Rules

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STARFUSION USER POLICY

Last reviewed: October 12th, 2005

This policy has been reviewed and approved by network administration.

PURPOSE

StarFusion is a privately owned, funded and operated non-profit IRC (Internet Relay Chat) network which exists to provide users with a pleasant chat environment to converse with other users around the globe without interruptions or problems of any kind.

DISCLAIMER

StarFusion reserves the right to deny access of any client to a single server or the whole network without an explanation or a reason as the access to StarFusion is not a right, but a privilege.

StarFusion provides this service for a user to chat with others on the "as is" basis and gives absolutely no warranty of any kind of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. StarFusion reserves the right to change the purpose or the way this network runs or the policy it runs by at any time without notice! A user is responsible for knowing and understanding these policies as well as for being updated on any changes that occur to the network.

Any violations of this policy that is brought to the attention of StarFusion network staff, including representatives and administration, will be dealt with as we see fit. We claim no responsibility for the inaccuracy, performance, usage or the material contained on the network and will not seek or "hunt down" violators.

This policy should not be assumed to apply to a personal disagreement among users and a user reporting policy violation as a consequence of a personal disagreement might find him/herself being ignored or their access to the network being revoked.

Violation of any network policy or guideline may result in a disconnection of the client from the network (a "/kill") or a temporary restriction, up to a perminent restriction, of the network (a "g:line" or an "A-Kill"). In some cases, violators' ISP (Internet Service Provider) will be contacted and the abuser's internet account might be terminated as a consequence of this. StarFusion will offer full co-operation with any law enforcement officials to assist in investigations of illegal activity on the network.

A user who found him/herself being unfarely restricted from a server or the entire network should contact the network administration at [ kline at n1kio dot org ], stating the reason(s) he/she thinks the restriction was unfair, also providing any logs showing the restriction event itself and any other information to help investigate the complaint. The report should be as detailed as possible to ensure better success in the investigation.

AGREEMENT

IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is an unmoderated international medium and you agree that the access to this network and the use of its services it offers is at your own risk! Neither StarFusion, nor its administration or representatives, shall be liable for any claims, liabilities, loss, damage, costs or expenses of any kind arising from or related to your use or the service or any action or ommission of the StarFusion IRC Network in providing the service. You further agree to idemnify and hold StarFusion and its principals harmless from and wish respect to any and all claims, liabilities, losses, damages, costs and expenses, joint or several, under statute, common law or otherwise, arising out of, based upon or in connection with access, use, inability to use or misuse of the service which StarFusion provides.

It is advised that all children who logon to StarFusion should have parental supervision at all times.

DISPUTE RESOLUTION AND GOVERNING LAW: This agreement shall be governed by and constructed in accordance with the laws of the United States of America. The parties hereby agree that the appropriate forum for any disputes arising out of this agreement or the transactions contemplated hereby shall be the courts of the United States of America, and the parties hereby irrevocably consent to the exclusive and personal jurisdiction of such courts.

If you disagree with the current policy or the network rules, please discontinue using this network or any of its services.

POLICY

In order to provide a safe and pleasant environment for the users on our network, some policies and guidelines have been placed to ensure this. The punishment (if necessary) for these guidelines will be concidered by the network administration or its representatives and the situation will be dealt with as they see fit.

The StarFusion IRC Network is intended as a forum for conversation and any activities which jeopardize the rights of other users in that regard or generally, or the existance/functionality of StarFusion as a whole, are strictly prohibited. These include, without limitation:

