Going along with the ChatNet constitution, #nuthouse abides
by a common sense policy. Common sense is to be used in any
situation not covered by the Rules/Guidelines specified
below.

Here are the Rules/Guidelines that are to be adherred to
unless modified by ammendment duly voted in by cadmin.

#Nuthouse is the administration channel for ChatNet and is
run by IRC administrators and operators of the network.
Since this channel represents the network as a whole, a
professional, courteous, patient, helpful and user-friendly
atmosphere must be maintained by all ChatNet officials with
or without users being present in channel. Helping people
should be a priority if you are available.

[1] Maintaining a professional, courteous, patient, helpful
and user-friendly atmosphere in #Nuthouse is required of
every fon/oper/admin. Your behavior is a direct reflection
to users of your fellow fons/opers/admins, not just you.

[2] Since users that do not require assistance are not
permitted to stay in #nuthouse, Ops should greet users with
a simple "Nick, can we assist you?" on join or as soon as
possible thereafter, and try to help them with their
question/problem to the best of their abilities. It is
unnecessary for a user to be greeted and assisted by
multiple Op's, or to use greets that repeat what is in the
k9 onjoin or channel topic. A concise, to the point offer
of assistance should be used. As a point of courtesy to the
Op originally greeting a user in channel, you should remain
silent to allow that Op to provide unfettered assistance to
the user unless the Op specifically requests help from other
Op's concerning the users question/problem or you are
involved in assisting another user or dealing with a
Chatnet related problem that requires talking in channel.
After a user is originally greeted by an Op, it is also
that Op's responsibility after assisting the user to ask if
they are in need of any additional assistance, if not, then
the user should be politely asked to /part #nuthouse.

If a user fails to leave the channel as requested, the Op
should /notice or /msg the user politely requesting the
user to part channel and at the same time the Op should
ping the user to determine if the reason for the delay is
due to lag.

You are also encouraged to /opmessage other Op's to see if
they are assisting the user.

If at any time you are assisting a user in a way that is
not readily apparent to the other Op's, you should
communicate this in a way that will avoid needless kicks of
users seeking help.

If a user continues to remain on channel after a reasonable
delay of one to two mintues over and above their ping time,
the Op should kick the user off channel with a brief polite
message indicating users are not allowed to remain on
channel if they no longer require assistance.

If a user rejoins and continues to remain on channel after
a reasonable delay of one to two mintues then the Op should
ban the user from channel for a short period of time, again
using a brief polite message indicating users are not
allowed to remain on channel if they no longer require
assistance.

Repeated rejoins within a short period of time where the
user joins and requires no assistance whatsoever resulting
in needless offers of assistance being made should result
in longer ban times being placed. Users should not be
encouraged to take advantage of our generosity in assisting
users by wasting our time needlessly offering assistance to
them. Wasting our time takes away from other users that
could benefit from our assistance or our own enjoyment of
Chatnet.
 
Ops have the right to immediately remove any user if they
have proven to be disruptive in the past, and there's a
strong possibility of their being disruptive again.

Ops have the right to immediately remove any user that uses
vulgar or rude languauge.

[3] If a user is annoying, or interfering with the process
of helping others in the channel they are to be first
politely warned, and then kicked with a brief polite reason
for the kick. If this user continues to cause trouble or
interfere, they are to be promptly banned, with a brief
polite explanation of what they did to result in banning
from the channel. Annoying or interfering behavior includes
but not limited to: chating, messages, notices, pings, DCC's
or any other method that *distracts* the Op's attention from
the user or assisting others. Once the offending user has
been banned from #nuthouse, the user can then be placed on
ignore to further prevent any interference/distraction as
an ignore off-channel does not impede an Op's ability to
monitor activity in #nuthouse.

[4] Comments with K9 should not include vulgar or rude
languauge, as should the sound files that accompany
comments, thereby maintaining a professional atmosphere in
#nuthouse. If possible, comments should be limited or not
used, as each time k9 parts and returns these comments are
displayed and could cause interruptions to users being
assisted or become annoying to other Op's in channel.

[5] To facillitate recognition of a person that is accessed
on k9, you are to either Op or voice yourself so others do
not needlessly offer assistance to you. If you are unable
to Op or voice yourself due to your being away from your
computer, you should either part #nuthouse or have a script
that voice's you.

