Memoserv
DALnet stands out as being the largest IRC network with services. It was indeed the first to have successfully implemented ****Serv services for its users back in 1994. The most well used of these services are NickServ, ChanServ and MemoServ. This document will walk through the available MemoServ commands with you while providing syntax and examples. It will also give you some pointers on what we consider to be services abuse (regarding MemoServ) and how to report any such abuse.
A complete list of DALnet Services commands can also be found at http://www.dal.net/services. Further services related questions should be directed to one of the three DALnet owned help channels: #DALnetHelp, #Help or #IRCHelp.
Throughout the document, the command /memoserv will be used for interacting with MemoServ. It is possible that your IRC client may not support this command. If that is the case, then we suggest that you try /msg memoserv@services.dal.net or /quote memoserv instead.
1 · Requirements
There are some basic requirements before a user is able to send or receive memos using MemoServ on DALnet. Here is a list of the more important ones among them:
Both the sender and the receiver of a memo have to have registered nicks. The sender has to be using a registered nick at the time of sending the memo. The receiver will only be able to read their memos when they are using the nick that the memo was sent to.
A message sent through MemoServ has to be no longer than 255 characters. Keep in mind that a memo is supposed to be just that - a short message left as a quick note to someone. If you want to leave longer messages then we suggest that get the person's email address and write an email to them in the future. It's of course possible to spread out a message over several memos. However, any more than 2 memos at a time should really be replaced by an email.
While the memo system is a useful feature that most users take advantage of, there are understandably those who do not wish to be bothered by memos all the time. Therefore, DALnet has an option that permits the owner to turn off the memo receiving ability for a given nick. If this switch is on for a nick, then you will not be able to send memos to it. This feature will be covered in detail later on in this document.
There are some other requirements to sending a memo, however, they are more command specific and will therefore only be covered in the commands that are affected.
2 · Sending Memos
There are three types of memos. Personal memos, channel memos and global memos. Global memos are also referred to as MemoServ NEWS and can only be sent by the DALnet Administration. This feature will be covered later on in the document.
Personal memos are directed to you only, while channel memos are directed to the Ops or SOps of a given channel.
Sending a personal memo is done through the following command:
/memoserv send nick message
Example:
/memoserv send PeanutButterLover I'm not going to be there tonight, catch you tomorrow!
Where "PeanutButterLover" is the person who I am sending this memo to.
Channel memos work on the same principle. However, not everyone can send a channel memo. When a channel is first registered, the default access level for sending channel memos is set to AOp. That means that only AOps, SOps and the Founder can do so. However, in many cases, the Founder has chosen to restrict this ability to SOps only or to themselves only. In those cases, only the channel SOps or the channel Founder can send a memo to the entire channel.
/memoserv send #channel message
For example:
/memoserv send #peanutbutterlovers Hey everyone! I will not be around for the the next 10 days, if there are any problems then talk to one of the sops.
The above would have been sent to all the registered nicks in the AOp and SOp lists. If you would like to send a memo to the SOps of the channel instead, then the following command must be used:
/memoserv sendsop #channel message
Example:
/memoserv sendsop #peanutbutterlovers What does everyone think about aopping PeanutLovingLady? She has been around a lot recently ...
Think carefully before you send channel memos. If this is an issue that doesn't concern everyone, then you might consider sending a memo to those people instead. Keep in mind that not everyone likes to receive a lot of memos, especially if most of the information is useless to them. You can send a total of 5 memos to a person. MemoServ will deny any other attempts unless the receiver deleted some of the previous memos first.
3 · Reading Memos
When you first use your nick, MemoServ will let you know if there are any memos for you.
-MemoServ- You have 1 new memo. To list them, use: /msg MemoServ@services.dal.net list
This leads us directly to the next command. As its name implies, the MemoServ LIST command allows you to view the memos sent to your nick. It allows you to see the nick of the sender, its number, the time it was sent and the memo's current status (new, read or marked as deleted).
/memoserv list
A MemoServ LIST will only display the first 20 memos. You will have to delete some memos before being able to view the rest with this command.
The READ command has to be used for actually viewing the content of a memo. The syntax is:
/memoserv read memo number
As mentioned before, the memo number is displayed in the output of a MemoServ LIST.
Example:
/memoserv read 1
If you have received more than one memo, then it's also possible to read a number of them at the same time. For example:
/memoserv read 1,2,3
or
/memoserv read 1,3,5
Note: All memos are deleted after 7 days, regardless of whether they have been read or not. A total of 50 memos can be stored for a nick at any one time.
4 · Deleting Memos
Once you have read a memo and have no need for it anymore, then you can delete it. Deleting a memo is actually done in two steps. First it marked as deleted and then it will be purged.
