www.IRC-Junkie.org – IRC News

All about Internet Relay Chat

Monthly Archives: July 2005

DALnet Disbands Testnet Team

“We’ve just disbanded the DALnet testnet team and integrated all of the application evaluation functions into the routing team as they were before. This is a step to streamline the application process and adapt to current needs and change in workload” DALnet’s Ahnberg announced yesterday on the DALnet mailinglist.

The Testnet Team has been testing new server applications and handled questions asked by applicants. It was formed to handle the large amount of applications coming in. “… a lot of server applications was in movement and we felt we needed to give more attention to them all. It was also a time when we got a huge bunch of less serious applicants that would require in depth analysis of approvals of ISPs, checkup on the admins background, etc. This all took time and we felt it was most appropriate to have a separate team to handle most of the application steps,” Ahnberg told to IRC-Junkie in a reaction.

As the network is turning back into quieter waters, the situation is rolled back to the former state. In the end, many of the same people will however be involved in the application process, as Ahnberg explains: “Many of the testnet members are already routing members, so we would not lose valuable experience.”

GameSurge Introduces 'Free Custom Title' Service

Cradly announced the beta of a new service on GameSurge’s website named ‘Free Custom Title’ service.

A Custom Title is something different then a vHost or entirely ‘faked’ hostmask as Cradly explained to IRC-Junkie in a reaction:

“GameSurge has offered +x host hiding for some time, in the format  .user.gamesurge.   What we call the title is the center word  “user.”  GameSurge is now allowing our users to change their title  based upon a list of options, once every 30 days.”

“This is not to be confused with what we call “fakehosts” which are  complete fake replacements of the entire hostname and are also  implemented using +x.  Currently, new fakehosts are not available to  our users, though we anticipate offering that service once again in  the near future.”

The Custom Titles were a paid service in the past, but have now been turned into a free service. And no plans exist to turn it into a paid service again in the future.

“We free custom titles as a value-added service for our userbase and are promoting it.  We’ve had about 4,000 users change their title since opening it up at no charge last week.  The two most popular titles as being .bot.gamesurge and .will-frag-for- food.gamesurge”, Cradly ends.

A list of titles can be found here.

GameSurge Shows a Different Face

“Many of you have given us great feedback over the previous weeks and months and we have listened”, GameSurge admin Andrew starts on the network’s website. “We deliver to you today some large changes to the network that will change the face of it as we currently know it. We have listened. We have eliminated a large amount of the bureaucracy in the support and channel registration area of the network. We hope you like the changes!”

The biggest change is that the network will not restrict its channel registration process to gaming channels only. Any channel can now register, like a friends group, technical support, opensource projects, etc. Also there is no longer the requirement of a website for the channel.

IRC-Junkie asked Andrew if he is not afraid that GameSurge will loose its face as a prime gaming network. “This was a consideration that was thought long and hard about but we came to the conclusion that it is still fully possible to have primary focus on gaming (which we, as a network and mission, will still have) and diversify as well.”

“Gamers do many more things than just play games in their clan and team channels – the diversification represents that statement.”

GameSurge have had a hard period with the DDoS attacks towards the network. During this period however, the network’s team got a lot into contact with its users and however the idea to widen the rules took form years before, it was during this period that it began to take solid forms. “It was primarily the large amount of suggestive feedback we received that consolidated the decision to do this now rather than later”, Andrew explains.

The restriction of only allowing gaming channels was also because of restrictive historic reasons. Andrew explains: “Many of the rules we had in the old policy were based on very out-dated technical issues with services we stopped using years ago (the ones directly before we moved to srvx.) Basically, back then, there were issues in the number of channels that the old services could handle and the rules had to be formulated around that problem otherwise the network, at the time, would have simply imploded.”

More information regarding the registration process can be found here.