Guide Handbook
Overview
As a Community Guide, you are tasked with assisting users in familiarizing themselves and getting setup on IRC, as well as providing support. With our new orangechat integration, Snoonet expects a large influx of users, many of whom will be using IRC for the first time - some directly via Kiwi or a client of their choice and many through our custom designed IRC<—>OC link.
Your role here on Snoonet will be critical to helping Snoonet as a community. This Handbook outlines all the information you need to know. Please read it carefully and familiarize yourself with its contents. While we understand everyone is a volunteer and wants to have a good time, it is important that this Handbook is followed to ensure that users feel comfortable using our network. Ask a staff member in #staff (discussed below) if you have any questions.
Access
As Community Guides, you are assigned a special vHost in the format snoonet/guide/username, which grants you access to #staff, for conducting community and guide-related business, and #optalk, for communicating with OPs of large network channels. Please keep all guide-related business in #staff, with the exception of specific user assistance as outlined below.
These channels also grant you access to Sherlock, a user tracking bot used for checking if someone is ban evading. Instructions for using Sherlock can be found here. Information from the bot is not to be shared outside of #staff and #optalk.
Automatic half-op is enabled in #optalk, #help, #snoonet, and #staff. However, Community Guides are not granted any OPER or services access beyond what you already have on a per-channel basis as an OP or half-OP.
Policies and Procedures
For our standard set of network rules see the network rules page
Information about Snoonet BNC can be found on the BNC page
The guidelines for channels can be found on the channel rules page
Important Resources
NickServ: /ns help
ChanServ: /cs help
BotServ: /bs help
MemoServ: /ms help
IRC: /helpop
Assisting Users
As Community Guides, you are expected to assist users in #help with general network and IRC support queries. Remember to always be polite and understand that many users are not familiar with how IRC works. Topics and discussions in #help are to be kept only to network related support - general discussions should be moved to #snoonet or a relevant on-topic channel.
If a user asks a question you are able to answer, feel free to assist. However, if another guide or staff member is already assisting, refrain from jumping in or correcting them in #help - it causes confusion to the user and looks unprofessional. If you believe incorrect support is being provided, politely ping the helper in #staff and explain your thoughts. If you are unsure following discussion, please ping a staff member for further assistance and ask the user to politely wait - do not take a best guess at answering if you are not sure and risk providing incorrect information.
Non-staff or guide members also enjoy providing assistance. If you notice they are supplying incorrect support, please PM them and explain. If they continue, you may jump in and take over politely.
If a user requires assistance for an extended period of time, consider asking them to PM you to continue the converataion to free up the channel for other users that may need help. While not required, we ask that you please maintain IRC logs of any official support provided outside of #help.
When helping users setup new channels, it is recommended that you have them join and register the channel and then provide any further assistance directly in the channel.
Limitations
Requests for assistance regarding any personal information or network rule violations, including ban evasion, are to be handled by Snoonet Staff only. If a user requests help with these matters and no staff members are around, tell the user you will request appropriate support and ping staff in #staff. If staff are still not available, have the user submit a support ticket. Tickets are usually answered within 24-hours. Although helpful, please do not collect additional information from the user to pass onto staff as it often contains personal and sensitive information. A staff member will follow up with the user as needed.
Getting Help from Staff
If you have a question you’re unsure of, please ping a staff member in #staff and we will be glad to assist.