• Massive Messaging or Advertisement/Spamming: Massive actions like advertisements, cloning, invitations or messages used by various IRC commands to advertise a website, another IRC network, a channel or any other services are not allowed! This is concidered spamming and the abusive user risks being restricted/banned from the network, temporarely or permanently.
• Flooding: Flooding users, channels or services with repeated messages will not be tolerated and the parties involved in such activity risk being banned from the network temporarely or permanently. This is a disturbing action to the users and a major waste of resources put in the network.
• Excessive Cloning: Running an excessive amount of connections simultaneously is not allowed. This puts an unnecessary load on the servers and additional strain on the resources. For informationon cloning restrictions for each server, please read the MOTD ("Message Of The Day") of the server you are connected to by typing /motd, or contact the Network Administrator of the server in question. Keep in mind that the global simultaneous connection limit is 4 (including "ghosts" - connections which died some time ago, but still weren't terminated by the server). Cloning for offensive purposes is prohibited, regardless of the maximum limits.
• Attempts to gain unauthorized access: Take-over attempts, which include gaining unauthorized access to channels, nicknames or any other unauthorized administrative access retreival is strictly forbidden on this network! Abusive users found to be doing this will be banned from the network and in some cases, will be reported to their ISP (Internet Service Provider), which could result in their internet access being suspended or terminated.
• Impersonation: Impersonation (tricking others to believe that you're someone else) of the network staff, network services, or any other network user is not allowed on StarFusion. This includes tricking others into giving out passwords or personal information or for the purpose of ruining the impersonated user's reputation. A real network staff member has one or more additional lines in their /WHOIS information stating so! Any impersonation attempts should be reported to network staff immediately.
• Harassment: Harassments in global will not be tolerated on this network and the abuser will be dealt with approprietly (either if it involved the offender or contacting the right people in order to prevent that person from continuing the harassment). To report any kind of harassment from another user, please contact [ abuse at starfusion dot org ] and be as detailed as possible to help network staff investigate the matter. Please note that harassment does not constitute 5 minutes of "pestering", but usually lasts for a longer period (days, weeks or more).
• Denial of Service and Exploitation: Exploiting bugs in client or server software is strictly prohibited! This includes taking advantage of bugs, errors, misconfigurations or anything that the software is not meant to do under normal operation. Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, either on StarFusion servers or its users will not be tolerated and will be reported to the ISP (Internet Service Provider) which might take legal action against the abuser(s) or suspent/terminate their internet access. These attacks include ICMP or UDP packetting, "nuking", flooding and so forth. In both cases, the offender will be immediately banned from the network and the right channels will be notified about this, considering that such attacks are illegal in many countries.
• Ban/Ignore Evasion: Evading channel/network bans or personal ignores is not allowed. The ban or the ignore was placed for a reason and evading it will risk being banned temporarely or permanently from the network. Continuous evasions will result in ISP notification or any other means to stop this, as it is considered as a type of harassment. If you have been banned from the network for something you haven't done, it probably means that the ban covers a wide range of IPs and yours is inside that range. To settle a ban problem, contact [ kline at starfusion dot org ] with a full description of an event and timestamped logs of the connection attempt(s).
• Trojan/Drone Containment: A channel containing trojan bots (also known as "drones") might be shut down or locked without any notification to prevent abuse, regardless of the founder or the ownership of those drones. To settle this kind of closure, contact network administration at [ kline at starfusion dot org ].
• Virus Distribution: Virus distribution of any kind will not be tolerated and if no action to prevent it after a request will be taken, the virus spreader will be banned from the network to prevent further spreading.
• Script/Addon Usage: Every user is responsible for the behavior of the script he/she is running on their computer and is responsible for knowing what that particular script does. Users whose scripts will cause continuous troubles on the network will be banned to ensure that these troubles will not continue to happen. Users running offensive scripts created for purposes of war or anything similar will be terminated, regardless of their intensions as such scripts tend to cause trouble. If you are using a "noisy" script which is programmed to advertise itself a lot, it is advised to customize it properly to prevent as much advertisement as possible as an excessive amount of it is considered massive advertisement or "spamming" and it might not be accepted on many channels or the network itself. Good places to start from is the "real name" field and the default quit message. Please note that in the official network channels, you should keep automatic responses or announcements generated usually from MP3 announcers, "away" scripts or those "kind" scripts who say "thanks" each time someone ops or gives the user voice, to the minimum. Failure to comply will result in a ban from the network channel(s).
• Services Usage: Services is an assistance program running for the IRC network and provides more abilities to the users to handle their nicknames, channels and helps against offense. These services may not be used for any offensive actions to the network or its users. Such ways include password cracking attempts, nickname/channel registration for the purpose of preventing others from registering them while not using the registered nickname/channel, as well as for the purpose of flooding services themselves. Such abuse may result in your registrations being dropped or locked up or a temporary or permanent ban from the network.
• Bot Policy: Bots are automatic scripts or programs used for various purposes of it's channel management, entertainment or any other purpose. In general, bots are allowed on StarFusion, but there are a few restrictions for holding these on the network: First of all, the connected bot should not be used for offensive purposes (i.e.: flooding, advertising, etc.) or any other kind of abuse. Those kinds of bots are not allowed on the network at any time. The bot should not cause problems on the network or bother other channels/users. Please note that some individual servers on the network might not allow bots, and if so, it will be shown in the server MOTD or by any other information source. You must not try to connect a bot to such server, but to choose a bot-friendly server. Also, note that the simultaneous connection limits are also applied on the bots you are connecting and a bot is counted as a simultaneous connection as well. It is advised to put administrative information on the bot if there will be cases where the bot owner will need to be contacted or anything similar. Also, setting the "+B" user mode on a bot will indicate clearly that the nickname is intended for use by a bot. That mode is optional and usually exists for informational purposes. Any channel may set their own rules and guidelines for handling bots in the channel, but they should not intersect with the network-wide guidelines or modify them in any way.

