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THE FRIENDLY TIMES

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      No. 2, December 1995


Hi everyone!

 Well, December has arrived and with it comes Christmas...  and 
the second issue of The Friendly Times!  We have had quite a few winter 
storms here in Canada already, and all have left a blanket of snow 
behind.  Already time to go out shopping for gifts, going out on 
Christmas parties, spending time with your loved ones, and maybe 
even spending a bit of time IRC'ing.  'Tis the season!  I would like to 
wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Merry Yule, Happy Hanukkah and best wishes
for a wonderful New Year.  

      Season's Greetings!

      Cancerian :)


-----The Op Section---------------------------------------------------------


Buddybot, OpCom and Jello -- By Super

Hi all!
 Well to start off, I would like to thank Cancerian for putting in the
time and the effort to put this newsletter together. I think it improves the
channel in the long run because it gives us more of a group feel. :)

 To start things off on some hot issues, OpCom. I know that there
was a lot of complaints about OpCom in its way of doing things (being a 
little too pushy in some cases and bringing down new policies and 
rules).  Well, after the #opcom meeting (though informal), I sat back and
reminded all of the OpCom members that they are still just Ops. You see, my 
original intention for OpCom was that I could have ears and eyes on 
the channel when I am not around. 
 This is where things got lost a bit. I have no problems with them 
or any other Op suggesting things for other Ops to do. However, once we 
start telling one another what to do, we start to create a lot of unnecessary
tension and the channel can possibly split. This is not good.
 If you are having a problem with another Op on the channel, mail me,
or talk to OpCom and they should talk to me. However, in the extreme case
of an Op war, all of the OpCom members now have access to X so
that they can remove the people involved. 
 If the OpCom members are abusive of X or are over stepping their
responsibilites (ex: being a little too pushy), let me know and I will 
look into it. 

 Your Input Wanted: How would you improve the channel? Mail me and
let me know if you think of something that will improve things.

 In January, I am heading back to Waterloo and planning to recompile
Buddybot to allow him to autogreet non-Ops to the channel. I am considering
a way for non-Op regulars not to see the autogreet. All it will be is a 
message welcoming them to #friendly, play nice, and don't be rude.. 
Something like that.

 Well I tried to keep this short as possible so I better end it here
before I go off my rocker and bore the heck out of everyone. Have a great
holiday season.
      Super


Well I created a channel called #shelter for you folks if you ever need
a place to hang out on. It is +mstn so you need to have ops to
talk on the channel but it will give you a place to hang if you get sick
of #friendly (which I know can happen)
       Super


   ---=== OpCom Update ===---
      By: Hiko

 Hello #Friendlies!

 This is your monthly OpCom update.  As you already know, 
OpCom has been existing for about a month now.  I'm sure you all know 
who its members are and who are not, but I'd like to take a few moments 
here to clarify our purpose as there has been much confusion 
regarding OpCom.  This confusion has been mostly due to lack of 
communication from OpCom's side, and I apologize to you for this.  The 
OpCom is here to basically act as advisors to Super and help him in 
ensuring that #Friendly runs smoothly.  Obviously, as OpCom is only 
starting up, we face many problems regarding it.  We would greatly 
appreciate it if you would be patient with us.  This section of the Times 
should bring everyone up to date on the major issues we are facing on 
#Friendly, so please take time to read it carefully.  Thank you.


*** New Ops! ***

 The first order of business...  Let me introduce the new Ops 
on #Friendly.  If you see them, make sure to say hi and welcome them.  :)
I've asked them to briefly introduce themselves to all of us.  I've 
originally asked for a couple of lines, but some of them (particularly 
someone who goes by the nick Lirpa and my ex-husband Sparks...) gave me 
a lot more.  =P  Other than correcting a few spelling mistakes and 
editing white spaces for readability, the introductions are original.

<Tharia>	(registered 11/14)

 My name is Jaime Marie Zecha.  I am eighteen years old (as of 
Sat. Dec 9th!)  and quite outspoken (But aren't all 18 year olds?).  I am 
from Long Island, NY... a small beach town, and I attend University in 
Oklahoma City.  I am a music education/vocal performance major, play the 
piano and sing.  I also write short stories.  I am very honored to be a 
friendly Op!

