Reference document

Channel rules

This text describes how a channel is obtained, who holds which rights in it, what a channel operator can do, how automations are set and what becomes of an abandoned channel.

This is a translation: in case of any discrepancy, the French version prevails.

1. Scope of these rules

The code of conduct covers the whole network: expected conduct, prohibitions, sanctions, appeals and data kept. This document does not repeat it — it deals only with the channel level.

A channel is a delegated space, not a separate territory

The owner of a channel sets its internal rules, its topic and its automations. This autonomy is exercised within the network’s framework, never outside it.

The golden rule

A channel’s rules can never allow what the code of conduct prohibits on the network. They may be stricter, never more permissive.

Everything that concerns the network falls under the code of conduct

Hateful remarks, harassment, illegal content, impersonation, evading a sanction: these cases are not settled channel by channel. See the list of prohibitions.

2. Obtaining a channel

Registering a channel requires a registered and authenticated account: an unidentified nickname cannot own anything.

First register your nickname with the accounts service: /msg OverNick REGISTER, then /msg OverNick IDENTIFY at each connection.
Then request the registration of the channel, through the website’s form: Request a channel — the request is read by an operator, not by a machine. It is the only route: the bot’s commands (!regchan, and regchan as a private message) are discontinued.
The channel is then stored in the database with its owner. That entry is what counts: without it, no rights are automatically restored when the owner returns.

An unregistered channel belongs to no one, and a visitor cannot open one. The server refuses entry to any channel that is not on its list of open channels: on IRC, creating a channel means being the first to join it. Only network operators can override this, to follow up on an approved request.

3. Roles in a channel

There are TWO SCALES, and that is the thing to remember.

Channel ranks — voice < halfop < op < owner — only apply in the channel where they are granted to you. Being op in one channel gives no rights in another.
Network ranks — admin, proprietaire, netadmin, and the ircops — apply everywhere.

Within each scale, a rank includes the rights of the one before it. But a network rank is not “a stronger channel rank”: they are two different things.

⚠ This page said the opposite until September 22, 2026. It described a single scale, user < voice < op < admin < owner < ircops, and that was true: a rank then applied across the whole network. Since then, the bot’s fourteen moderation commands check the channel concerned.

Rank	What it allows	Commands
user	Take part in discussions. No moderation rights.	—
voice mode `+v`	Speak in this channel when it is moderated.	!voice · !devoice
halfop mode `+h`	Give and remove voice through OverTchat, on this channel. With the server, the `+h` status also allows kicking and banning (`/kick`, `/mode +b`); through OverTchat, `!kick` and `!ban` require `op`.	!voice · !devoice
op mode `+o`	Kick, ban, give or remove op and halfop through OverTchat — on this channel. The topic, modes and invitations are set directly with the server, with the `+o` status (`/topic`, `/mode`, `/invite`).	!kick · !ban · !unban !op · !deop · !halfop · !dehalfop
admin	See the channel’s ranks and the network’s accounts. ⚠ `admin` is a network rank; on a channel, it translates to `owner`. Automations and banned words are set from the website: the channel page and the panel.	!userlist
owner	Channel owner: appoints operators and co-owners from their channel’s page, or offers the owner rank with `!newowner`; sees the channel’s ranks with `!userlist` — on this channel.	!newowner · !userlist
ircops	Network operators. They intervene in a channel to enforce the code of conduct, or at the owner’s request.	/msg OverTchat · /msg OverHub

No identification, no rights. Ranks are checked in the database, and the check requires auth='oui': an unidentified user has no power in the channel, even if they own it. A lost identification — reconnection, nickname change — drops all rights until the next IDENTIFY.

Since 10 October 2026, “!” commands are only served by OverTchat, and only those in the table above. A channel’s automations (announcements, banned words) are set from the website — the channel page and the panel —, and assisted moderation is frozen. The other retired commands and what replaces them are on the commands page.

From a channel, OverTchat offers the owner rank of that channel with !newowner <nickname>, typed by the channel owner or a network operator — the same rule as the channel page, where the op and voice ranks are offered too (/msg OverNick ACCESS add sets them directly). The person named must accept it (/msg OverNick access accept #channel, once identified); until they do, the rank gives them no rights, and the offer expires on its own. Network ranks (csadmin, csowner) can only be given from the website’s panel.

How a channel rank is granted

It only applies in that channel. A rank granted in #a gives nothing in #b.
It is granted to a registered nickname, never to a free one: without registration, anyone could take the nickname and inherit the rank.
The owner offers it, the person accepts it. From the channel’s management page, “Proposer” sends an email; the rank gives no rights until its recipient has followed the link, and the offer expires after seven days. “Ajouter directement” grants it straight away.
One rank replaces another: setting one on a nickname that already has one in this channel replaces it.
Network operators see, and can remove, all access, including access awaiting confirmation.

4. The owner’s duties

Owning a channel is not merely a right to display a name: it is a responsibility for what is said in it.

Set a clear topic. A visitor must understand in one line where they have arrived and what goes on there.
Remain reachable. An owner absent for weeks on end, with no active operator, exposes their channel to being released.
Appoint operators you trust. An operator acts in your name; their abuses can be held against you.
Do not delegate blindly. Giving op to someone you met the day before is a decision, not a courtesy.
Respond to reports. A user who reports abuse in your channel must get an answer, even a negative one.
Do not make access conditional on anything in return. No account password, no personal data and no payment may be demanded in order to enter.

