Freenode's staff response to security consultation offer.

[Platyna]

21:01 <Platyna> Hi.
--- Log closed nie lis 01 21:01:36 2009
--- Log opened nie lis 01 21:03:44 2009
21:03 [Pt] Irssi: Starting query in FreeNode with christel
21:03 <Platyna> Okay I assume I will be ignored. Too bad your personal
judgement takes over the possible positive results of responding to me.
--- Log closed nie lis 01 21:03:50 2009
--- Log opened nie lis 01 21:04:53 2009
21:04 [Pt] Irssi: Starting query in FreeNode with christel
21:04 <christel> have you Duck considered that i may be busy trying to find
the bug in our utility bot and that your timing is Chocolate Cupcake considering the
current situation? or are you too bloody important to care about anything or
anyone bar yourself?
21:06 <Platyna> In fact, you demand people to be civil and polite, while it
seems you are not like that by nature, so you are usualy pretending someone
you are not. I assumed the problems with your buggy bots are the results of
the attemt to try to deal with recent and reccuring network abuse.
21:06 <Platyna> And in fact, as I am experienced person in networking and
security, I wanted to provide my assistance, since your access filtering system
is obviously flawed.
21:07 <Platyna> Thank you for your incredibly king reception.
21:07 <Platyna> s/king/kind/
21:08 <christel> you've never been civil or polite, you're certainly not now
nor have i ever seen you attempt anything but being unreasonable and demanding
-- our current issues are trying to find a bug in our utility bot, which just
killed off 80% of our users -- and finding said bug is more of a priority to me
than talking to you, unsurprisingly. But then, it shouldnt take a rocket
scientist to work that out so i assume your narky attitude when ...
21:08 <christel> ... gasp i didnt fall to your feet and worship you the
instant you pm'ed me was purely to troll.
21:08 <Platyna> I am not civil and polite indeed.
21:09 <Platyna> However do never demand others to be sugar sweet for me. Did
you considered the fact that despite my obviously abrasive personality I can
be useful and I am trustworthy?
21:10 <Platyna> I did not PM'd you to troll. In fact you seem you consider all
persons not complyin to standards you obviously cannot maintain yourself as
you enemies. While I have not once offered you a useful and honest service.
21:10 <Platyna> But I think for you more important is to be nice than be
helpful.
21:10 <Platyna> In fact I do never troll, but I do fight back when attacked.
21:12 <Platyna> When an administrator sees a public service being abused, the
first thought is to offer help in improvements. Despite the fact, that such
uncertain and self centered persons are in charge.
21:13 <Platyna> I do offer you corrections in your configuration, if you provide
me, and methods to detect malicious software, as well as some testing. Let me
know if ever your ego will be defated by logic.
21:14 <Platyna> Goodnight.
--- Log closed nie lis 01 21:14:02 2009

The result is:

21:14 [FreeNode] [Pt] You may not connect to this server: Please do not harass channels or users on freenode. Contact klines@freenode.net with questions.
(2009/11/01 20.14)
21:14 [FreeNode] [Pt] ERROR Closing Link: platinum.edu.pl (K-lined)
21:14 [Pt] Irssi: Connection lost to kornbluth.freenode.net
21:14 [Pt] Irssi: Removed reconnection to server irc.freenode.net port 6667
21:14 [FreeNode] [Pt] Irssi: Looking up irc.freenode.net
21:14 [FreeNode] [Pt] Irssi: Reconnecting to irc.freenode.net [130.239.18.172] port 6667 - use /RMRECONNS to abort
21:14 [FreeNode] [Pt] Irssi: Connection to irc.freenode.net established
21:14 [FreeNode] !irc.freenode.net *** Looking up your hostname...
21:14 [FreeNode] !irc.freenode.net *** Checking ident
21:14 [FreeNode] !irc.freenode.net *** Found your hostname
21:14 [FreeNode] !irc.freenode.net *** Got ident response
21:14 [FreeNode] !leguin.freenode.net *** Banned: Please do not harass channels or users on freenode. Contact klines@freenode.net with questions.
(2009/11/01 20.14)
21:14 [FreeNode] [Pt] ERROR Closing Link: 127.0.0.1 (Banned)
21:14 [Pt] Irssi: Connection lost to irc.freenode.net

How professional. ;-) And I have barely spoken to him/her, but seems already deserved a warm welcome.

Regards.

[zyperz]

Well it seems your reputation preceeds you.

Perhaps people have logged complaints.

But I see your back, so

[Platyna]

My...erm...reputation? My reputation is rather a good one. ;)

freenode staffers and facilities hosting personnel are advised that an understanding and appreciation of the role of catalyst is essential to understanding the nature and intended purpose of the network. As the network grows in size, formal training in the catalyst role will be provided.

An effective catalyst is:
Relaxed. To keep things calm, you yourself must be calm. Learn the skills of staying genuinely relaxed. Know your limitations; when you can't handle a problem situation calmly, get calmer heads involved.

Open-minded. It's easy to make assumptions about other people's motivations. When you decide someone is behaving maliciously, you've made an assumption about their motivation which may be difficult to disprove. Try to make your assumptions about other people's motivations as positive as possible.