<Sparks>	(registered 11/15)

 --FAQ on sparks--

Age/sex check:
 Usually answer 19/M but that may just be wishful thinking. In reality 
 <sigh, yes had to bring reality into this!> I am 30/F.
Nationality:
 Usually answer from Finland but again, the truth is even stranger coz 
 I am actually British living in Hong Kong. I also have Australian 
 and New Zealand passports so I am available to adopt the highest 
 bidder! *smile*
Occupation:
 Part-time bartop dancer with Bee (although we don't get paid, just 
 do it for the love of it! hahaha j/k). Can ordinarily be found 
 in a 6x6foot cell (should be padded, too) in the Creative Department 
 of an ad agency coz I am a copywriter, which, for the uninitiated, 
 means that I write ads, not that I do legal searches on copyrights or 
 even that I am a copy typist! 
How I discovered irc:
 Talking to bee at 5 AM in a bar in the middle of a typhoon and she 
 promised to get me the software. I never looked back - come to 
 think of it, I never seem to look sideways either... just straight 
 ahead at my screen.
Most fun I've had on irc:
 Seeing Hiko dressed up in a lovely white "meringue" wedding dress 
 on our wedding day!
Worse day on irc:	
 When Hiko ran off with the best man at our wedding!

>From Shona aka Sparks

<Jest>		(registered 11/22)

 Hey all!  It's me, jest!  Now I KNOW that the majority of Ops on
#Friendly either know little about me, or nothing at all!  So this is my one
legitimate chance at saying a few things about myself so I don't appear 
to be alien to y'all...:)  I live in southwestern British Columbia, in a 
town called Sardis (90 km's or 60 miles east of Vancouver B.C.) (West 
Coast).  I enjoy hiking, chatting, stargazing, pretty much anything that 
there is to really enjoy!  I respect all points of view (unless otherwise 
noted), and I'm totally easy to get along with..:)  I hope to see y'all 
on #Friendly!!  We are IRC!  :D

    jest  :)

<Lirpa>		(registered 11/27)

 Hello fellow friendly people!  8)

 As King Hiko *bappah'* has asked, I shall try to introduce myself to
the rest of you!  (this should be interesting)  *grin*

 *ahem*

 My nick is Lirpa and my real name is April!  *bap* For those of you
who didn't figure that out!  (Not mentioning names *Hiko*)  ;>  I live in
Houston, Texas and I'm 19.  Oh, and I'm a chick, ha ha!  I have been a chop
on #Chatzone since June of 1995 and have been on the Internet since October
of 1994.  I'm a goofball, if you haven't figured that out already *bop* and
I just like to have fun and help others out with whatever they shall request.
I am happy to have joined this cool channel and shall do my best to keep it
in order and maintain its enjoyment for all users.

 Thanks for talking to me and giving me a chance!

   Sincerely,

   April Woolley
   lirpa  st67j@jetson.uh.edu  or  lirpa@nether.net  :>

<TRex>		(registered 12/07)

 Hello everyone, I am Rex William Wilson in Pembroke NC.  I go to 
school at Pembroke State University.  I have been on #Friendly since 
Sept. 94, it was the first channel I ever went to.  I look forward to 
working to keep #Friendly as special as it was to me when I was a newbie.


 Congratulations to all and lets work together to make #Friendly 
live up to its name!


*** Some ideas to make #Friendly a better place ***

 We would first like to extend our appreciation to every one of 
you for making #Friendly so successful.  #Friendly wouldn't be the same 
without all of you, as one of the biggest reasons #Friendly has been a 
huge success recently because ops on #Friendly are all good people.  
In the past month or two, we have seen a great increase in the number of 
users, and we now frequently beat our "rival" chat channels #Chatzone 
and #Chat in number of users.  

