We are llamas. We’re a social channel with a fun environment, no fixed topic, and a community of friendly regulars.
##llamas has grown from being fairly small channel to one of the more active ones on Libera.Chat.
To keep the channel enjoyable, we (the ##llamas chanops) have a few rules that people are expected to follow.
Further down, there’s also some stuff about how the channel operates.
We want ##llamas to be broadly enjoyable, to provide a place where people can socialize in good faith.
We have no interest fitting any specific viewpoint, narrative, or other agenda.
We want a channel where people generally get along and can unwind.
Users of ##llamas should make an effort to be friendly towards others,
and be able to reasonably trust that others are reciprocating the effort.
Even during debates or arguments, we should be able to trust that everyone is arguing in good faith.
The main rule is simple on paper:
Don’t significantly degrade the channel atmosphere.
This is a very broad and loosely-defined rule, and that’s that way for a reason. The chanops cannot foresee every possible behavior that someone might take to make the channel worse for others, and while the chanops are generally permissive, sometimes it’s necessary to apply discretion.
That said, there are some specific behaviors that have been generally accepted as degrading the atmosphere, so here are those in more detail:
##llamas, like all channels on Libera.Chat, is bound by
the network’s policies.
The local chanops are proactive in enforcing them. In particular, the following are strictly forbidden
and will result in a swift removal from the channel and/or a referral to Libera.Chat staff:
##llamas participants are expected to act in good faith.
We do not tolerate trolling, saying things that you know aren’t true,
or misrepresenting your opinions to try to influence others.
In particular, ##llamas’s chanops may disregard claims of attempted humor
as a defense of bad behavior, as some people regularly make them in bad faith.
##llamas is not your soapbox!
Please be mindful that excessive chatter from you does not deprive others
of the opportunity to speak. This is also not a space that welcomes
attempts to preach to others about your viewpoint.
Relatedly, ##llamas is also neither your online battle arena nor your group therapy center.
Please do not bring interpersonal drama from other places to ##llamas
or use ##llamas as a place solely for wallowing in misery.
Both these things really drag down the channel atmosphere.
##llamas is at its best when people don’t have to be defensive because someone else is needling them.
If someone expresses a personal boundary with regards to how they want to be treated by others,
please consider honoring it. Chanops may intervene if someone refuses to stop:
##llamas believes that people who aren’t public figures have a reasonable right to privacy.
In general, you may not disclose personal information about someone that they have neither disclosed themselves in ##llamas nor verifiably agreed to being disclosed.
Additionally, speaking for someone else about themselves is discouraged. If you repeat previously-shared personal information about someone else (without their agreement in advance) and it falls into any of the below categories, you will be considered to have violated their privacy:
All of the above is in addition to Libera.Chat policies on doxing.
Users may discuss current events and political topics.
However! As stated above, ##llamas is not your soapbox!
If you engage in political discussion,
you will be expected to listen to what others are saying in response
and not disregard critical examination of your ideas.
Similarly, you may not repeatedly disrupt active conversations to talk about news or politics. Yes, these things can be important, but they rarely take priority over everything else.
We also expect users to do their due diligence when they discuss things
and not spread proven falsehoods. If your pet conspiracy theory has counterarguments
that you’re not going to address, don’t bring it to ##llamas.
Finally, don’t get mean with other people just for disagreeing with you. If you find yourself getting heated to the point that you want to start attacking people, consider stepping away for a few minutes. Discussions are not something to “win” or “lose”, and withdrawing is not a concession.
##llamas expects its participants to display a level of maturity
that one would expect from a responsible adult in a typical in-person casual setting.
Tantrums, name-calling, excessive crude humor, or blatant attention-seeking may result in a time-out.
##llamas allows profanity, but don’t overdo it.
It should go without saying,
but ##llamas is for humans to chat by exchanging text messages.
This means it is not for ASCII art or text dumps. Please take those somewhere that wants them.
Our bots may auto-kick for flooding.
Please also avoid regularly using colored text.
##llamas is one of the few major social channels that does not strip out formatting codes.
It would be nice to keep it that way.
First of all, don’t bring your bots to ##llamas!
We will kickban bots we didn’t specifically allow in the channel and may refer them to Libera.Chat staff.
Bot abuse is using a bot in a way that is not intended (as determined by the bot’s owner) and that negatively impacts the bot’s owner or anyone in the channel. Examples of bot abuse include:
You can use /msg chanserv flags ##llamas +o to view a list of ##llamas channel operators.
/ignore them at your own risk!
If you feel you are being treated unfairly by others,
or are bothered by the conduct of others to the point that is causing you to not have an enjoyable experience,
or have concerns about the rules,
come visit ##llamas-ops.
As is common for -ops channels, we ask that people not idle there and may kick idlers.
If op attention is required immediately (e.g. due to active spamming),
voiced users can say !ops in ##llamas to notify the chanops that their attention is required.
Channel operators in ##llamas generally seek consensus among active chanops before taking action,
and if that fails, put proposed actions to a vote.
This can mean that we’re sometimes slow to respond, but it helps keep things fair when there are personality conflicts.
Typically, the escalation for repeated rule violations is:
warning, removal of autovoice (if applicable, see below), short quiet, longer quiet, then long-term ban.
The chanops may skip parts of this progression for particularly severe violations.
If you are quieted or banned, you can typically visit ##llamas-ops to learn how long the ban will last and/or to appeal it.
If you are banned from ##llamas-ops, you have damaged the relationship between yourself and the chanops beyond repair,
and there exists no possibility of you appealing your ban
(Libera.Chat staff do not get involved in strictly channel-level matters).
##llamas chanops are bound by the same rules as everyone else in the channel.
If you have an issue with one, visiting ##llamas-ops is still recommended.
If a ##llamas chanop violates network policy, contact Libera.Chat staff.
As with most public spaces on any chat platform, ##llamas attracts idlers.
To recognize participation, one of our bots (toy)
automatically voices people who are in good standing and have been active for a significant amount of time.
To be autovoiced, you must have a Libera.Chat account
and have 7 days (that’s 168 hours) of active time in the channel.
Active time is tracked by toy as “time wasted”. You can view your own stats with the !stat command.
Active time increases as you send consecutive messages no more than a certain (undisclosed) period of time apart from each other;
occasionally dropping single messages into the channel will not increase your active time.
Once you have been active for long enough,
toy will automatically voice you when you send a message without being voiced.
If you wish to opt out of autovoice, you can use the !autovoice command.
##llamas doesn’t keep public logs, individuals can and do keep private logs. Be mindful of what you share if you don’t want it to be remembered.