Freenode Kline Evasion

[mizerydearia]

Freenode seemingly has an unofficial policy on 'ban evasion' or 'kline evasion.'

Searching Google for `site:freenode.net evasion` returns only http://freenode.net/using_the_network.shtml which has 0 instances of 'evasion' on the page.
Searching Google for `site:freenode.net kline` returns a few results, but nothing seemingly documentative or explanative relating to policies or rules.

Frequently upon being klined, when users reconnect they are advised not to 'evade ban' or 'evade kline' and immediately klined again.

Recently being klined in relation to this, Nicolas Coevoet (niko) emailed me asking

Could you explain your last network ban evade, after i warned you in #freenode and via email?

I prematurely and unproofreadingly responded

Hi,

I am reliant on IRC connection (in this case Freenode) to keep in touch with others; a kind of addiction.  I need Internet (and in this case IRC connection) to function.  My apologies for in the case of defining this activity as 'evading kline.'  Similarly to, for example, using aim/icq/msn/yahoo/skype/etc, or myspace/facebook/google+/etc, (which I no longer use), without access to such platforms or mediums, I overwhelmingly feel as if my access to others has been cut off and it can be quite overwhelming to be prevented to have access to others through such environments.

I completely understand the root cause for the kline was specific to mass registrations, and that particular effort that triggered the kline has and will be ceased so as to prevent further need to establish permanency of kline/banning to prevent that continued abusive practice.  However, in terms of expanding that abusive practice to account for any and all practices involving or making use of a connection, seems a bit much.  I understand how it has been established as a standardized procedure within your organization, however, since you asked for me to explain myself, it seems a bit much.

My effort was not continuously malicious in which I had reconnected on several occasions to continue pursuing the malicious or abusive practice of registering channels, which was the cause for triggering the kline.  Therefore, since my continued usage was not malicious, again, disregarding the established policy in which it is described as 'kline evasion', I see how no abusiveness or maliciousness had resulted.  I think this type of effort is similar to police, military and other militia in which once a person is a criminal or abusive, they are always criminal or abusive.  I don't think that my efforts or intentions of 'ban/kline evasion' were to continue the abusive practices, but instead, to have access to the community in which I interact with regularly for other purposes (e.g. socialization, business, etc).

l3estest l2egadedsness,
Miz

[mizerydearia]

Moved from https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=47057.msg560614#msg560614

Email from me:

Hi,

I was in the middle of manually preparing channels for global bitcoin community and I received kline for ip 65.30.35.48

related: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=47057.msg560434#msg560434

l3estest l2egardedsness,
Miz

Email response from Nicolas Coevoet (niko):

On our side, that's not appear at a manual process, that's the first point.

And before registering hundreds channels under multi accounts in few seconds,
you should take a look at our http://freenode.net/policy.shtml#channelnaming
policy, and also http://freenode.net/group_registration.shtml

If you have a valid reason to take ownership on #bitcoin-* namespace, feel free
to fill a group registration form, take a look at
http://blog.freenode.net/2011/09/new-grf-freenode-process/

Before any new channel registration under #bitcoin namespace, be sure to have
an approved GRF.

Please, tell us that you will follow our channel policy and group registration.

Thanks

note: The creating "hundreds channels under multi accounts in few seconds" is exaggerated claim.  The channels were about 100 (or eventually to be about 130), and the channels were registered using multiple accounts (chanserv allows registering only 30 channels per account), however the process was a LOT more than "few seconds."  In fact, if any logs were reviewed, it would be noticed that the first 30 or so registrations were in varying intervals and it was after those 30+ registrations (more than 30 were attempted, but failed due to limit) that I realized only 30 per account and that the next 30 were registered in the span of about 30 seconds (1 per second default irssi interval) and then a bit more delay as I prepared another account to register an additional 30, etc.  So, basically, this was manualized effort, not automated.

So, let's look at http://freenode.net/policy.shtml#channelnaming

Channels on freenode are owned and operated by the groups which register them.

Okay, I created these channels, but I do not own them.

No minimum level of activity or moderation is expected or required of channel owners.

Okay.

The network exists to further on-topic uses

Okay.  The individual bitcoin-countrycode channels were designed to be for the topic of bitcoin in each country.  This seems on-topic.

and channels or groups may be removed from the network for activity which is considered to be off-topic.

Okay.  The channels weren't removed.  A series of klines were triggered.



How about http://freenode.net/group_registration.shtml ?