 Lately, there has been wide spread of abuse of power, 
position, and general dissention among the ops.  Combined with our 
growing user base, we think that it will help us greatly if we had some 
kind of basis as guidelines for Ops, to avoid confusion, double standards 
and such.  We want to avoid having a set of strict rules, because this 
will only result in Ops being too uptight about channel rules, and IRC 
will start to become less fun.  We do not want Ops (including OpCom) 
jumping on each other for not following the rules.  Therefore, we give
guidelines merely as suggestions to make #Friendly a better place.  Some 
of those guidelines are left vague on purpose, to allow for the Ops' 
discretion.  We all know that all of you are capable of using common 
sense and making sound decisions, so details are left up to you.  

 All guidelines will be written and documentation will be made 
available on BuddyBot.  All major changes in those documents will be 
announced to all Ops beforehand, so that Ops can voice their opinions to 
OpCom, who will take all of your opinions seriously to try to come up 
with the best fit policy for #Friendly.  

 Op wars and fights should never happen on the public channel.  
Ops should not air their channel politics on the channel, as political
talk, more often than not, will result in "not so friendly" chat.  
The best thing to do here would be to get a room (#Shelter is now 
available for all #Friendly ops hideout) or to use /msg and/or /wall for 
these types of discussions.  Better yet, please try to E-mail OpCom 
members if you have something to say.  We are, as mentioned before, 
always happy to hear your opinions.  If the offense is serious enough, it 
will be reported to Super and a stiff penalty (including suspension of ops) 
could result.

 Also, we ask Ops to please keep from kicking/deop'ing other Ops 
for fun to a minimum, as this will give the image that (quoting Super) 
"#Friendly is a power trip for its Ops which it is NOT!"

 OpCom members do have the ability to ban someone via X and will do 
in order to end an opwar on the channel.  This will happen only in 
*extreme* cases.  Abuse of this privilege will result in disciplinary 
action being taken against this OpCom member which may result in their 
removal from OpCom.  Any OpCom member using X to ban/suspend an Op's 
access to the channel or ending an Op war by banning the individuals 
involved MUST report their actions to OpCom and Super as soon as possible. 

 The open channel is meant for public friendly chat.  It is not a 
forum for political debates, opwars, sexual conversations, etc.  The Ops 
are supposed to show good examples and assist in the smooth running of this 
channel.  Double standards and bogus kicks set poor standards for the 
rest of #Friendly users to follow.  I am sure you're all aware of issues 
by now, but here are three of the more popular issues I hope to clarify.

1.  Ops using ASCII pics/long scripts & double standards of ops

 There has been cases when someone was kicked off #Friendly for 
using ASCII pics and/or long scripts (e.g. Pillow Fighter 2, etc.).  
However, we always see some of the ops using those same scripts as well.  
This, obviously, is a double standard, for which we do get a fair amount 
of complaints.  Also, while those scripts are cute, when we have many 
users on the channel, it becomes unnecessary flooding.  Users and Ops 
should limit displaying of ASCII pics and large scripts (4 lines or so) 
when the channel has a large number of users on (around 20 or more).  
If you want to show your script to someone, please use it in another 
channel, /query that person, and/or rewrite your script so it works for 
/msg as well.

2:  Quick kicks

 Another complain we keep getting is Ops kicking users off the 
channel too quickly.  Sometimes, users do not know what they did wrong to 
get kicked off.  As mentioned in the Op FAQ, there are over a thousand 
channels on Undernet and each channel has its own rules.  So a user may 
do something that is appropriate for another channel, without knowing 
that it is unappropriate on #Friendly.  The guideline is on the Op 
FAQ.  (/msg BuddyBot get friendly.opfaq)  The best thing would be to warn 
the user first, but again, Ops should be able to tell when someone 
joins #Friendly for the whole reason of disturbing the open channel, who 
should know better than to even try to mess with #Friendly!

3:  auto-kick, greet, etc.

