Due to #help being such an obvious place on EFnet to seek help, this channel must have rules.
Let it be known that some ops are more lenient than others with these rules, so don't be suprised if one day your actions are tolerated and another day they are not.
These rules are just a baseline, so be aware, rules may be suspended or added at any given moment by any of the channel ops. Remember... this is IRC, not a courtroom. |
| 1. No Illegal help. This includes pirated software, movies, MP3s, cracks. This also includes any other non-computer-related illegal activities. |
| 2. No help with IRC Scripts. This rule is here mainly because more times than not, the user seeking help with a script is trying to do something malicious. The proper place to ask for IRC script help is in the channel named after your IRC Client or Bot. General scripting help is offered such as perl, php, shell scripts, etc. |
| 3. No Legal advice. If you need legal advice, IRC is certainly not the place to ask. Seek the services of a real attorney. |
| 4. No Medical help. If you would accept medical advice from someone on IRC, seek immediate medical attention. There are credible medical websites available such as http://www.webmd.com and http://www.netwellness.org |
| 5. No Homework help. We are not here to do your homework. An occsional push in the right direction can be offered, but obvious attempts at "DO MY WORK FOR ME" will not be accepted. |
| 6. No Drama! This rule encompasses many of the older rules. Simply put, do not cause unnecessary drama in the channel. This includes but is most certainly not limited to participating in flame wars, trolling, asking for or giving relationship advice, abusing other users, flooding, excessive colors or chatting in some incohernt "texting" method that takes longer to decipher than to actually find the solution to your problem, "u know wat I mean" ? |
| 7. No excessive "idle chat". #help is not meant to be a regular chat channel. Because #help can get very busy at times, it is best to keep the side-conversations either in Private Message or in our sister-channel, #helpchat. This allows more users to get the help they seek without sifting their way through a big mess. |
| 8. No profanity. An occasional profanity is accepted by most, but excessive cursing will result in a warning 1st, then a ban. |
| 9. No repeating. If noone has joined since you last asked your question, there is no need to ask again. If someone can and wants to help you, they will. |
| 10. No msging users or ops for private help unless you ask the person first if they can help in private message. It is considered good "netiquette" to do so. |
| 11. Last but not least... JUST ASK! We are not mind readers. We do not have magic crystal balls. Please be as descriptive as you can with your questions and try to place as much as possible on one line so you don't end up flooding the channel and making it more difficult for people to understand what you actually need. |
