Adding my general overall reply:

People are going to start as many channels as they want and really dont care if there are already 200 others with the word <insert your choice here> in the name. They are also going to use IRC for their personal reasons, whatever they may be.

Personally, i find it annoying when someone joins a channel and immediately asks the whole channel or msgs me a/s/l. If i want you to know, i'll tell you. I could use the never ending assortment of popups or finger reply to do so if i had an overwhelming urge to announce it to the whole place or *gasp* manually type it. (btw, the finger option is as easy to find and as clickable as any other option would be) Whether i am helping someone, or generally chatting, i dont care what your a/s/l is, (exception: if i need to know your general location in order to help you find a channel that speaks your language, then i can look at your mask).

My reason for not wanting an option such as was suggested is for privacy. My own, yes.. but more importantly for those who dont realize the trouble they could get into by giving out too much info. No, of course not having such an option would stop all those who dont know any better, but why encourage it? Why make it easier for the dregs of humanity to find victims? The general opinion of IRC is that its a sex crazed, stalker filled, lying swamp. Sure, there is that element, but there are also a lot of genuinely nice ppl...but that isnt what the general public hears about or who users need beware of. How can we tell users to not give out personal info for their safety when we have an option implying they should do just that? Regardless of whether it was optional, the implication would still be that its ok to do so. It isnt the responsibility of each of us or any software designer to "police" behavior, but being a help oriented person, i would have a problem with knowing i increased the chance of even one person putting themselves in jeapardy because i helped them advertise their a/s/l.

Beyond that, if you feel you would only chat with someone based on their a/s/l you would be shortchanging yourself and defeating one of the pluses of of IRC: the opportunity to get to know ppl from everywhere, of all ages. Assuming of course everyone would fill the info out truthfully (not likely)


ParaBrat @#mIRCAide DALnet