 Ops on #Friendly should never use any kind of auto-kick, whether 
activated on words said in the channel or on certain actions performed on 
the channel.  The reason for this is that any kind of auto-kick will 
result in quick kicks mentioned above.  If your script has an auto-kick, 
please disable it.  If you can't, you shouldn't be using scripts that you 
have no control over anyway.  Also, auto-greeting is considered very lame 
on the Undernet.  Please do not use auto-greet either.  If you see some 
non-Ops using auto-greet, please ask that individual to turn it off on 
#Friendly.  If that individual does not turn it off after a few warnings, 
kick is an available option.  Please remember that auto-anything should 
be left to the bots, not something humans should do.  

 Any Op who seems to have trouble following this and other 
guidelines could have a small talk with Super.  Double standards 
won't be accepted on #Friendly anymore.  OpCom members are no exceptions 
to these guidelines either.  If problems persist after a few warnings, an 
Op status suspension for some amount of time (two weeks or so) could be a 
consequence.


*** Getting help ***

 Last but not least, here are places to look for help when you are
having trouble on #Friendly.

 --Where to get help:  When you have problems about/with...

1.  Other users on #Friendly
 Handle this like real ops, please.  Basically, just follow the 
guideline on kick.

2.  Other users harassing you in /msg
 If someone is harrassing you through private msg. or you get a call 
for help from someone who is being harassed that way, the best thing here 
to do is to /ignore that individual (the harasser, not the one who needs 
help!).  Syntax for ignore is...
 /ignore <nick> all
or	/ignore *!*user@*host all

3.  Other Ops
 If you have problems with other Ops on #Friendly, please talk to 
Super and/or an OpCom member.  Please do not start an Op war!  If you 
think you can solve the problem in civilized manner, please do so.  
Otherwise, the best thing to do is come talk to one of us.

4.  Bots (SuperBot/BuddyBot)
 If, for some reason, the bots are not recognizing you, or it 
looks like they are having some kind of trouble, please talk to Super, as 
he is the only one who has access to them.  If he's not on-line, please 
E-mail him at Super@alias.undernet.org

5.  X
 As mentioned above, OpCom members now has access to X.  However, 
this is to be used in an emergency only, and any abuse of X will cause that 
individual to be removed from OpCom swiftly.  If for some reason, both 
SuperBot and BuddyBot has lost Ops and the only one with ops on #Friendly 
is X, please try to find an OpCom member and/or Super quickly to regain 
ops.  Please also note that Super and Teal are part of (Super is actually 
head of) CService admin, so if X seems to be having trouble on #Friendly, 
please see if one of them is available.


*** Feel free to come talk to us!!! ***

 Please feel free to come talk to OpCom members!  We welcome any 
and all inputs from all of you.  If you don't feel like voicing your 
opinion to Super directly, come talk to an OpCom member and we will make 
sure your opinion is heard.  We will do so anonymously if you wish.  
Please don't be intimidated to come talk to us!  We can't stress enough 
the fact that we are ops on #Friendly just like you.  We are just given a 
voice to speak and to represent all the Ops.  We are doing our best to do 
so, but we cannot do that without your inputs.  So please help us out.  
Thank you very much!  :)


*** Had enough of me yet?! ***

 Ok, I'm sure you're sick and tired from hearing me anymore, so 
I'll be closing right here.  Special thanks goes to Angel111 and Super 
for helping me write this up, and Cancerian for proofreading.  And thank 
you for taking time to read this.  Again, if you have any questions, 
I'll be happy to answer them for you.  And please come talk to us if you 
have suggestions.  We're always happy to hear from you.  Thanks again 
for your time.  Keep #Friendly live up to its name, and have a great time 
in #Friendly, everybody!

