Staff

[Chris Oattes]

Recently, I have seen several attacks on staff by various people, with 
little or no apparent suggestions of a solution, other than "Staff 
should do what we want". I would like to propose a solution.

The main issue (or one of the main issues) as I understand it is a 
refusal by staff to k-line individuals that some people that either 
"spam" or "attack" the #*ubuntu* channels.

I would like to suggest that what these people actually want is to rid 
the ubuntu namespace of these people, and that the easiest way to do 
this is to get staff to k-line them. However, it is my opinion that it 
is not the job of staffers to get involved in the day-to-day running of 
a channel - you wouldn't complain to the national government about some 
noisy neighbours.

I believe that a system whereby the irc council could instigate a 
namespace wide ban first if they believe that an individual should be 
k-lined. This would involve the person in question being banned from 
every #*ubuntu* channel. This would have to be a decision that would not 
be taken lightly (but then again, neither should be the decision to 
request a k-line).

As I understand it, a k-line is essentially equivalent to a ban in every 
channel on the network and removing the ability to PM any users. A 
namespace wide ban would basically implement the same thing, only 
restricted to #*ubuntu*, which is the only set of channels the council 
should actually care about (as council members that is, I understand 
that they may have affiliations to channels outside #*ubuntu*, but that 
should not affect their deicsions in #*ubuntu*).

This namespace-wide ban would allow a pretty close approximation to a 
k-line, but without any interaction with staff required.

Any suggestions / comments are welcome

Chris Oattes (Seeker`)