The DEL command allows you to mark one or several memos to be deleted. Marking a memo to be deleted still allows you to view the memo until it has been purged. The syntax of the DEL command is:
/memoserv del memo number(s)
For example:
/memoserv del 1
/memoserv del 1,2,3
/memoserv del 1,3,5
As you can see, the DEL command works in much the same way as the READ command. It does possess an option that READ does not have though:
/memoserv del all
The ALL switch will mark all memos as deleted and will purge them as well. Once you have used this command, there is no going back. The memos will no longer be stored anywhere.
A memo can also be purged in two other ways. All deleted memos are purged when you stop using your nick. You can also manually tell MemoServ to purge your deleted memos with the PURGE command.
/memoserv purge
Once again, once a memo has been purged, it is not available at all anymore. So please use this command with caution.
5 · Forwarding Memos
If you happen to own a secondary nick, then it's possible that you may wish for all your memos to go to your primary nicks. This way, you won't have to constantly change nicks to read memos. That is what the FORWARD option is for. It tells MemoServ to automatically forward all memos send to one nick to forward to another nick.
The syntax is:
/memoserv forward
/memoserv forward -
/memoserv forward nick password
The first command allows you to check if you already have forwarding turned on for the nick or not. If you already have forwarding turned on, then you can turn it off by using the second command.The third command is used for actually turning on the forwarding feature.
Example:
/memoserv forward ILovePeanutButter MyPeanuttyPassword321
The above command would have forwarded all the memos directed to the nick you are currently using to the nick "ILovePeanutButter" instead. "MyPeanuttyPassword321" would be the password to the nick "ILovePeanutButter". Obviously, your current nick has to be registered in order for this command to work.
6 · MemoServ News
MemoServ NEWS are news articles sent out by the DALnet administration to inform its users of important changes regarding services. They are also referred to as global memos.
As implied by its nickname, the global memos are sent to all registered nicks on the network, regardless of whether the FORWARD or NOMEMO option is turned on or not. You can use the /memoserv news command to read a news article. After reading it, the news article will automatically delete itself. If you don't read it, MemoServ will just keep reminding you of it until you get tired of the constant nagging and will read it simply to get rid of it. *wink*
Due to this, MemoServ NEWS articles are relatively rare and are only sent out for very important issues. Past articles are available at http://www.dal.net/news.
7 · NOMEMO Option
Contrary to the other commands, the NOMEMO option is set through NickServ and not MemoServ. It is considered as a nick-specific feature and is therefore a subset of the NickServ SET commands.
The command is very easy to remember. You have two possibilities:
/nickserv set nomemo on
/nickserv set nomemo off
That will turn the NOMEMO option on and off respectively. Keep in mind that the NOMEMO option actually overrides the FORWARD option. It's possible to have a forwarding nick listed even if NOMEMO is turned on, but the memos will not be forwarded and will be refused right away.
It's important to identify to your nick before using the NOMEMO commands. Otherwise the switch changes will not go through sucessfully. You can identify to your nick with
/identify password or /quote identify password among others.
8 · Abuse
As with everything, sending memos requires valuable DALnet resources. The DALnet network does not tolerate any abusive usage of MemoServ either through flooding, harassing or advertising.
At no time may you purposely use memos to flood fellow users. This includes repeated memos with the same content or memos filled with general gibberish, designed to annoy.
Repeated harassing memos are also considered a violation of DALnet policies. This includes constant threats, floods or verbal abuse.
You may not use MemoServ to advertise your channel, website or script through memos to other users unless you know for a fact that they would not mind you doing so. Depending on the severity of the offense, any violations of the above policies are liable to be dealt with through warnings, bans from the network, freezing of the nick, services ignores or an email sent to the abuse department of the user's ISP (Internet Service Provider).
9 · Reporting Abuse
If you have been the victim of services abuse involving MemoServ then you are encouraged to report it to a CSop (Channel Services Operator) or the SAbuse (Services Abuse) Team.
Unfortunately, logs are very easily faked. Therefore, a log of the incident is not sufficient for us to actually determine the validity of your report. You must meet the following conditions if you wish some action to be taken against the offender in question.
First of all, it's very important that you do not delete the memo(s). Keep in mind that a memo that has been marked as deleted will no longer be present the next time your nick is used. The memo must show up on the MemoServ LIST.
From here on, you have two choices. You can either contact the DALnet SAbuse Team with this problem or you can seek out a CSop on your own. The SAbuse Team can be reached at sabuse@dal.net. Be sure to include a complete description of the incident along with a copy of the memo received. Mention that the memo is still available and that you have not deleted it. In order for a member of the SAbuse Team to verify this incident, they will have to use and identify to your nick. Therefore, a short note mentioning that you would not mind them doing so for the purpose of verifying the report would be appreciated. Logs of any other related incidents would also not be amiss.
However, if you would like to find someone right away, a list of all CSops is available with /motd services.*. More information on how to find an IRC Operator is also available at http://help.dal.net/docs/findoper.html.
Revised by Clavelina
