Laughing in the face of danger!
Posts tagged ukchatterbox
Protection In Numbers
Jun 10th
UKChatterbox fails again!
( 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.
- The fact the admin present is not allowed to directly deal with the issue.
- The admin is not even aware of COPPA.
Note: COPPA is an American Act, yet it is known about by most IRC Networks. - 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.
Stability Restored
Apr 21st
You may have seen a highly contraversial blog about 6 months ago stating why UKChatterbox was regarded as unstable. By the looks of it, someone saw it and took my advice.
- 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.
