IRC Code of Conduct

While Pirate Party Australia supports freedom of speech, we do not expect hosts to tolerate abuse from their guests. At the same time, we do not think it is appropriate for a host to provoke their guests.

Our IRC channel is like our office in many ways. We invite people to communicate with us provided they show respect, not just towards our members, but for each other and our rules. We also expect our members to behave as civily as possible towards guest.

With this in mind, we have developed a code of conduct for guests, members and moderators.

General rules

 * Be polite.
 * Do not publish logs where they are publicly available.
 * Ask an operator for permission before adding a bot to a channel. It should offer functionality that enhances the experience of the IRC channel or your request will probably be denied.
 * Do not post links to, or request illegal content.
 * Do not post links to, or request material that is discriminatory in nature or sexually explicit, unless relevant to the topic of discussion.
 * Avoid engaging in arguments designed to elicit knee-jerk responses (i.e. "trolling").
 * Do not flood or paste ASCII "art".

Language

 * No discriminatory or derogatory remarks unless used as quotes or in a way that is clearly sarcastic. Pirate Party Australia welcomes all individuals to participate — the environment for participation should be conducive to that. If a remark is unnecessary and offensive, it's probably best to keep it to yourself.
 * Please express yourself as clearly as possible.
 * Avoid using excessive abbreviations and acronyms — not everyone is familiar with them.
 * One sentence per line is preferred. Lengthy blocks should have sufficient grammar to make them understandable.
 * Keep discussions in English unless absolutely necessary.

Topics

 * The channel #ppau should be used for federal matters including:
 * Enquiries from members of the public
 * National meetings
 * Discussions related to the party platform
 * Party-related news
 * Local and international politics of relevance to the party
 * The channel #ppausocial should be used for anything else.
 * Moderators should direct individuals to a relevant channel when conversations and discussions are no longer relevant to #ppau.
 * Conversations between individuals should be taken to a private message if they are lengthy, off-topic, or needlessly conflicts with another conversation or meeting.

Bots

 * Ask an operator for permission before adding a bot to a channel.
 * Create a new channel to test bots — do not test them in existing channels.
 * Bots should enhance the experience of the IRC channel.
 * Do not deploy bots that are purely for the purpose of storing or publishing IRC logs.
 * Owners of bots should identify themselves as such.
 * Bots should not behave in a way that elicits offensive or abusive responses.

Freedom of speech

 * The PirateIRC network is intended for use by Pirate Parties and their members for related or associated purposes.
 * The administrators of the network will act as necessary to prevent them or their respective parties being held liable for the conduct of others.
 * Pirate Party Australia uses a main channel (#ppau) and various other channels for official purposes, and these act like the office and departments of the organisation: #ppau is our office.
 * As the PirateIRC network is privately operated, it is not a public environment and therefore channel operators have the right to moderate the discussion in their channels.
 * You are free to start your own channel and exercise a level of speech you feel is appropriate if you do not like the rules of another channel.
 * You are free to speak in any channel, but will be shown the door if a moderator feels you are in breach of the relevant rules.

Repercussions

 * Individuals may be warned or kicked if they break this code of conduct.
 * Individuals who persistently break the code of conduct or threaten operators or other users will be banned.