This is a rant, but it will be short.

What I’m fed up with recently, is.. “Law Enforcers” who enforce rules or laws that weren’t publicised.

A police officer arresting someone for doing something within the law is likely to face disciplinary action. However, police officers, parents, other authority figures regularly make requests regarding rules that they have never told their subjects about, and expect us to follow their requests, simply because they are in authority and we are not. That, I believe, is an abuse of power.

I made mention in my Letter to the Christian Internet Community, to a particular legal rule about IRC users under the age of 13. The network that enforced this rule has made no publication (as to date) of this particular rule on its website, on either of its widely advertised webpages of rules, or in its MOTD, viewable on connect.

I contacted the network, and they replied saying “Thanks for pointing this out” – another staff member followed up by saying “It’s in the Java chat, where most new users connect” – I still haven’t seen it, though I concede I wasn’t looking hard.

Today, it happened again. Same place, probably same op, this time asked me to remove a clone. I considered my options, and decided to save everyone some hassle and go with it. I then went and looked up the rules – and once again, there was no mention of it. The closest I could find was a rule against CloneBots, which, ladies and gentlemen, are not the same as a simple clone. The purpose of a clonebot (and the reason for banning them) is to make multiple connections from the same location, and flood a network or channel or server (not just IRC, can include web and mail sometimes also) – causing as much disruption as possible, whether it be by flooding text, flooding join/part, anything that prevents the server from being utilised as it was intended. The reason for cloning is that most flood protection systems will prevent against a single user, however if all the clones are individually not flooding, only causing disruption as a whole, they manage to stay online a little longer.

This is not my reason for cloning. My reason for cloning is simple, really. I have 2 computers that I regularly move between, one is a desktop, and is stationary at my house. When I’m at home, I use this in my living room. When I’m out, or in the bedroom, or anywhere I don’t feel like sitting in the desk chair, I use the macbook, and chat there. Sometimes, and this happens more than most might believe, I move between them quite a bit in short spaces of time. To save everyone disruption, and prevent my own confusion, I tend to leave both logged in at the same time.

This is going to be raised, once again with CCNet, and I will put to them two questions – if it’s for the purpose of saving problems rather than causing them, is it such an issue, and secondly, if it’s not a stated rule – why is it being enforced?

An authority figure making a request regarding a rule that they have never mentioned before, and expecting us to follow their requests, simply because they are in authority and we are not, I believe, is an abuse of power.