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<title>GNU and FSF related IRC channels
- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>

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<h2>Rules and guidelines for the official GNU and FSF IRC channels</h2>

<p>IRC (Internet Relay Chat) provides a wonderful resource to connect
free software users and developers together.  Our channels try to be
welcoming to both new people and long-time regulars.  These guidelines
exist with that goal in mind.</p>

<p>Everyone who uses or contributes to free software is a valuable
member of the free software community.  The goal of the GNU and FSF
IRC channels is to provide a place for the community to discuss things
and talk about free software and other issues which affect the rights
of computer users, such as Digital Restrictions Management.</p>

<p><b>If you have problems with any of these channels, with trolls or
abusive members, please email us at: <a
href="mailto:campaigns@fsf.org">campaigns@fsf.org</a>.</b></p>

<h3>List of channels</h3>
<p>This is a list of our channels.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/gnu">#gnu</a> —
the <em>official</em> GNU Project Channel</li>
<li><a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/gnu-women">#gnu-women</a> — a channel for women in GNU and other free software</li>
<li><a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/gnu-es">#gnu-es</a> — GNU in Spanish</li>
<li><a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/gnu-mx">#gnu-mx</a> — Discussion
  about GNU Mexico chapter</li>
<li><a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/fsf">#fsf</a> — Discussion about the
<a href="http://www.fsf.org/">FSF (Free Software Foundation) and fsf.org</a>
</li>
<li><a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/libreplanet">#libreplanet</a> — Discussion of the LibrePlanet website, and <a href="http://www.fsf.org/conference/">conference</a>.</li>
<li><a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/emacs">#emacs</a> — Discussion
regarding <a href="/software/emacs/">Emacs</a></li>
<li><a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/hurd">#hurd</a> — Discussion regarding
<a href="/software/hurd/">Hurd</a></li>
<li><a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/grub">#grub</a> — for the GNU bootloader, <a href="/software/grub/">GRUB</a>.</li>
<li><a href="irc://irc.oftc.net/savannah">#savannah</a> —
<a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/">Savannah.GNU.org</a> hangout channel</li>
<li><a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/gnu-webmasters">#gnu-webmasters</a> — The
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/people/webmeisters.html">GNU Webmasters</a>
channel, for discussions about www.gnu.org</li>
<li><a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/erc">#erc</a> — IRC channel about ERC, an IRC client for Emacs</li>
<li><a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/emacs-beginners">#emacs-beginners</a> — IRC channel for helping out Emacs beginners</li>
<li><a href="irc://irc.gnu.org/emacsconf">#emacsconf</a> — Discussion about the Emacs Conference</li>
</ul>

<h3>Channel rules</h3>

<ol>
<li>Respect — don't engage in racism or hate speech.  People are
  entitled to different opinions.</li>
<li>Appropriate — think before you type, is your comment appropriate?
  Is it possible someone may misinterpret what you're saying in jest
  as hateful speech?</li>
<li>Keep it on topic — personal attacks, trolling/baiting or flooding
  (posting multiple repetitive lines or large amounts of code) of the
  channel will not be tolerated.</li>
<li>And finally — each GNU Project and FSF channel exists to
  promote a specific aspect of GNU development or use; more generally,
  they all exist to promote free software and software users' freedom.
  Use the channel in ways that support these goals.</li>
</ol>

<h3>Abuses will not be tolerated</h3>

<p>IRC is not the exclusive playground of a few select individuals,
and recently some users have been banned from various official
channels.  These bans are an unfortunate, but unfortunately necessary
action in order to prevent further abuses from these users.</p>

<p>Bans can be applied to a channel, or to all channels based on the
severity or frequency of the abuses, at the discretion of the channel
operators.</p>

<p>Before you are banned, you will often be warned by an operator
first, however this is not always practical and an operator may deem
it unnecessary if a user has recently been kicked or banned.</p>

<p>In an ideal world, there would be no need for IRC operators, but
instead of trying to blame operators for this, blame the users who are
not willing to be in our community.</p>

<hr />

<p>Rules end here, but here are some helpful suggestions…</p>

<h3>Getting help</h3>

<p>Speak to one of the operators.  If an operator is unable to help
you immediately, please be patient.  Ask other members of the channel
for help and contact details for the operator.</p>

<p>You can find a list of operators by typing <tt>/msg chanserv access
#gnu list</tt> (where #gnu is the channel you are interested in).</p>

<h3>Freenode guidelines</h3>

<p>Freenode also
maintains <a href="http://freenode.net/channel_guidelines.shtml">a
list of channel guidelines</a> which you should also consider.
Certain discussions such as GNU vs BSD, vi
vs <a href="/software/emacs/">Emacs</a> are often healthy to free
software discussion and we encourage healthy debate.</p>

<h3>Remember</h3>

<p>IRC is there for everyone, not just seasoned GNU Developers. developers.  It is
unreasonable to expect everyone to ignore a user who is misbehaving,
and if you have a GNU or FSF cloak, you may be reassigned an
“unaffiliated” cloak, in accordance
with <a href="http://freenode.net/policy.shtml#behaviorandcloaks">Freenode
guidelines</a> if you continue to abuse your privileges.</p>

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<p class="unprintable">Updated:
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