#bitcoin (the bitcoin* namespace) is owned by jgarzik (Jeff Garzik).  I am not Jeff Garzik.  So...



I laterly responded:

" On our side, that's not appear at a manual process, that's the first point."

Considering my immediate attention to the fact that I was klined, perhaps it may be recognized that the process was manual.  However, I do admit that I did automate procedure by using regex replacement of text before manually pasting lines into my irc client for a seemingly automated/instant triggering of the commands.

Although I do not mean to be picky and I easily recognize how registering hundreds of channels would trigger red flag, I don't see anything relating to not registering hundreds of channels.  Nor at http://freenode.net/channel_guidelines.shtml

What I do see, however is...

http://freenode.net/policy.shtml

Channel Naming: 1. Ensuring that groups and organizations own and control channels associated with their names

Perhaps it is this ensurance that triggered my kline.  However, I had previously registered many other #bitcoin-??? channels and that has not resulted in my kline.  Relatedly, others have also established many other #bitcoin-? channels in which there are hundreds.  I have as well in affiliation with a few of my projects.  Again, though, I am NOT Jeff Garzik.   So maybe I must request permission as he is the ruler of bitcoin name space on Freenode.

Primary Channels: Primary channel names, formatted with a single leading hash mark (#), are reserved for participating groups and organizations based on their legal or informal claim to the associated name or name prefix.

Okay.  Nothing about restricting users unaffiliated with a group from creating such channels.  I imagine this is established policy so that in the case that users affiliated with the official group have precedence over controlling a channel if they establish any effort for the particular channel(s).

Primary Channels: Groups on freenode which clearly do not have claim on a name, or whose activities are considered to be off-topic, will not generally be given administrative control over primary channels bearing a given name or name prefix. These limitations may be implemented at the server software level at some point in the future.

Okay.  So I do not have a claim on the 'bitcoin' name and perhaps my activities are somehow off-topic, then I will not be given administrative control over the channels.  This doesn't seem related to klline, does it?


Aha... here we go!

Off-Topic Use: Unlawful activities and their related support activities are considered off-topic, as are inappropriate advertising, heavy media file trading, gaming and proprietary game software modding, warez, hax0r activity, porn and various forms of antisocial behavior, including (but not limited to) political, racial, ethnic, religious or gender-related invective. Off-topic activity may result in users being barred from the network.

So, registering a bunch of country-specific bitcoin channels...  (again in anticipation of preserving channel ops and not losing them and also to eventually pass on channel registration to someone else, preferably someone in the specific country that is interested in taking over ownership/management of the channel), let's see what this fits under.

inappropriate advertising?  nope!
heavy media file trading?  nope!
gaming and proprietary software modding?  nope!
warez?  nope!
hax0r activity?  nope!
porn and various forms of antisocial behavior?  nope!

Okay, so maybe "here we go" not. =/

Maybe...

Termination of Use?

Nothing related here.

So... wtf?  Why was I klined?

Again, I can completely understand that registering many of channels will trigger red flag and especially probably be against policy (especially to prevent abuse, although, my particular purpose can also be argued as not abusive), however, I am not finding anything related to justify my several klines.

Laterly, via email to kline@freenode.net:

Also, again, please be aware that with my initial effort of registering the channels, the purpose was to not lose ops in the case of inviting others and then my losing my connection and then channel with 10+ users and no ops.  And then to at a later time hand over the channel to someone in that particular country so they can manage it.  Which technically they could have done at their own effort and I would not have to register the channels beforehand, buuut, since I was already in the 120+ channels, again, it is rather likely that many of those channels would eventually establish as opless and difficulty to recover and I would have to contact Jeff Garzik to ask him to help establish recovery of the channels.

And relatedly, the additional accounts used to register to get around the 30 channel limit were temporary and I would have eventually removed them as they no longer had any registered channels.  This was all manually coordinated effort/responsibility that I was willing to take on, and particularly as a kind of effort to better establish and organize bitcoin communities around the world, many of which who have thanked me for helping to spread awareness that others in their country also used bitcoin, because otherwise they thought they were the only ones.

In the meantime, 5 ips are still klined from freenode.  It's been 3.5 hours and FINALLY unklined!  woot!!!!

[mizerydearia]

"Please, tell us that you will follow our channel policy and group registration."

I had already responded to this admitting that I will follow channel policy (note, there is no established policy relating to what I did), however, still no response.

[mizerydearia]

Yay!  Finally unklined!