Code of Conduct

We try and remain as informal as possible, but there are some rules we'd appreciate it if you'd follow! Broadly, if you're friendly, tolerant, and reasonable, you'll probably get a pretty long way without any specific knowledge of the rules - but for the avoidance of doubt, here they are!

The rules

In order to make the channel a pleasant place to be for all of our users, we'd appreciate it if you tried to remain as friendly and tolerant as possible. We don't maintain a family-friendly or restrictive language policy, but you should bear in mind the tone of what you write and who's around if you feel the need to swear. If you find that you're becoming frustrated with the channel or other users, we'd encourage you to take a moment to do something else, or apply the principle of equality by simplicity. Try and ensure you don't make people feel like you're just taking advantage of them - help others out whilst you're waiting for a reply to your questions, and say thanks!.

As mentioned above, we'd appreciate it if you'd endeavor to be friendly and tolerant. We also encourage debates and in-depth discussions about topical subjects. If you choose to participate in one, we would appreciate it if you'd remain as reasonable as possible, and employ the skills of logic and critical thinking. If you're unfamiliar with these, don't worry - not being a dick will get you a long way. However, the basic skills of critical thinking will serve you well in discussion, and enable you to communicate more efficiently, and spot when others are being less than forthcoming with the truth!

If you're asking for help, first off, thanks! - questions and the resulting discussion of the answer(s) in a collaborative environment are what make IRC and the forum great, and by helping to add to the atmosphere, you benefit all of us. We often find that we learn a lot even from questions we already think we know the answers to - about people, alternative approaches, and cool new resources and tools. However, if you are intending to ask a question, we'd appreciate it if you'd follow a couple useful guidelines to help you, and us, make the best use of our time:

We maintain no strict policy regarding offtopic chat in the channel - however, the discussion of Aircrack-ng, and broadly related disciplines is the primary focus of the channel, so you may be asked to take discussions elsewhere, particularly if there are venues on Libera.Chat better suited to them, if there are other conversations going on, or if they're repetitive or otherwise seen by the channel staff as being detrimental to the good atmosphere of the channel.

The forum, on the other hand, has specific sections depending on the topic and/or your knowledge level. Each of them should have a pinned topic indicating what is accepted. Do your best to assess which section is most appropriate to start a discussion. Mistakes happen and if a moderator doesn't find the topic appropriate for the section, it will be moved.

Help with homework: we'd rather you not ask others to do homework or assignments for you. If you have questions that relate to others subjective opinions on topics (eg. "I'm writing a paper on corporate wireless security - can anyone comment or provide case studies?"), or if you want to ask for a pointer to resources for research then (eg. "I'm writing a paper on WPA networks - can anyone recommend some good reference material?") others may be happy to help; but if these questions do relate to academic work, please say so.

Certain things are seen as being specifically offtopic and are not tolerated. These topics include:

Spam, flooding, attacks against users, and other forms of disruptive behavior not otherwise specified are unwelcome. This includes, but is not restricted to, the operation of bots, public logging of the channel, and scripts such as those that publically announce what track your away status. Spam/flood will result in a ban without a warning.

From time to time, you may be asked to take conversations elsewhere, treat others reasonably, steer a conversation in a particular direction, or a variety of other things in order to preserve the ambience and usefulness of the channel and forum. If you're the target of such-a request, please be as reasonable as you can, and if you wish to query or take issue with it, do so in private message with the staffer in question, rather than making noise.

Repeated breaking of the rules will cause staffers to kick or ban you from the channel or forum. This will particularly apply if you're seen to be willfully ignoring the rules after we've drawn your attention to them. Many forms of disruptive behavior, such as flooding or trolling, may result in discipline such as a ban without a warning. We try and avoid the use of force wherever possible, and we'd appreciate it if you'd help us in pursuing this goal!

If you're a bystander whilst a staffer is forced to use his or her powers for channel/forum management, we'd appreciate your understanding and consideration in awaiting the end of the incident, and your assistance in keeping the SNR as favorable as possible by not complaining, commentating or gloating. This serves to make antisocial behavior such as flooding less attractive (the smaller the reaction, the less the return on the malfeasance), and so benefits you as well as us! As before, if you have queries, please feel free to /msg a staffer - or ride the turbulence out!