OFFICIAL NETWORK CHANNEL GUIDELINES

Official public network channels on the StarFusion IRC Network are the following:

• #StarFusion - General channel
• #Help - Assistance channel for various topics, including questions regarding the use of network services
• #ZiMMY - Channel devoted to various animated cartoon shows, mainly "Invader Zim", for StarFusion's younger users.

The following guidelines apply to all StarFusion network channels:

• Excessive vulgarity, extremely sexual talks, repeating or access begging is not allowed.
• Causing general annoyance will most likely result in a ban from the channel. If you are being respectfully asked to stop, do it.
• Automatic bots or scripts with automatic responses should be kept to a minimum. Those are good cause for general annoyance.

Please note that an abuse in multiple channels constitutes a network offence and not an individual channel offence. Such offence will be dealt with by terminating the user, up to temporarely or permanently restricting their access to the network.

GENERAL

There are some general restrictions about various things on StarFusion. They include, without limitation, the following:

• Pornography: Child pornography is strictly forbidden and illegal! Anyone found to be trading or distributing child pornography material will be permanently banned from the network, and their ISP (Internet Service Provider), and local law enforcement agencies, will be notified. Other pornographic content or porn-related channels are allowed. It is advised, though not required, to place a note in any porn-related channel's topic stating that a user must be 18-years-old or over to enter the channel.
• Proxy Servers/Bouncers: Bouncing from another computer, a shell account or a proxy isn't forbidden, unless the bouncer or the proxy is an insecure or "open" proxy (open for anyone to use it freely without or with a weak authentication). Insecure/"open" proxies are not allowed on the network as it can be a source of evasions or any other abuse, since it can be accessed by just anyone around the world. The network itself has placed proxy monitors on each of its servers to test connecting clients for insecure proxies on ports 80, 81, 8080, 8081, 3128, 1080 and more. Please disregard these scans upon connection. If an insecure proxy is detected while connecting to the network, it will be globally banned for 30 minutes. If the same proxy returns, the duration will grow accordingly.
• Access Begging: IRC Operator access "begging" is very unwise, as it would show others what a bad IRC Operator you would be. If the IRC Operator spaces on various servers are available, administrators of these servers will chose whomever they see fit. It's quite useless to ask or beg for IRC Operator access as refusal is almost guaranteed and it often offends.
• Connection by Minors: The StarFusion IRC Network does not specify any minimum age for users connecting to the network. However, countries might assign minimum age limits to use the internet or access certain parts of it. Since we cannot know the age of a connecting user, we cannot place any restrictions in place for minors or uphold such restriction. Since conversations on the internet and IRC sometimes cover adult or "mature" topics which aren't suitable for minors, it is recommended that the parents use the network with them to begin with in order to work out whether they feel the conversations on it are suitable for their child or not.
• Channel Management: Each StarFusion user can register multiple channels of his/her choice and manage them provided that those channels are not yet occupied by another channel founder. Ever channel founder can assign channel operators and grant them different privileges on the channel, set the primary channel rules and restrictions and define whom they want on it and whom they don't through various methods. There are a few things a channel founder/manager should note, however...