    Hiko
    centihar@mines.edu


**** #Friendly Meeting -- By: Mel

A while back, a group of #Friendly Ops were discussing the possibility of 
another group meeting similar to the one that occured in New York this 
past summer.  The suggestion was made that this next meeting be in 
Chicago and almost everyone agreed that that would a great place to meet 
this time. Chicago being a more mid-west location and not to mention a 
great town! (Ok..so I may be a bit biased)  Since I hail from the Windy 
City, it looked like people were looking to me to kind of organize 
it...which is fine with me.  I've asked BadPlaid if he would help and after 
many hours of pulling teeth, he agreed. ;)  

So my question to all of you is, when do you want this meeting to occur?  
We kind of all agreed that April would be a good month..but I'm open to 
suggestions if there is a better month for everyone.  The three possible 
dates (weekends) we were looking at are : April 13th, 20th, or 27th.  If 
you could please E-mail with your suggestions about the meeting and which 
date is good for you.  And if there is anyone else in the area that 
would like to help BP and myself...that too would be wonderful!

Hope to hear from you soon!

Mel
gsampp@nccseq.noctrl.edu


-----The Entertainment Section----------------------------------------------

Happy holidays to everyone!  This section is devoted to new and cool 
web sites.  Each month I will list 5 (or more) cool or useful sites
on the Web. The sites are ranked from 1 to 5, 1 being the best.

   1) Electronic Postcard
This is a really cool idea.  I have used it a few times to send to 
relatives and other people.  When you go to this site, you must first
click on an image that you would like to be in your postcard.  You 
then write in the text of your message. The person who you are 
sending the postcard to will get an E-mail saying that someone sent 
you a postcard and it gives them a password and info on how to view 
it, and they can then check it out..  This works pretty well.  The 
URL: http://persona.www.media.mit.edu/Postcards/

   2) Random 80's lyric
This is a pretty neat site.  When you go to this site a random lyric
from an 80's song will appear.  If you are like me, you will find
yourself constantly hitting the reload button :)  Worth a look if you
like 80's tunes, which I do...  http://itg-pc1.acns.nwu.edu/cgi-bin/lyric  
is the address.

   3) Outgoing Mail
This is a lighthearted humor sight.  Apparently this guy sends out
E-mail to various big and small companies with made-up stories, and he
actually gets responses!  This is a very funny site.  You have to see
it to know what I mean.  The URL for this one is:
http://www.mediashower.com/users/zug/outgoing/mailmain.html

   4) Virtual software library
If you are sick of spending hours looking for a particular shareware
or freeware program, go to this site.  At this site you can search
for a particular file by keyword or description.  It will search and
show you all the files it has that meet your requirements and it will 
show links how to get them.  This is a very useful site for finding
files..  The address for this one is:  http://www.shareware.com/

   5) Santa's page
The holidays couldn't be complete without a Santa page!!  I checked
this out and it is pretty neat.  You can view Santa's naughty or nice
list to see which you are..  You can get holiday recipes, learn why
certain traditions exist, and even E-mail Santa and get a response! :)
The address is: http://www.claus.com/.  It's worth a look. 

   That does it for this section. Look here next month for more good
web sites, if you know a good site E-mail me, and I'll include it!
--Stever(sac76424@saclink.csus.edu)


-----Birthdays!!!-----------------------------------------------------------

 Ladee would like to wish a happy birthday to Tharia, who turned 
18 on December 9.  She also wishes the same to Ladybelle, who will turn 
21 some time this month and to Ladybelle's son, Nick, who has his 
birthday on December 31.

   Best wishes to all of you!

-----New on The Friendly Times----------------------------------------------

 ABBA would like to organize a Classified section for The Friendly 
Times.  Anything that you'd ordinarily find in the Classifieds would fit 
into this category, including birthdays.  If you'd like to advertise 
something, or wish happy birthday like Ladee did, please E-mail ABBA at: 
art@phish.nether.net.


-----The Op Portrait--------------------------------------------------------

This month: Cancerian 

 No, it's not my idea, but Mar21 and company were coaxing me to do 
it, so here I am.  She thought that because I started the newsletter and 
all, I should do it next.  True, I did start it, but it's you guys that 
keep it going!  So watch out next month Mar21... *devilish laugh* :)))

1. Nick 

 Cancerian, though Stever has a whole library of nicks I use when 
there's not much going on on #Friendly and would like to have fun.  I 
regularly use Cancerian though. :)

2. Age and Gender

 19/M

3.  Where you're from, and where you're now

 I lived not far from Ottawa, Canada (Canada's Capital), and still 
live there.