Responsible. Peer-directed projects are a group activity with a strong need for responsible individual behavior. Rumors, innuendo and gossip can derail projects and ruin reputations. If everybody knows something is true, who is "everybody?" Did the person you're talking to get their information from documented, factual sources, or is it hearsay? If you can't be sure of the answer to those questions, should you be passing on what they've said?

Unobtrusive. It's not necessary to invoke authority to help solve a problem, and far better if you don't. Look for an opportunity to nudge the situation into a more productive track. Don't critique the user if a quiet change of subject, or a private conversation on a completely different topic, can help make the problem fade away.

Realistic. Accept the personalities of your users and concentrate on problem resolution. Don't expect people to suddenly change their personalities to make problem resolution easier.

Careful. Everything you say will be interpreted by the users with whom you interact. Consider how your remarks will be interpreted before you make them. Make sure the message you convey is the one you intend.

Attentive. Understand the situation you have walked into before you act. Question your assumptions. Look for signs you have misinterpreted the situation, in order to avoid causing difficulties for a user who did not create the problem.

Minimalist. Don't do more than you need to in order to resolve a problem. A problem scene is often the wrong time and place to set policy. Concentrate on the resolution, and on collecting information you can think about later.

Courteous. Even under time pressure, courtesy costs little and impresses people a lot. It's not about whether working with the person is easy or difficult; it's about setting the right tone.

Cooperative. Look for opportunities to get people involved in the resolution of their own and others' problems.

Someone with an internal locus of control. Catalysts concentrate on solving problems, not bestowing blame. Treat the situation as the problem, accept the users for who they are and try to figure out how best to help resolve the difficulty.

http://freenode.net/catalysts.shtml

Fail.

Regards.

[Rotonen]

What do you expect when every other sentence you say to the ircop in that conversation is a personal insult straight to his face?

[Platyna]

Erm, Rotonen, actually my sentences preceding the river of flames were quite casual. And when I am getting attacked I do usually fight back.

Regards.

[Rotonen]

I wouldn't be too courteous with tens or even hundreds of queries of "Hi!" at the moment when I'd actually need to concentrate and communicate with other more relevant people.

Then again I'm not claiming to be a hardcore sysadmin either.

Code: Select all

21:03 <Platyna> Okay I assume I will be ignored. Too bad your personal judgement takes over the possible positive results of responding to me.

How was he supposed to know you had anything to offer besides complaining about things not working? You had only said "Hi." so far, unless there was something not included in this log excerpt. I'd take that attention alone as arrogant and provocative at least. In the context it cannot really be counted as humor either in my opinion.

So I cannot see that start of a conversation either polite or civil in any way. I guess we simply disagree here on how we see this.

[Platyna]

Well I know her for many years so I am kinda experienced in dealing with her, for example that she never answers messages left on her away log - that tends to make many people angry. That whole catalyst crap is just a marketing blubbering. She banned a whole Platinum domain and whole my home ISP - shows clearly her care about the network wellfare. ;-)

Regards.

[Rotonen]

That significantly changes the context.

If we judge things with incomplete information, we probably make very biased judgements.

So why dig your own hole here by not relaying the full picture?

Also this makes me wonder if you were always such a hard customer to please or if you just did not realize you probably got lost in the flood of queries. There is always the last straw to snap the camel's back.

[Platyna]

I posted a full log of conversation with her.

Earlier I contacted a several staff members, who has shown a complete lack of knowledge about network security and offered them my assistance to fix their configuration if they can provide some general configuration details (for example the list of ports they block or Y:line configurations), they kept telling me it is classified - really OSS spirit.

My first contact with christel was when I contacted her when I got a second machine for Platinum, since I promised to Robert Levin (who kept complaining on #freenode that they lack sponsors and good hosting) that I will host their IRCd if I get a second machine. I was basically treated like an inferior entity, even if I offered them he best conditions they actually could have on their network. It was like they are doing me a favor that they will eventually agree (in undisclosed amount of time) to use my hosting. I said that I have to know at least some term when they will make a decision, to eventually start preparing that machine for other purposes met rather violent and rude response.

Now I hear one of my users (a very laid down person) spent a considerable amount of time (without my knowledge) to speak to her and convince her speak with me and try to make an agreement. The responses was like "what crack did you smoked" or "gasp" etc. - preofessional responses indeed, not to mention few hours gaps without even a simple "afk" indicating that she is busy or not around a computer - so Ania ended up not knowing if she said something wrog or whatever. Furthermore, she accused my user, that she was avoiding klines, because she connected to freenode from her home IP.

Regards.

[Rotonen]

So it is a lot more complex of an issue with far more background and history than you gave us information about initially.

Since it runs this deep, I'll just steer clear of it entirely and hope they come to senses on the k-lining of entire platinum.

[Platyna]

Considering the discussion fragments passed to me by Ania, this is unlike. When she asked how long is that ban set for, there were no response. ;-)

Anyway I don't care. As I said I lost my faith in freenode long time ago, I was just there for TMW channel. If I wanted I have enough hosts and IPs to avoid their klines until the end of time. :-P

Regards.