We desperately need more ops in #ubuntu.

Fri Dec 15 20:16:34 UTC 2023

Good morning/evening, and thanks for your time.

I wish to call attention to the current state of affairs as far as 
channel moderation in the #ubuntu IRC room. Based on both recent and 
past activity, it is my opinion that we do not have enough active IRC 
operators present to handle the current rate of spam and disruption that 
flows into #ubuntu on a regular basis. This can be shown by viewing the 
IRC logs for the #ubuntu room over the last two years.

To obtain the needed data, I grabbed all of the #ubuntu IRC logs over 
2022 and 2023, then scanned for events that needed operator 
intervention. I have defined an "event that needs operator intervention" 
as being any discrete event within the channel wherein which the !ops 
trigger was used due to an actual rule violation, and the offending user 
did not cease misbehaving after the trigger was used (or the misbehavior 
was very serious). Multiple !ops triggers in relation to the same user 
are considered a single event, and illegitimate or potentially 
overzealous uses of the !ops trigger are disqualified. From this list of 
events, I then studied the logs to find all events that needed operator 
intervention where no intervention was present. I have defined "operator 
intervention" as being any activity by an operator listed by ubottu when 
the !ops trigger was used, with such activity being at least somewhat in 
relation to the misbehaving user's activity. Any visible or suspected 
activity is qualified. Finally, any events which resulted in Libera 
staff stepping in are considered the same as being handled by the ops 
team statistically (though are distinguished from normal operator 
intervention).

I do note that the IRC logs do not keep record of joins, leaves, bans, 
kicks, etc. Some of this info may be inaccurate as a result, though I 
suspect it is mostly reliable as usually someone says "thanks" when a 
user gets banned, or the operator says something.

In my personal opinion, if more than 15% of events that needed operator 
intervention go unhandled, that likely means we need more active 
operators. According to my study, the percentage of missed events is 
over double that. I therefore conclude that we desperately need more ops 
in #ubuntu, and would like for the IRC operator team to consider having 
a vote for additional IRC operators in that channel.

Thank you for your consideration.

Here are the results of my study:

Number of events that needed operator intervention: 58
Number of events handled by operators: 35
Number of events that needed operator intervention where no intervention 
was present: 23
Percentage of unhandled events: 39.65%

Event list:

2022-01-12: offending user Guest36, operator intervention from 
JackFrost/Unit193
2022-01-21: offending user elinfo, operator intervention from tomreyn
2022-02-23: offending user yrdsb, operator intervention from el
2022-03-05: offending user Kolusion, **no operator intervention**
2022-03-08: offending user merc (who ironically reported himself), 
operator intervention from krytarik
2022-03-19: offending user oneone, operator intervention from krytarik
2022-03-26: offending user thelounge8575, **no operator intervention**
2022-04-03: offending user 079AAAL91, Libera staff intervention from 
A_Dragon
2022-04-09: offending user Phalor, **no operator intervention**
2022-04-11: offending users yrdsb and x0x, **no operator intervention**
2022-04-15: offending user PHDQue, *minor* operator intervention from 
CarlFK but spam was left unchecked for over 30 minutes after the initial 
!ops call, thus considering this **no operator intervention**
2022-05-04: offending user LinuxAspy, **no operator intervention**
2022-05-13: offending user Guest459, operator intervention from Unit193
2022-05-21: offending user NateDoge, operator intervention appears to 
have occurred but op cannot be identified from logs
2022-06-03: offending user SleepyMario, operator intervention from tomreyn
2022-06-21: offending user funnyboy243, operator intervention from Unit193
2022-06-21: offending username inappropriate, operator intervention 
possible but not apparent
2022-06-22: offending user retardedme-, operator intervention present, 
presumably from Unit193
2022-07-04: offending user pitiless, **no operator intervention**, 
severe incident
2022-07-15: offending user filename, **no operator intervention**
2022-07-16: offending user nshire, operator intervention appears to have 
come from a bot of some sort
2022-07-25: offending user Guest1845, operator intervention very likely
2022-08-12: offending user blei, operator intervention from sarnold
2022-08-14: offending users ZuppaVideos and ronmerkle, operator 
intervention from krytarik and Bahhumbug
2022-09-05: offending user BASHitup, operator intervention very likely
2022-09-11: offending user scribz, **no operator intervention**
2022-09-14: offending user Morpheus_37, operator intervention from genii
2022-09-20: offending user lagunalorre, operator intervention from Eickmeyer
2022-10-18: offending user samouy, operator bot appears to have been 
triggered
2022-10-19: offending user supremekai, operator intervention from 
sarnold suspected
2022-12-05: offending user lagunaloire123, operator intervention from 
Unit193
2023-03-17: offending user Guest64, operator intervention possible but 
not apparent
2023-04-13: offending user invitado, **no operator intervention**
2023-04-23: offending user tyrell_willick6[, operator intervention from 
el likely
2023-04-24: offending user KIRIESHKA, **no operator intervention**
2023-04-25: offending user KIRIESHKA, **no operator intervention** again
2023-07-21: offending user fastwifi_, operator intervention from Unit193
2023-08-09: offending users zeroadrenaline and mort, operator 
intervention from hggdh for mort and *maybe* for zeroadrenaline
2023-08-17: offending user diamat, operator intervention from genii
2023-08-22: offending user Phalanxer, **no operator intervention**, 
severe incident
2023-08-26: offending user diamat_, operator intervention from tomreyn, 
no !ops trigger used but severe enough to mention nonetheless
2023-08-29: offending user WHATEVERYEAH (suspected to be Kolusion), **no 
operator intervention**
2023-09-06: offending user HackerII (aka `oerheks, note backtick at 
beginning of name), operator intervention from genii
2023-09-22: offending users mina34, delmina, and possibly Guest22, 
operator intervention from el
2023-09-23: offending users casualuse and casualus8, **no operator 
intervention**, severe incident
2023-10-03: offending user Reyaina, operator intervention possibly from 
tomreyn
2023-10-08: offending username inappropriate, **no operator intervention**
2023-10-09: offending user corey-aid (and several other nicks), **no 
operator intervention**, moderately severe incident
2023-10-10: offending user notliks, **no operator intervention**, severe 
incident
2023-10-17: offending user con, operator intervention from el
2023-10-25: offending user naruto69, **no operator intervention**, 
severe incident
2023-10-26: offending user ruhsayngone, **no operator intervention**
2023-10-27: offending user kokomop3n0r, operator intervention from krytarik
2023-10-27: offending user Guest42, **no operator intervention**
2023-11-08: offending user librehats, **no operator intervention**
2023-12-01: offending user elias_a, **no operator intervention**
2023-12-08: offending user lagunaloire123, operator intervention suspected
2023-12-10: offending user violetflame, operator intervention from el

-- 
Aaron Rainbolt
Lubuntu Developer
Matrix: @arraybolt3:matrix.org
IRC: arraybolt3 on irc.libera.chat
GitHub:https://github.com/ArrayBolt3

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