IRC Code of Conduct

Official Party Document The veracity of this document is ensured by the National Council and editing of this page is limited to members of the National Council.

The Pirate Party's IRC channel is like its office in many ways, and the Party invites people to participate and interact provided they show respect, not just towards the members, but towards each other and the rules. While the Pirate Party supports freedom of speech, it does not expect hosts to tolerate abuse from their guests, or for hosts to provoke their guests. It is also expected that members to behave with as much civility as possible towards guests. This code of conduct has been developed to encourage a welcoming and participatory environment.

General rules

1. Be polite.
2. Do not publish logs in a publicly-available manner.
3. Ask an operator for permission before adding a bot to a channel.
4. Bots that do not offer functionality that enhances the experience of the IRC channel will generally not be permitted.
5. Do not post links to or request illegal content.
6. Do not post links to, or request material that is discriminatory in nature or sexually explicit, unless relevant to the topic of discussion.
7. Avoid engaging in arguments designed to elicit knee-jerk responses ("trolling").
8. Do not flood or paste ASCII "art".

Language

1. Do not make discriminatory or derogatory remarks unless used as quotes or in a way that is clearly sarcastic.
2. If a remark is unnecessary and offensive, it's best to keep it to yourself.
3. Please express yourself as clearly as possible and avoid using excessive abbreviations and acronyms.
4. One sentence per line is preferred, and lengthy blocks should have appropriate grammar to make them easily understood.
5. Keep discussions in English unless absolutely necessary.

Topics

1. The channel #ppau is used for federal matters including
   1. enquiries from members of the public, and
   2. national meetings, and
   3. discussions related to the Party platform, and
   4. Party-related news, and
   5. local and international politics of relevance to the Party.
2. The channel #ppausocial should be used for off-topic discussion.
3. Moderators should direct individuals to a relevant channel when conversations and discussions are no longer relevant to #ppau or more suited to a different channel.
4. Conversations between individuals should be taken to a private message if they are lengthy, off-topic, or needlessly conflict with another conversation or meeting.

Bots

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

Freedom of speech

1. The PirateIRC network is intended for use by Pirate Parties and their members for related or associated purposes.
2. The administrators of the network will act as necessary to prevent them or their respective parties being held liable for the conduct of others.
3. Pirate Party Australia uses a main channel (#ppau) and various other channels for official purposes which act like the main office and departments of the organisation.
4. As the PirateIRC network is privately operated, it is not a public environment and it is the prerogative of channel operators to moderate the discussion in their channels.
5. Individuals are free to start their own channels and exercise a level of speech they feel is appropriate if they do not like the rules of another channel.
6. Individuals are free to speak in any channel, but will be told or made to leave if a moderator feels they 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.