Bitcoin IRC Channel Guidelines

The IRC Web #bitcoin channel on freenode serves as the de-facto "front door" for newcomers on bitcoin.

The purpose for this channel is general discussion of everything related to bitcoin. We try to discuss and help people with everything regarding the protocol, clients, custom implementations and the philosophy behind bitcoin.

Our purpose is to help anyone with relevant discussions:

• The channel's language is english

• Please try to remain on topic, the channel is about everything related to bitcoin. This means that the following topics are off-topic: all alt-coins, issues about how the channel is moderated, begging, spamming, referral sites or any other form of advertising. This includes anything else that is of no interest for the majority of the users.

• Please refrain from any insults, flamewars or trolling.

• It is strictly forbidden to discuss unlawful activity, pursuant to freenode's guidelines;

• Generally, anything that would make a newcomer feel unwelcome or would reflect badly on the bitcoin community should be avoided.

• There are many side channels that allow discussions on various topics. A complete list can be found on IRC_channels. The major sidechannels are: Bitcoin-otc for any trading, IRC Web #bitcoin-mining for anything bitcoin mining related and IRC Web #bitcoin-pricetalk for price related discussions. Please use these channels.

• We strive to maintain a professional, friendly, and helpful atmosphere on the channel at all times. Any deviation to this might get you a warning, or booted off the channel. Feel free to discuss this with an operator in private, but do not discuss this in the main channel. Operators always have the last say in any discussion.

• Do not trust any website link given on the channel. There are many people out there trying to trick you into visiting a malicious site, or to trick you into executing viruses that are designed to search for bitcoin wallets and send the coins to the attacker. Do not click on any link unless you fully know what you are doing.

• Any url might be a scam site. Therefore we do not allow url's in general. All url shortners are strictly forbidden as they are hiding the final url. Other sites might be allowed by the goodwill of the operators, but this is more an exception to the rule, and can be decided on case by case by the operators. Google docs in particular are currently banned automatically by one of the bots, as they have been the source of criminal activity in the past.

• We strive to provide high-quality information. Therefore we do not allow any advice on bad practices. For example: web wallets are insecure by design. Therefore, we will not recommend them as they are not as secure, and we will not allow other people to recommend them to anyone else. If in doubt ask an operator.