4.  Occupation

 I'm a University of Ottawa student, in my first year, studying 
English lit. and French.

5.  Been an Op since (time)

 Well, you know sonny *pipe-smoking*, I remember the old days 
when.... ;))  Nah, actually I don't even smoke.  I have been an Op since 
July 1996 or so, but I discovered IRC about two weeks before I first came 
to #Friendly.  I went to #Wasteland, and still remember my first words I 
said there.  The Ops there are very friendly, and still go there from 
time to time.

6.  What you like best about #Friendly

 The people of course!!! It's such a great bunch to hang out 
with!  I always have such a great time there with everyone.  Dang, I 
missed Hiko's wedding?  I heard about that dress too.... woohoo Hiko!  LOL!

7.  What's the most embarrassing thing you ever did?

 Ok Mar21, I know this is what you've been waiting for... here goes!

At school:  I remember in grade school, I was in the seventh grade or so, 
and it was winter.  A bunch of friends and I threw snowballs at each 
other at recess, though the principal really didn't want us to.  One 
time, during the lunch recess, we all got dressed up and headed outside.  
Immediately, the snowball fight began and it was one of those mild days, 
where the snow just seems to stick.  Anyways, we were throwing huge 
snowballs at each other, not noticing that we were right in front of the 
teacher lounge windows, where the teachers were during recess.  After a 
while came one of my teachers to the playground doors, watching us.  We 
were having so much fun that we didn't even notice her looking at us!  
One of my friends went up to one of the doors and started throwing snowballs 
too, so I make this huge snowball and throw it at my friend.  Instead, 
the teacher, without even noticing that I just threw a snowball in her 
direction, opened the door and shouted: "Ok! Stop throwing those 
snowballs!".  Immediately after she said that, bam!  The snowball I threw 
at my friend landed right on my teacher.  She just looked at me furiously 
as she ordered everyone to come back in the school.  That afternoon, I 
wrote 100 times or so, "I will not throw any more snowballs".  Oh well!

On IRC:  I remember getting scripts when I compiled my own IRC client, 
and wasn't too familiar with the commands yet.  One day, I op'ed Myrth 
and someone msg'ed me that I shouldn't do that, so after that person said 
why and all, I typed /k for de-opping Myrth.  Instead, I should've done 
/d for de-op'ing instead of /k for yes, kicking.  I felt so bad that 
Myrth got kicked!

8.  What's the most embarrassing things one of your friends ever did?

 Hmm.... I really don't know.

9.  What's your biggest fantasy? (Other than sexual)

 Be a healthy and happy billionnaire.  That would be nice!

10.  If you had a million dollars, what would you do with it?  And if you 
had to spend it on the #Friendly people, what would you do?

 If I had to spend a million dollars, I would seriously buy a huge 
amount of the Amazon Rainforest, to keep it from being logged and 
exploited.  The rest, I'd buy a huge computer like Stever's.... hehehehe

 If I had to spend it on the #Friendly people, I would buy huge 
computers like Stever's for everyone, like a PowerMac or PowerPC or the 
equivalent if someone reads this 10 years from now, a dance club for 
Myrth, a script company for Sourpus, a book entitled "101 insults for 
Mar21" for Super and "101 insults for Super" for Mar21.  I'd buy a huge 
hair transplant salon for Hiko (I didn't forget you! LOL!), Frosted 
Flakes Cereal for Tiger, Teal clothes for Teal, huge TotoBones for 
Stever... I'm going to end this now, it sounds like I'm sharing my Wish 
List with Santa Claus!  


-----Last but not least----------------------------------------------------

 I would like to thank Hiko for taking the time to compile the 
articles for this month.  My communications program doesn't have that 
option at home, since I'm in DOS.  I would also like to thank Super for 
being our electronic newspaper boy.  Finally, I'd like to thank everyone 
that contributed to this month's issue.  

      Happy Holidays!
___________________________________________________________________________


          That's all folks! :)