This could be a pretty lengthy update by the time I have finished… depends how much I get interrupted.

IRCWhore’s

There’s major changes happening at IRCWhore’s, including a massive revamp of the system back-end, a new front-end theme, and how the system interfaces with the database, statistics engine, and the chat daemon. As it stands, development is a little slow at the moment, but the features that are being implemented are being put in place securely, and measures are being taken to ensure that the systems insecure.

Another key development is the way the website integrates with an advanced table structure. More tables and stronger relationships mean that data can be accessed quicker, and highly normalised structures result in a superior system. In addition, indexes are being added to increase the performance of the database server, and the server-side back-end. UNIQUE fields are being used to ensure that repetitive data cannot be added, and measures have been put in place on the server-side scripting to ensure that the system doesn’t have to keep checking if the field is unique.

IRCWhore Title and TopNav snapshot

In addition to the back end being optimized for superior performance, the client-side scripts (JavaScript, Cascading Style Sheets and Hypertext MarkUp Language) have been optimised to be delivered in the fastest possible way. This is done by adding caching to images, style sheets and scripts, while removing caching from the main content. Also, the scripting is optimised by removing all unnecessary line breaks and white space. This might make the script ugly, but with a 34% decrease in download time, it’s worth it.

In addition to performance, security is another key area of the development. The main security protocols installed in the system are automatic reporting of break-in/injection attacks, and the automatic banning/suspending of users should they be detected performing a break-in attempt. In addition to the security protocols being developed, various child safety policies and protocols are being developed. These include:

• Child-Parent Profile Linking – This allows parents to take control over their child’s account with limited permissions. This could be use to see who the child is making contact with via the online messaging system, and to see who the child has made friends with online. Obviously, ethics and morals will restrict what features we do implement here, and we are still working on a way to enforce parent-child relationships without people adding them to any account they wish. All relationships will expire once the younger of the relationship reaches 18.
• Restricted Access to Minors – The amount of access an under 16 year old will get determines on the parent-child relationship being made. The most basic restriction (with no relationships) potentially prevent the child from making friends with people older than 16, not messaging anyone that’s not in their friends list, restricting how the user interacts with certain features on the website (including the personal weblog, forum and the personals section).
• Strict Profile/Image/Post Screening – While moderating images and profiles can often be a laborious task, we think that it is a critical feature of our systems. The moderators will obviously be trained to the highest possible standard in what to allow and of course, disallow. They will have a full set of tools to either delete, report, suspend or ban based on the content of the image. This feature will not be abusable, as all actions across the site are logged into the Administration Control Panel. If a picture is regarded as illegal, IRCWhore and its regulatory board will report the user to the respective authority.

IRCWhore is solely based around security and safety, and this is taken into consideration while coding the core features of the website. As we are ensuring we are not promoting illegal activities, or allowing them to take place on our server, we are proud to report that we have been awarded ICRA certification as a child-friendly website. We are also going to work with other Child Protection Agencies to ensure that we are recognised as the first, and only child-friendly webchat website.

While protecting the children, we also thought about what we can do for adults. Ever been lonely and needed someone to talk to? Ever wanted someone that is like you? That’s where IRCWhore’s Singles comes into play. We will implement the most significant features of the leading singles websites, while adding some of our own random spice to give you a list of people we think you will like. Unfortunately, due to the implementation of the features mentioned above, parents will NOT be able to apply as a single. In addition to the previous restriction, we also regret we can only provide the singles service to our premium customers which are genuine members who have verified their authenticity by donating via PayPal or Google Checkout.

More and more features will be implemented over the coming months, and yes, we will keep you up-to-date. Follow us on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/ircwhorestatus.

I have a number of names that I would like to use, but I’m at a bit of a mental block at the moment. Hopefully, before the end of the week, I should have some idea’s for what I wish to call it. Obviously, any idea’s are welcome, but if the idea’s get stupid or comments get abusive, either comments will be closed, or if the IP’s are alike then bans will be enforced.