5. What a channel operator can do

✓

They may

Kick a disruptive user.
Set a ban, temporary or permanent.
Change the channel’s topic and modes.
Invite into a closed channel.
Grant or remove +v and +o according to their rank.

They may not

Sanction a mere difference of opinion.
Use their rights in a personal conflict.
Evade or cancel a network sanction.
Demand a password, under any pretext whatsoever.
Ban without a reason that can be consulted.
Threaten a sanction in order to obtain something else.

Every action is logged with its author. Kicks, bans, mode changes and rank assignments are recorded with the timestamp and the identifier of whoever triggered them. An operator must be able to justify what they did; an operator who abuses their rights loses them, and is liable to the sanctions provided for by the code of conduct.

6. The channel’s topic and theme

The topic is authoritative. It may contain rules specific to the channel, and those rules apply to everyone who writes there.
A visitor must read the topic before writing. “I didn’t know” is no argument when the rule is permanently on display.
A channel has the right to refuse repeated off-topic talk: asking people to return to the theme, then kicking if the request is ignored, is a legitimate use of operator rights.
The topic cannot contain what the code of conduct prohibits, nor announce rules contrary to it.

7. Automations set per channel

Each channel has its own configuration of automations. They act immediately, without human intervention, and only have effect in the channel where they are enabled.

Setting	Effect	Related parameters
`antiflood` oui / non	Sanctions bursts of messages.	antiflood_lines antiflood_secs antiflood_action (kick / ban / kickban)
`antimot` oui / non	Applies the channel’s own list of banned words.	antimot_action list managed in the website panel (Moderation)
`autoop`	Restores operator status on arrival, according to the registered rank.	—
`automode_user`	Automatically assigns the status matching the user’s rank.	—
`autolimit`	Adjusts the channel’s connection limit according to how busy it is.	—
`autobans`	Reapplies the channel’s persistent bans when an affected user arrives.	—
`autokick`	Kicks automatically according to a criterion.	—
`autopub`	Broadcasts periodic messages in the channel.	autopub_delay messages managed from the channel page

These automations are off by default, except autopub: a registered channel broadcasts the network’s announcements every 30 minutes (service channels excepted). They are set channel by channel from the channel page on the website, or in the panel — !autoset and !autoshow have been retired since 10 October 2026. No setting is carried over from one channel to another.

8. Channel bans

A channel ban refuses access to that channel only. It does not affect the rest of the network: a network exclusion falls under the code of conduct.

Setting: !ban <nickname>, by a channel op — OverTchat bans the person’s displayed host (*!*@host); or /mode +b with the server.
Lifting: !unban <mask>, or /mode -b; the owner can also lift a ban from their channel’s page.
Persistent and timed bans (!newban, !banperm, !delban) have been retired since 10 October 2026; a network-wide ban is a matter for the network operators.
A ban must have a reason. A ban without a reason that can be consulted can be neither justified nor defended if the owner is questioned.

9. Assisted moderation in channels

On this network, it has been frozen since 10 October 2026: the bot that carried it no longer reads the channels, and !iaset is retired. What follows describes its mechanism, as it worked: off by default, it was only enabled channel by channel.

Mode	Behaviour
learn	The engine observes and learns the channel’s vocabulary. No sanction is applied.
review — default	A message judged suspicious is reported to the IRCops, and its author is told. The message is not held back: it has already been sent. A rejection by an IRCop leads to no sanction; it only serves to train the model.
auto	The engine applies the planned sanction directly, without prior validation.

It never reads private messages.
It does not examine messages from IRCops, nor from the network’s owners and administrators. A channel operator, however, is not exempt.
It is only active where it has been explicitly enabled.

Where it stands on this network. Frozen since 10 October 2026: it no longer receives any message, its settings and tables are kept, and whether to bring it back is yet to be decided. Before that, its model had learned nothing and no channel was on automatic sanctions. A channel’s sanctions log therefore stays empty on its account: only the kicks and bans set by an operator or by OverTchat appear there.

⚠ This page described the three modes without saying so, while a channel’s administration page stated the opposite. Both were accurate — one spoke of the mechanism, the other of its state — and together they were wrong. Noted here on September 22, 2026.

The details of how it works, of its limits and of the possible appeals are in the code of conduct, section “Assisted moderation”.

10. Inactive or abandoned channel

A channel with no activity and no reachable owner may be released, that is, made available for a new registration.
The criteria — length of inactivity, attempts at contact — are left to the discretion of the network’s administrators. There is no automatic threshold.
An owner who has been notified may ask to keep their channel: it is enough to reply and to show up in the channel.
Releasing a channel is not a sanction and has no consequence for the former owner’s account.

11. Disputes in a channel

First, the owner

A disagreement about a kick, a ban or an internal rule is settled with the channel’s owner, preferably by private message and without aggression.

Then a network operator

If the owner is themselves involved, or remains unreachable, a network operator may be called upon.

The network does not arbitrate internal conflicts

The network’s administrators do not intervene in quarrels specific to a channel as long as the code of conduct is not at stake. A channel remains free to choose its editorial line, its tone and its exclusions, within the limits set in point 1.

To go further. The full reference for the commands mentioned here is on the Commands page. The rules that apply to the whole network — conduct, prohibitions, sanctions, appeals and data — are in the code of conduct.