Technical details: why the change

Don't read this section unless you're ready for some ugly technical details. This section isn't necessary for ordinary users of cbstream.

Freenode has had its services pack replaced with a new one the end of last month. Services are some programs that handles tasks that an irc network needs but the irc server itself doesn't do: namely NickServ which manages registering nicknames, ChanServ which manages which users can gain what rights on each channel, MemoServ that stores messages for users that aren't online, and a few others.

The bot was using MemoServ instead of direct private messages to recieve its login messages because as my bot is often down, if someone impersonated its nick at those times, he could have read private message that people intended to send to the bot, so I didn't want to transfer sensitive information like perlmonks passwords that way. Logout commands, however, are safe to transmit in a direct private message for they don't contain sensitive data, in fact you can still send them that way to cbstream and will be able to do that in the future.

However, because of the way NickServ and MemoServ has changed by the services migration, it has become inconvenient to use MemoServ for sending the login messages. Twice now, I thought I could change the bot to adapt to the changes, but two more problems turned up a few days ago. (Update: thanks to planetscape for triggering one of the two bugs.) I believe that in theory it would be possible to fix the current system, but the changes it requires would be complicated and inconvenient. In fact, at least one freenode staff member stated his opinion that MemoServ isn't intended for this kind of thing.

I could think of two other ways to transmit the login messages. One is to use an external http form to log in. This would work, but the second is better.

Like I've said above, the method I've chosen is to have a separate login channel where you can type your passwords. Just like #cbstream itself, this channel will have channel modes +mz set, so only channel operators can read messages to that channel. Normally, the only channel operators will be the cbstream bot and ChanServ, the latter I can trust because it's ran by the freenode network. I and any perlmonks gods can also get a flag to be able to become an operator in emergencies, but this is not likely to happen often. I can trust perlmonks gods for this, because they could read your passwords anyway on the perlmonks server side. The full modes of the channel will be +mzRt-nir, which means users can write to it without joining, but they can join it as well if they find it more convenient. Also, the ChanServ SET GUARD option will be turned on.

The login channel has to be separate from the normal channel for two reasons. Firstly, I don't want people accidentally typing their perlmonks password but somehow mess up the command, as that could result in that password showing up in the chatterbox. Secondly, I'm giving operator rights to some people for the normal channel who are not perlmonks gods and not me – as I said above I can't do this on the login channel.

For perlmonks gods mostly: I'm giving op rights to the login channel

I'm giving operator rights for the login channel for any perlmonks god. This flag allows you to gain operator rights on the channel in case of emergencies by issuing a command to ChanServ, thus you can see who's using it, ban people from it, or kill the bot by kicking it.

I'm also giving operator rights for the normal channel not only to perlmonks gods but to other folks on my discretion (I may take these rights back too). This allows you to become channel operator on the normal channel, thus you can see who is sending what messages using cbstream on it, kick users, ban users, make important announcements about cbstream or perlmonks problems people who joined that channel can hear, or kill cbstream by kicking it. I'm also setting a flag that allows you to change the topic of either the normal or the login channels using a ChanServ message. I can also give a password by which you can kill the bots using the web form.

To apply to get these flags, send a message form your perlmonks account stating your intent and the name of your registered account on freenode. For the godly rights, do this from

Those people whom I have already given these operator rights will keep having them, and I will set the topic change flag for the new login channel that doesn't currently exist. For the godly rights, send the message from a gods/godes/tye account.

I ask Corion and theorbtwo to please apply again this way, for I don't remember whether I've done this proper procedure when I've given them op rights, so I'd like to verify that the corresponding account is indeed controlled by them.

For everything2 users: same as above for everything2 and cbriver

Thus, if you are a user or potential user of cbriver, these changes of the login system will apply to you as well, except I might implement them somewhat later than on cbstream.

The login channel will be a separate one from the one for cbstream, so please recommend names for this as well.

(For pedants, remove the comment about the name #cbupstream keeping only #cbriver-login as my suggestion; remove the line about Corion and theorbtwo; change gods/godes/tye to just gods; and correct all links.)