IRC and the Feeling of Power

[Mike Ingle <MIKEINGLE@delphi.com>]

Hawkwind describes the "justice system" of IRC in his forward.

It seems to me that the kick/ban process on IRC is a good example of how
not to moderate a forum. Many people on IRC seem to be there for no other
purpose than to enjoy the testosterone high of being op. They go to a lot
of trouble to write bots which keep their channels open and op them when
they join. They take great pleasure in kicking people. There is often a
little clique which runs a channel, and whenever one of those people
joins, someone else ops him. Have you ever been on a channel where
nobody was saying anything, but people were constantly opping, de-opping,
kicking, banning, unbanning, coming back in and flooding the channel
before being kicked again, etc...? I don't use IRC that much, but from
what I've seen, that system doesn't work very well. An extropians-style
kill command would probably be better for IRC or the list. If someone is
causing trouble, you could just set to ignore them.