Harassment
by Diablog
Jane uses the IRC everyday, particularly in DALnet, to keep in touch with her friends both real-life as well as online. She enters into a #channel and starts chatting. Obviously, Jane being a feminine girl, she chooses a nickname that could possibly represent herself as a female chatter. She participates in conversations with numerous chatters in that particular #channel and signals in the room that she does not take private windows chat, and even does so by inputting her away message stating, “away please only chat in main, as I do not wish to entertain private messages, thank you”.
On the other hand, Joe is a friendly chatter that saw Jane’s nickname. He wanted to chat with Jane in private, but saw her away message. Yet, ignoring her wishes, he repeatedly messages her with an intention to have a friendly conversation. Such a gesture irritates Jane and she decides to put Joe on her ignore and silence lists and goes offline. The next day, Jane comes online again. Joe, using another nickname and IP starts messaging her despite having Joe’s nickname and previous identd hosts being ignored.
Does this look like a typical day-to-day activity in IRC?
Of course, Jane and Joe are just made-up characters for this article. The above shows a typical classic situation of what we can term as “harassment” in today’s chatting environment. Harassment in IRC is a malicious act of annoying and threatening someone through various means, i.e. via repeated messaging with personal motives and reasons. A recent modification of DALnet’s Acceptable Use Policy included harassment and took effect on 4 May 2003. So, to what extent it is acceptable?
It is unacceptable, when someone has already signaled their intention of not welcoming any forms of private message, to insist on try to do so. Such forms of unwelcomed contact invade a person’s privacy.
Perhaps, having a read of DALnet’s Netiquette would probably allow Joe to be aware of his actions.
So, in that situation, how can Jane prevent a repeat incident occurring? Let's first look at the simple basic definition of harassment.
According to the Webster Dictionary, an act of harassing, or state of being harassed is a feeling of intense annoyance caused by being tormented by persistent attacks and criticism. It also further gives the synonyms of, aggravation; annoyance; bedevilment; bother; bothering; disturbance; exasperation; hassle; irking; irritation; nuisance; persecution; pestering; trouble; etc.
In the scenario of Jane, she could perhaps utilise the function of a simple command made available in mIRC script to abate such a nuisance. Here are some suggested commands if it ever happened to you, and if you use mIRC.
/ignore Nickname-here 3
Using the most common IRC chat program, mIRC, a syntax command of "/ignore Nickname-here 3" would set an ignore on the person even if he/she changes nickname. This command will ensure that the user’s nickname+userid+host are being ignored, which is why the number "3" is given. If the number is not specified, "/ignore nickname" will only ignore that user’s nickname alone. To check the ignore lists, simply type "/ignore -l" and it will show a list of the people you have on ignore. If nothing is returned when you do the command, it means the ignore list is empty. To remove an entry in your list, type "/ignore -r nickname-here" and you will get the response "Removed nickname-here from Ignore list".
/silence Nickname-here
This command is almost identical to the ignore function. This will also effectively remove the unwanted person from your chat.
/dns
If the harassment is threatening, you may do a "/whois" of the nickname and contact the Internet Service Provider (ISP) that the user is using. For example, if it is ~joe@1234.aol.com then, send an email with the log of the activity to abuse@aol.com. Alternatively, if you see all numbers like, ~joe@123.45.67.89 you may try the command "/dns nickname-here" or "/dns 123.45.67.89" and it should resolve the numbers into the given ISP's host name. If the given ISP is a shell account, which may possibly look like, joe@is.a.stalker.net, try searching the host name www.stalker.net and often the website might lead to the Shell provider’s page. You may also do a search at the databases of the authorities who issue IP addresses and who can tell you which companies they are allocated to. You simply go to the following URLs and input the IP address into the page:
For ISPs of North America, Caribbean and sub-equatorial Africa, go to ARIN
For ISPs of Europe, Middle East, Central Asia and African countries located north of the equator, go to RIPE
For ISPs distributed in Asia-Pacific, go to APNIC
You may also view a full list of the country each covers in their websites.
Harassment is a serious offence. It is both unacceptable and un-welcomed in the friendly chat environment that we are familiar with.
Apart from the above example that I have given of Jane and Joe, there can be several other situations that might not be covered in this article. Please do take a read at the modified DALnet’s Acceptable Use Policy and should you encounter a situation that is similar to my example or that which is stated in the AUP, try the methods shown in this article to locate the user and his/her IP. DALnet’s official help channels are also equipped with capable helpers to assist users in issuing commands of the above nature, or should you need to receive assistance from an IRC Operator, please feel free to proceed to #OperHelp.
DALnet shows the determination of keeping online virtual chat community alive and promoting a cohesive environment for every user. So, remember that, your behaviour or actions will impact upon others. The only person that can make our chat environment a friendlier one is none other than YOU. The more we wish to maintain our current freedoms in communication, the more necessary it is that we individually take steps to control our own actions. Lets help keep DALnet a friendly chat community.
© Diablog 2003
