I have noticed that over the past few weeks (since the beginning of September) I have been promoted to more and more positions on the Internet, particularly on freenode. I’m happy to take these roles and use the abilities only when necessary, but realise that I must be careful not to use the power unwisely. But then, would I have the access if I didn’t deserve it/would abuse it? No.

This also means that I ought to rethink my security policy. At the moment, I use secure passwords (note the plural), but I’m starting to think about where I am typing them in. I have decided to try and use host recognition over passwords on my Wikimedia shell, but still there is an issue. I have to trust *someone* somewhere along the line. Luckily, a freenode staffer has been kind enough to offer me a virtual machine with which I can run my IRC client off and can trust significantly more because he has no want or reason of my access, as he has a lot of it himself.

The aforementioned shell on a Wikimedia server has let me run a new IRC bot that is linked to a web pastebin. When someone makes a paste, a link is broadcaster onto IRC and the paste is then accesable. Unfortunately, there is a lot of potential for abuse at the moment, and the method for tracking IP addresses is rather flaky. This means that I’m having to hope it will be used properly, and trusting channel ops to be friendly when removing it when it is being flooded. So far I’ve only had communication attempts through the bot, which isn’t too bad. Otherwise, it has remained idle for days at a time.

I’ve also started an initiative to try and make Wiki*edia chanops more friendly and kinder when invoking their powers - and perhaps doing so less, too. It is my hope that I can encourage people to be catalysts and improve the user experience in the channels. Obviously, trolls will always have to be dealt with but I think there are better ways of doing it. I’m attempting to open up discussion so that improvements can be made on what I suggested, but so far I’ve had little success.