Purpose

• The primary purpose of the relay channel is to provide help to users of our bots.
• We want our service to be known as friendly and co-operative, just as any customer service business would. However, it is also true that no staff member should have to put up with intolerable abuse.

We help people who have questions about our bots or service.

However, when no one is getting such help, we also help with other things that the online staff feel they can help with -- be it help with someone else's bot, with channel services, etc.

Social Chat

Social chat is not encouraged in our relay channel. The general rule is that anybody not needing help is idling, and as such should /part the channel. There are a few exceptions to this rule:

• When it is directly related to the help being provided.
• When it is between a member of a net's staff and BotService's staff.
• When no users need help and no staff object.

Idling is not permitted in our channels. This refers to anybody not needing our help, or those who have already been helped, unless special permission has been given by any online staff.

Bots

Rule: NO BOTS BUT OUR BOTS

Having other bots in the channel risks script conflicts and can be extremely annoying. I don't see why we should need to check that there are no such conflicts.

Profanity

#Bothouse is a family channel, and as such, care should be taken to keep language appropriate. What the punishment should be is up to the staff present. A warning on the first violation followed by a ban the second time seems fair to me.

Spamming

In-channel spamming is not tolerated.