IRCop Interview - Fuggs
I met Fuggs a while ago when i first started as an oper, he's always there when assistance is needed and will gladly give it with a big smile on his face ;). Apart from his dedicated work one of his great characteristics is that he's always in a *terrific* mood (trust me on that ;) everytime I'd ask him he says 'wonderful' or 'great' or 'splendid').
‹Angelwink› We would love to know more about Fuggs, could you please tell us a little about yourself and how you would describe your personality?
‹Fuggs› Ok I hate these sorts of things but I guess I had better answer it. A bit about me, HHmmm let me think, Aussie, married to a wonderful woman (big suck up here) I have kids.. well I have teenagers (yea that makes me OLD)
Aussie probably best describes my personality. Aussies are an easygoing people who are fairly laid back and that probably bests describes my personality.
‹Angelwink› When where you first introduced to DALnet and what was your impression of it?
‹Fuggs› I first found Dalnet back in about mid 95 and registered my first nick in January 96. My impressions were that this was the network I wanted to be on after trying a few of the other networks out there. Dalnet in those days was nice and friendly, it still is nice and friendly with the exceptions of the massive increase in infected users and the war like mentality of the packet kids on here. The *hackers* of days gone by were at least gentlemen and had some ethics unlike the majority of the kids who claim to be hackers now days
‹Angelwink› When and how did you get your first O:line? Which server was it?
‹Fuggs› MY first O line…. HHmmmm now that was an age a go on Koala an Aussie server. Now how did I get it, the admin offered me an O line one day out of the blue and the rest is history.
‹Angelwink› As you first started, were you given a hard time by fellow opers or users? How have you dealt with it?
‹Fuggs› Nope never got a hard time from fellow opers, well almost never did if you discount “studded” terrorising any and every oper on here. Man he scared me and most of the opers of the time. Hands up the old time opers who remember “studded”(bet the mere mention of his nick sends shudders down ya back) As far as a hard time by users, yea a few tried but that always happens and /ignore is a wonderful tool.
These next 2 questions are actually adressed to "Mrs Fuggs" :)
‹Angelwink› How do you cope with all the time and dedication your husband gives in to this network? How has it impacted your life?
‹Fuggs› ITS peaceful. I don’t have him annoying me and as I like IRC as well it isn’t to bad. As far as any impact on my life goes…. Well he doesn’t annoy me all the time so I say that’s a PLUS, mind you he does tend to IRC sometimes when I have a list of jobs for him around the house to do. FUGGS I have a huge list of jobs for you this weekend.
‹Angelwink› From an Oper's wife point of view, what are the good/bad things you usually have to deal with?
‹Fuggs› I can always find an IRCop when I need one is probably the best point :) A bad thing? Well he doesnt answer me most of the time when I /msg him and I have to actually get up and thump him to get his attention. (do you think he ignores me?) One good point is I actually get to sleep with a csop, “sometimes”
Back to you Mr Fuggs :)
‹Angelwink› In your opinion, what are the positive/negative things about being an Oper on DALnet?
‹Fuggs› Everything is a positive, life is a positive and to short to have any negatives I enjoy being an oper and trying to help the users and the network
‹Angelwink› When starting out, did you ever encounter any accidents or slightly embarassing situations, like typed /die or /squit or anything else that might have happened that you would not mind sharing with us? :)
‹Fuggs› When I started out HHmmmm no never did anything like that (that I can remember) but recently I did akill all opers with an @dal.net mask not once but twice when I was doing big flood net akill runs. Got a few comments over that, but hey shit happens sometimes and you have to have a laugh when it does.
‹Angelwink› You're a member of the Exploits Prevention, could you please tell me about the team itself and what your main duties are as denote team leader?
‹Fuggs› Exploits covers a rather large range of tasks from clones, exploited users flood nets etc to all the nasty’s on here that no one else wants to deal with. As the team lead of exploits I have a rather easy time as the team is a group of wonderful hard working folk who all do their jobs on here well and that makes my job a lot easier.
‹Angelwink› "What's the most difficult thing about your role that you have had to face with the dynamic changes of the network"? Is that the kind of thing you were after?
‹Fuggs› Oohh hell uummm yea … uummm uumm “the most difficult thing” good question and I guess I don’t really have an answer as nothing is really too difficult.
‹Angelwink› How has the increased trojan infections affected your ability to work
like with the changes that our network has seen over the last years? What's been difficult to work through?
‹Fuggs› Yes the increase of infected users does make it difficult sometimes to work but what we have to do is come up with answers to get around these problems and work through them. Its only difficult if we make it that way, what I find the most difficult to work through is that when we try and help infected user a huge percentage just don’t care and tell us to %*&$ OFF I find the fact they don’t care probably not difficult but more disturbing.
‹Angelwink› How much time do you spend on DALnet? and when you're not opered, what do you usually do?
‹Fuggs› 25-30 hours a week sometimes more some times less. What do I do when
not opered…. If I am on line I am always opered. When I am not on line its work, my kids and family, lots of sport with my kids, socializing with friend’s going out etc etc
‹Angelwink› Someone said: "It seems like being an IRCop is like trying to successfully run a kindergarten with 200 kids by yourself." Do you agree?disagree? and why?
‹Fuggs› I used to use that line when I first started on the training team, in fact I used to use that training new opers before we actually had a training team. The figure now days is more like a class of 800+ kids per oper.
‹Angelwink› From the many fellow opers that you know, could you pick one person and tell us what you think of him/her?
‹Fuggs› There is a lot I would pick but to be fair to all I wont answer this question.
‹Angelwink› DALnet has gone through a major evolution from 1996 till the present day, what are the things that you feel have been improved since and the things that have accelerated downhill
‹Fuggs› Improvements have been in service commands available to the users and the IRCD code, we now hold at any given time over 100K users on line and that in its self is a feat. what has accelerated down hill is the level of spam and the sheer number of infected users on line now days and the fact so many uses are willing to click on anything and get infected and a huge number just don’t care that they are infected.
‹Angelwink› How would you like to be remembered Fuggs? :)
‹Fuggs› Happy, easy going and a nice guy although the packet kids I deal with daily will have a totally different opinion of me.
‹Angelwink› Do you have any pet hates or things that get up your nose
‹Fuggs› I guess my biggest pet hates in life are two faced back stabbing shallow people oohh and unhappy people, life is to short to be unhappy.
‹Angelwink› In conclusion, any final words? comments? and is there anything you would like
to say to me in reguards to this interview? ;)
‹Fuggs› Good interview and I guess a few final words would be: This is IRC folks its not real life IRC is for fun and entertainment so don’t ever blur the line between real life and real friends and IRC
‹Angelwink› Thank you for sharing your time with us Fuggs, and we hope you enjoy many more years on DALnet. :))
(Editor's note: *G* I dont know about you but I wonder who 'studded' was and what could he have done so horribly to have left such a terrorising impression on some :P )
©Angelwink 2002
