Expired channel

From Blitzed

When a channel expires, services can no longer be used to control it. To regain services control of a channel, someone needs to register it again. However, you can only register a channel if you are a chanop in it, and sometimes when a channel expires there is no one left with ops. This is especially common on a channel with a lot of idle users.

When the channel has a number of idle users, it can be very difficult to empty it out so that someone has ops. Any services admin (with mode +a) can use /samode to set modes on a channel, so they could use that to op someone, but this is fraught with problems. Do not do this without careful consideration!

The main problem is, it is possible that one of the currently idle users in the channel wishes to register the channel and is hoping they can outstay the user who is approaching you right now. There is no way to tell what sort of situation you may be getting involved in, and feuds can develop over who is the rightful "owner" of a channel.

In the case of a channel that you have personal knowledge of, with a former founder who you know, who assures you that everyone in the channel wishes them to be founder again, it can be very hard to say no and follow procedure. The usual procedure for dealing with this sort of thing is not so terrible however, so it is recommended that you follow it, since the consequences in the event of a misunderstanding are usually pretty bad.

First find a services admin who is willing to take ownership of the problem. If none are willing, nothing can be done. The rest of the instructions are aimed at this admin:

• Join the channel and take a note of who is present. If there are any chanops then there is nothing for you to do as the channel can sort itself out. If not, take a note of everyone that is currently present.

• If all users present are awake and agree for one of them to be opped them proceed to use /samode to op that user. The user can then register the channel as normal.

• With some users idle this will not be possible. Set a topic that reads something like this:
  

If anyone present has any problem with FormerFounder being set back as founder of this channel,
please contact YourNick before <24 hours from now>

Should you receive no complaints from any user that was present at the time, you can go ahead and use /samode at any time after the deadline has passed.

• However if you do receive a complaint from a user that was present at the time you set the topic, there is nothing that can be done for the channel. They must be left to regain ops in the traditional manner (emptying the channel and trying to be the first one back in it).

• With small channels it may be possible for you to get agreements from all that were present before the day is up, in which case again you can go ahead and op the user.

This may sound like a lot of hassle, but it has been used on several channels and in most cases a user can be opped before the day is up. Even a very idle channel can be fixed after only 1 day.