  • Each channel founder sets his own staff (channel operators, half-operators) and is fully responsible for their activity in the channel. This means that any abuse of the channel operators/half-operators in that channel which is distorting the regular network activity can lead to the channel they perform abusive actions in being dropped or locked up! Choose your staff carefully.
  • Channel founders may set stricter rules for his/her channel, however, they must not cross the general network rules and policies or modify them in any way! Also, the founder of his/her channel reserves the right to kick absolutely anyone out of their channel for any reason, or no reason at all. IRC Operators or users found to be abusing this right should be reported to the administration by sending an eMail to [ abuse at starfusion dot org ] or by directly contacting any member of the Network Administration. Abusive channel founders can have those rights revoked by network staff and lose the channel depending on the type of abuse.
  • Usually, channels expire after approximately 21 days of not being used and this means that the channel will be erased from the database and will be ready for others to register them. Network staff will not help a channel founder who has lost his/her channel this way.
  • IRC Operators may not rearrange the way a channel works (op users, deop them, etc) unless they were granted strict permission from the channel founder or any of the channel's staff, so they will not help users to gain ops in the channel if they were not allowed to or to prevent "annoyance". However, if the channel has been taken over or is being badly abused to the state of network-wide offence, network staff may override default channel modes to solve the problem. If any IRC Operator is witnessed abusing their power, Network Administration should be contacted by sending an eMail to [ abuse at starfusion dot org ] or by directly contacting an Administrator.
  • Massive advertisement of the channel in order to gain users is strictly forbidden and risks then channel being dropped or locked up by network staff. Massive advertisement is considered a network-wide offence.
  • The operation of any channel should not adversly affect other user's rights to operate their own private channel. Any such abuse will result in the offending channel being dropped and forbidden.
• Nickname Management: Each user may register their nickname to personalize it to him/her and prevent others from using it to either impersonate him/her or prevent the owner from using his/her own nickname. However, a nickname owner should keep a few things in mind...
  • A nickname must not be registered for the sole purpose of preventing others from using it while the person who registered the nickname does not use it him/herself. Such cases will result in the nickname being dropped, and may also result in the registered user's other nickname(s) being dropped as well.
  • Upon registration, the eMail address is optional, but specifying a right one might help a user retreive a lost/forgotten password. Network staff can retreive passwords for nicknames, but not every staff member will do such a thing and usually these requests will be rejected.
  • Sharing passwords is not forbidden, but it's completely the nickname's registered owner's responsibility to hold their nickname(s) secure, as stolen nicknames (either as consequence of password sharing or an easy to guess password) will not always be returned back. It's under the registered owner's responsibility to keep their passwords hard to guess and their nicknames safe.
  • Just like a channel, a nickname might expire after approximately 21 days of inactivity. This means that it will be open for registration again and anyone else could register it to himself. If a nickname owner has lost his/her nickname because of this, IRC Operators will not help him/her get it back.

Any questions or dispute relating to network policy can be submitted via eMail to [ support at starfusion dot org ].

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