[6] Personal disagreements are not to be dealt with in open
channel as it reflects nonprofessional behavior which is
unacceptable. If you have personal disagreements with a
specific individual, it is always better to just /ignore
them, private message, or #chatnet for further discussion.
It is probably the case that not everyone dislikes that
person, and not being able to see them talk makes them a
lot easier to be around. It is also probably that other
Op's in channel have no desire to see your disagreement, so
please keep them in private. It should be mentionned that
#chatnet was also designed to bring ChatNet officials
together so do not hesitate to use it when needed.

Other Op's are to respect your right to ignore someone and
not paste comments the person you have ignored would like
you to see. Someone asking you to paste a comment to
someone normally indicates that person is on ignore.

You are not to use k9, Chatworld, OperMsg's, OpNotices,
OpMsg's or any other method to send messages to people that
have placed you on ignore.

If you are unable to resolve a problem with an individual
it should be addressed to the oper's or FON's admin or a
mutually agreeable third party representative.

[7] IRCD limits the number of bans a channel is allowed.
All bans set for the channel that are in the server are
subject to removal in a cleaning out process of the channel
bans. If you want the ban to stay, use K9 to set the ban.
Bans set through K9 stay in K9's database until they expire
or are removed.

Bans in K9 should only be removed by the person who set
them. A person who inadvertently clears the k9 banlist
should make every attempt to reconstruct the bans on k9
that were in place at the time of removal.

An administrator can remove bans if the person that set the
ban has been consulted or if a user that needs assistance is
banned and will not cause problems or interfere with the
operations of the channel. Long bans tend to hinder the
help process and should therefore be kept to a minimum. No
other person is allowed to remove a ban placed by another
Op.

[8] There is no need to have clones in #nuthouse. Clones
are permissible if a temporary specific question/problem
arises that requires them, otherwise, they are not allowed
in #nuthouse.

[9] There is no need to have a bot in #nuthouse at any
time.  The only allowed bots are the services, ChatWorld
and K9.

[10] #nuthouse is not associated with #doghouse and ChatNet
Channel Services help. Users seeking help concerning K9 and
ChatNet Channel Services can be assisted by any ChatNet
official who is knowledgeable enough to do so. IRC
operators who miss inform users on the usage of K9, or
rules about K9, should be notified of their mistake(s) in
private. If an operator is not sure of an answer, then they
should tell the user to come back when a Channel Services
person is available, or get help from another ChatNet
official.

[11] Using non-help related popups, using color, and
playing sounds in #nuthouse should be kept to a minimum if
not eliminated entirely. Your abilty to help a user is not
enhanced by the user's inability to see what you are
typing. The same applies to the users ability to convey
their problem/question. They may also interfere with the
helping of other users.

If a user continues to use non-help related popups, color,
or playing sounds in #nuthouse after you have requested
them to discontinue their usage, the user can be kicked
with a brief polite reason for the kick. If the user
continues their practice of using non-help related popups,
color, or playing sounds, then the Op should ban the user
from channel for a short period of time, again using a
brief polite message indicating the reason for the ban.

If assistance is required with any of these things, it
should be conducted in #help or another channel such as
#mirc or #pirch. #Nuthouse is a network Channel for NETWORK
related help.

[12]  Other recognized ChatNet officials are welcome in
#Nuthouse as long as they abide by the #NUTHOUSE CODE OF
CONDUCT and maintain a professional, courteous, patient,
helpful and user-friendly atmosphere in #Nuthouse. They
can be voiced in #nuthouse or added according to the policy
section detailing their addition.

[13]  In the event any accessed person is in contravention
of any of the above policies/guidlines, steps should be
taken immediately to remedy the situation. Policies that
appy to users also apply to Ops. Blatent disreguard for the
policies agreed upon by the admins and oper's will
not/should not be tolerated. Infractions initially should
be dealt with in a way that users are not aware of the
problem, and should be done politely. It is advisable to
use OpMessages, OpNotices, Chops, OperMsg's to rectify the
problem thus allowing other Op's to see what has
transpired. Failing any change in the individuals behavior,
a formal complaint should be made on behalf of "the channel"
to oper-com to investigate the infractions and recommend
remedial actions, including the individual being banned
from the channel. At the time a complaint is processed,
there should be emphasis placed on the fact infractions
occured on Chatnets official channel which represents all
of us, and not just the individual.