Due to recent events on IRC, it's time for us to talk about IRC policy. I'd like to begin by reminding you all that Galactic has to pay real money for our server, and a lot of time and effort go into keeping it running and maintained. As such, it is not for people to be trolls in. Flame and abuse are strictly prohibited, and there is a fine line between joking and abuse.
1) Remember that the ops do a lot to keep OPU a nice place to be and that they are not paid for this service. Do not question their right to have power. Ops are granted based on loyalty and trustworthiness, not on talent, favoritism, or who's been playing OP2 the longest.
2) Nobody is above the rules. Do not think that you are "special" or "better" than any other user for any reason. Even the ops have to answer to one another.
3) Listen to the ops when they tell you to do something. They can and will exercise their authority if they have to, though they'd really rather you'd just cooperate with them. Betaray shouldn't have to give people 15 warnings and ban three people, nor should he have to ban the same people multiple times. Do not try to "evade" a ban; it will only make things worse for you.
4) Respect all users. They're people, too, and you'd want to be treated with respect yourself, right? Personality conflicts are expected and pretty much unavoidable, but don't let it get out of control.
5) Freedom of speech is not guaranteed. If you are out of line, there will be consequences.
6) This is not a democracy; we don't get to vote on how the ops do their jobs.
The ops have been very lenient in the past regarding rules; unfortunately, this is coming back to bite them. The ops are tired of people walking all over them, and enforcement of IRC rules is going to become much stricter now. Hopefully we've caught this problem early and we will be able to go back to a more relaxed policy soon.
People, please, we shouldn't need ops to tell us to be nice to each other.