At the moment, the website is nowhere near completed. A lot of the core features like registration, login, and features such as password reset have been completed. Features such as the webchat, forums, and personal blog-pages are still in the concept stages, and may not appear for a long time. Features which are proving difficult to conceptualise are:

• Webchat – Currently, most IRC Networks have a bog-standard webchat which doesn’t offer any form of user-customisation. I plan to make it so that users can customise their webchat the way they like it. This means making it so they can customise the colours, the size and style of the default font, changing the popup’s that appear when the user right-clicks, and more.
• Forums – This could either go one of two ways, full-custom coded forum from scratch based on existing forum software, or integrate an existing forum board with the website. The second may prove difficult, as I have used my own custom hashing on the passwords. Hopefully, I’ll be able to authenticate the panels by means of cookies and sessions.
• Blogs – There is a plan in the pipeline for users to create their own custom blog, based on the url http://www.ircwhore.org.uk/blog/user/post. This will hopefully encourage users to start blogging, then once they’ve picked up the art of blogging, they can use blog-hosting services like blogger, and wordpress.com. We need more blogs!
• Ulysses – Ulysses is our Website=IRC integration bot. The bot is capable of doing absolutely anything (providing it’s within its powers), including killing a ghosted session, requesting an administrator, reporting a webpage on our website by the click of a button, assign an SWHOIS to a user based on their age/gender.

The current time scale for the project is 9 months, so the project is ready to go by the new year. If the project can be completed in 6 months, it will be a bonus. Once new year comes, any feature which isn’t required to make the site work, will be put on a feature-freeze. This means that all the other things which don’t need to exist for the site to work will be held in development, while the rest of the features are completed.

FLIRC was over. Stolen-Enterprise was slowly coming back to its former glory. I was later approached by FSIRC if I wanted to join their network. How could I refuse an offer like this?! 12 months on, and Stolen-Enterprise is failing. Aversion has become to greedy and careless that he’s let his own network fall under its own corruption!
The End of an Era posted April 9th 2009 by KingTarquin

It appears that moving on is the key to building new skills. After running my own network and website once before, I’ve now decided to do it again, but with flair. From January 2010, I’ve been working on IRCWhore’s. I’ve owned the domain since about 2008, but never really had a use for it, but I guess, now I do.

There were a couple of reasons why I could no longer keep my server over at FSIRC;

• Server Traffic – Over the time I was a network administrator at FSIRC, I had certainly noticed a major decline in traffic. Whether their target users were moving on in life, or they didn’t like the way the server was run. Who knows, but all I can say is that my server was being wasted on FSIRC, as it was averaging about 150MB of transfer per month. I’m still currently working out what to do with that, might run a few of my websites round-robin styleee..
• No Pressure – I know this might seem a bit of a harsh thing to say, but the rest of the staff really didn’t care about the network. I was the one to repair it when it went down, I was the one to update all the systems, I maintained all the websites, and I was the one to issue bans for the network. I don’t wish to work for a network, and run it for them. That’s not how I see helping someone. I’d much rather spend the time running my own network, and putting the time and the effort into maintaining my own systems.

Over the next 12 months, there will be several stages of rapid development for IRCWhore’s, including the completion of the main website back-end, the inclusion of forums/message boards (tbc), the addition of more customisable profile pages, and the coding of an entirely customised chat browser (where the chatter can change the aspects of the page the chat window is on, not just the chat window). I also plan to get a bot coded for the Backend/IRC Server integration system. There will be more plans on this released at a later date.

( Anonymous) Any guy 15 to 19 wants to talk to a cute, naturally fit 23 male Feltham, London?????? Pm Me Please

UKChatterbox really needs to be more vigilant. This user was passing through channels, asking this question, and when I asked an Administrator how it was being dealt with, this is the response I get:

<Me> Are you not allowed to deal with stuff like that?
<Admin> no has to be security which is what i was trying to say
<Me> So what if there are no security admin on for a few days? What do you do then? Leave them?
<Admin> no mail them get a quick response still and temp site ban til they sort it
<Me> Okay..
<Me> So you are not allowed to deal with them directly?
<Admin> nope remove and pass to security
<Admin> which i have done now
<Me> Then what do security do?
<Admin> look in to it qiuickly and remove permo and suspend
<Me> Do they not report them to the IWF, or CPA’s?
<Admin> the who?
<Me> Internet Watch Foundation, Child Protection Agencies, or Internet Service Providers.
<Me> COPPA, surely that rings a bell?
<Admin> no idea but it does get dealt with

This is a shocking discovery on many levels.

