#Help Guidelines

What is #Help?

#Help is our official help channel. We provide assistance with DareNET and basic IRC matters

Guidelines for those wanting to help

To ensure everyone gets the assistance they need, we request that those helping in the channel observe the following guidelines:

  • Anyone may help. You don't need to ask permission before assisting; however, we do expect your information to be accurate.
  • English is the preferred language. Please use correct grammar and avoid slang.
  • All help is to be done in channel. This allows others present to benefit from the knowledge being shared.
  • Don't be elitist. Today's newbies are tomorrow's experts. #Help is a place where people with knowledge lead by example. Helping other people takes patience. We're here to educate not humiliate. It's better not to answer a question than to use the opportunity to emphasize the limitations of the person seeking your help.
  • Abuse and ownership issues are off limits. Matters pertaining to abuse or ownership regarding accounts or channels should be referred to network staff. No exceptions. If a network staff member is not present, instruct the person on how to open a ticket with H.
  • Use full commands. When explaining Services' commands, we prefer that you use the private message method (e.g., /msg C HELP), rather than aliases or in-channel (fantasy) commands. This is fully supported by all clients and has the advantage of working regardless of where the person types it.
  • One helper per person. Avoid interrupting or improving on help being given. It only leads to confusion. Channel staff may interrupt if the information being given is incorrect or misleading.
  • Correction of others should be done in private. We suggest that you leave this to channel staff to avoid any larger problems. Please leave all comments about behaviors and warnings to channel staff -- only they have the power to actually take action should things escalate, anyway.
  • Decisions of channel staff are final. Arguing will only make the matter worse for you. Please respect their decisions. Any legitimate complaints can be sent here.

What is H?

H is our help queue bot, which manages support requests needing the attention of network staff. You may create a support request ticket by sending a private message to the bot describing your problem, for example:

/msg H Hi, I can't authenticate to my account (username) due to my host not matching. I tried using N's AUTHCOOKIE command,
but I'm not receiving the email.

Your ticket will remain in the queue until it's assigned to the next available staff  member, or you part the channel. All requests are handled in the order they're received. H will inform you if there are any unhandled requests ahead of you in the queue.

Who is channel staff?

You can safely assume that anyone in #help who is a channel operator or half-operator is staff. Those who are voiced may or may not be channel staff; although, these individuals have shown a comprehensive working knowledge of DareNET and IRC in general.