback is often sought from
the community before making decisions, after making decisions and in
informing publically of policies or changes in policy... even if they
were technically covered by a line in a topic.

  The decision to open up -ops was made nearly a year ago and from
what I have seen has been more helpful for ops than trolls idling and
abusing the channel.

Cheers,
Mark

(mc44)