1. The fact the admin present is not allowed to directly deal with the issue.
2. The admin is not even aware of COPPA.
   Note: COPPA is an American Act, yet it is known about by most IRC Networks.
3. It took them over half an hour to deal with the issue since first contact.

If UKChatterbox want to boast safety, they need to get their act sorted, take on some REAL staff, and start patrolling properly. They have the resources to look for stuff like this, such as bots with REGEX, as well as an IRCd-level spamfilter. Surely they must realise that they are one of the most popular IRC networks in the western world, yet they still take inexperienced actions to serious issues.

Please Note:
All nicknames have been removed from this article to protect those involved.

FLUBBERHOSTS DO!

This network claims to be better because of various little things, but quite a few shocking discoveries came out over the past couple of days…

• Overcrowded Servers – According to my reliable source, they stick far too many clients on a single server. This causes a fight for resources and often leads to CPU battles between users. This also sends the performance of the network right down.
• Null-Routing Nasties – If you ever have a disagreement with them, and you are using one of their clients services, you will be null-routed because “they can”. Any ethical host will only resort to null-routing if a particular user DDoS’s them.
• Deleting Dictators – If you even give them the hint that you are going to be migrating to a difference service because its cheaper or your getting more, they’ll delete your account before you have chance to get a backup. They are notorious for deleting MySQL databases from clients accounts before they have chance to get them.

If you want a decent host, use Flubberhost’s Host, Gridstar!

• New channel mode developped to restrict ages/genders from channels.
• Moved database to a dedicated server.

Despite the performance fixes above, there are still some issues which need to be addressed before UKChatterbox can become as great as any other network.

• Ditch SQLMod. This module actually stops the IRCd when an SQL query is being performed.
• Ditch privlog and chanlog. These modules are ethically wrong, and can be seen as a breech of our human rights.
• Ditch m_restrictnotice. This module prevents users from noticing each other. As long as you have the right modes set, users shouldn’t be able to disrupt channels by using /NOTICE #channel.
• Move to a Data Centre dedicated to providing a decent service. Actually getting 4 VPS’s in the UK would work out cheaper than 4 shells from UKShells. Apparently, they need to have their servers in the UK for legal reasons (I can’t actually see what this reason may be).

I reall do hope UKChatterbox becomes the better network. They have so much to offer, but they go the wrong way. You can be safe without logging, you just set extremely advanced spamfilters. UKChatterbox have so much going for them, they just need to listen to people’s views and take them into consideration.

SearchIRC – The most advanced IRC search engine.

What utter bollocks! SearchIRC throws other peoples rankings who have worked hard to get their network ranking above 820, down to 890. If I remember correctly, SearchIRC rankings are based on the number of people, the number of channels, and the freshness factor. New networks are sprouting up all over the place, but don’t last long. This pushes the larger, developing networks ranking down, making way for these smaller networks who usually die off 3 months later.

I would like to take FSIRC as an example here. Over the past 4 months, we have seen the ranking rise past several other networks to pass over 90 places. Then last week, we dropped back down these 90 places. We used to have a simple relay link with another network, but this fell (due to reasons unexplainable to anyone). This could have something to do with it, but there are networks with less users, less traffic, and with “stale channels”, and they still rank higher than FSIRC.

I just think its about time SearchIRC enforced a policy that stated that you must have over 10 users consecutively, and all services daemons must be declared (as some networks use these to bump up ratings). I’m just fed up of people cheating their way to a higher ranking. Not only is it not fair, but it doesn’t give other people the chance to excel their networks into higher rankings.