Well, as the topic states, it has been a long time since our last update.
So does that mean that we haven't been working on anything new?
Before I answer that, a short story:
Once while visiting another IRC network, I was reading a discussion between the network staff and its users.
During the conversation, a user asked the question "Does the network have any planned features/updates/changes coming?" to which the staff replied: "No, do you have any suggestions for any?".
IRC networks are very similar to businesses and many other things when it comes to this aspect. Never should management of such a thing not be trying to come up with new plans for the future.
If Rizon ever has a point in which it does not have a plan for things to come, that will be the day in which I step down as a member of the network.
All of that being said, yes, Rizon has plans for new features and upgrades for the network.
It has been a little while since our last upgrade because the new upgrades we have planned, as many have heard from rumors, are quite extensive.
The first upgrade in which we have plans has to do with FunServ.
For those of you unfamiliar with Funserv, see past News updates that tell what it is and how to use it.
FunServ adds many features that make Rizon quite unique from other networks. For a while we were upgrading this service quite often, constantly adding new things.
We began to tire of having to restart the entire thing just to add or fix one small thing but with the current setup that was the only option.
The only fix to this is/was an entire rewrite of FunServ making it modular so that pieces could be upgraded without the whole thing having to be restarted.
At this point in time, we have a little more than half of the entire thing rewritten and made modular.
This means that adding features to FunServ will be much quicker and easier on our end in the future, hopefully allowing us to bring several new bots with many new features to our users to enjoy.
We are hoping to get this new FunServ running in about a month.
Our next upgrade has to do with our actual services (NickServ/ChanServ/BotServ/etc)
We have had a lot of time spent on our services over the last few months, adding many things to them.
We had to start by fixing a bug that was causing our services to constantly shut down all the time, sometimes up to three times a day.
This was an annoying thing for our users and our staff. We have since fixed this issue and our services are running quite stable (Services up 47 days, 09:45).
We then began to add features to services on a test network.
One of the first things we decided to add were extended fantasy commands. These allow nearly every ChanServ command to be typed and executed in the room.
Many of our users are familiar with the current ones:
[20:25:29] [&Jason] .op yourname
[20:25:29] ::: mode: (Security) sets (+o yourname)
[20:26:41] [&Jason] .kick yourname example
[20:26:41] ::: kick: (yourname) was kicked by (Security) (example (Jason))
While not needed, these commands are typically for fun and sometimes for the convenience of being lazy, saving the person executing the command from having to type /msg ChanServ kick #channel nickname reason.
Those are examples of the ones currently in place, while the ones about to be posted are ones that will soon be added:
[20:30:39] [&Jason] .set mlock +s
[20:30:39] -Security- Mode lock on channel #services changed to +sz.
[20:30:40] ::: mode: (Security) sets (+s)
[20:32:04] [&Jason] .vop add adam
[20:32:04] -Security- Adam moved to #services VOP list.
Our goal is to make all the ChanServ commands accessible from inside of the channel.
A few networks use a few different types of ways to add users to access lists, this was one of the reasons we chose Anope services to begin with, as it allows users to choose between using xOP lists system and the access list system.
Along the way, another style of access list was designed using a flag based system.
This allows channel admins and owners to give users certain flags that specify exactly what powers they have in a channel.
While I personally must admit that this is not my preference to the way of running a channel, Rizon has always tried to give users every option available and letting them choose which method works for them.
This being said, our dev network also has added flags:
[20:41:28] -ChanServ- Syntax: FLAGS CHANNEL [nick [flags]]
[20:41:28] -ChanServ-
[20:41:28] -ChanServ- This command allows you to control what users get
[20:41:28] -ChanServ- what permissions. You can only use this command if
[20:41:28] -ChanServ- ACCESSTYPE FLAGS is enabled. A list of possible
[20:41:28] -ChanServ- flags are as follows:
[20:41:28] -ChanServ-
[20:41:28] -ChanServ- o User is allowed to use the OP and DEOP commands
[20:41:29] -ChanServ- O User gets auto op
[20:41:29] -ChanServ- h User is allowed to use the HALFOP and DEHALFOP commands
[20:41:29] -ChanServ- H User gets auto halfop
[20:41:29] -ChanServ- v User is allowed to use the VOICE and DEVOICE commands
[20:41:29] -ChanServ- V User gets auto voice
[20:41:29] -ChanServ- a User is allowed to use the PROTECT and DEPROTECT commands
[20:41:29] -ChanServ- A User gets auto protected
[20:41:29] -ChanServ- s User can use the SET command
[20:41:29] -ChanServ- i User can use the INVITE command
[20:41:29] -ChanServ- i User can use the GETKEY command
[20:41:30] -ChanServ- r User can use the KICK command
[20:41:30] -ChanServ- r User can use the BAN command
[20:41:30] -ChanServ- R User can use the CLEAR command
[20:41:30] -ChanServ- f User can change other users access
[20:41:30] -ChanServ- t User can use the TOPIC command
[20:41:30] -ChanServ- l User can view the access list
[20:41:30] -ChanServ- b User can not join
[20:41:30] -ChanServ- B User has access to the fantasy commands
Flags and extended fantasy commands should be ready to go within the next couple weeks, possibly sooner depending how long it takes us to work out the bugs we have found in the system.
Our next feature will take a bit longer before it is added as it requires all of our Rizon servers to be restarted (not at the same time).
This feature will allow Rizon users to log in to NickServ via an client certificate fingerprint. This is a more secure way of doing things and keeps users from having to worry about their password.
For more information on this please see http://www.oftc.net/oftc/NickServ/CertFP. We look to have this feature added within about 2-3 months.
The last and probably biggest feature we have planned for services is SQL.
For those unfamiliar with SQL, it is a method of storing a database which can easily be managed and worked with by many things.
What does this mean for the average user? Once this feature has been enabled, we can program our website to allow access to our services.
This will mean logging into our forums using your nickname and password, registering a nickname via our website, changing your nickname password or other settings via our website, seeing who has access in a channel while in a browser.
This will allow users to pretty well change anything on Rizon through our website. We have wanted this coded into our services for a long time, but most networks that have tried this have either been quite small and able to pull it off, or a large one that cannot design this to work in a reasonable way.
We have found a way to make this work on Rizon and gives a lot of potential features to the network.
This has already been tested several times and we hope to see this in about 1.5 to 2 months, and we have already begun working on the website to work with these services changes once they take place.
I would like to thank Nol888 and c/tiger/wild/dizzy/whatevernicknameheisonthatday for their past and current work on FunServ and making it a service that our users love.
Nol888 was also the coder responsible for our work on RizonBNC which with over 600 BNCs already has become a rather unexpected success. Feel free to check out #RizonBNC for more information on that one.
Next I would like to thank Adam for his work on our services and helping adding all the new features we believe our users will love.
Adam also runs a channel on Rizon known as #ChanStat which offers a free service to Rizon users for channel statistics and a map feature which shows a picture of relationships between users of the channel based on how much they talk to each other.
Feel free to stop by his room and see how things work out, and maybe add these features to your own room.
If you would like to test out the features that are heading to Rizon, feel free to check out our test network.
It has the same database as Rizon, meaning you can use your current nickname and password and check out all of the features listed here and see how they work.
Also, any bug you may find on the test network should be reported to #services on the test network. This will help to ensure that, once we are done testing the services and run them for real, there will be fewer problems.
To check things out go to:
/server -m [ACCESS REMOVED DUE TO USER ABUSE. GOOD JOB GUYS]
Thank you for your time,
and as always, if you have any other features which you think will be helpful on Rizon, leave me a message or post it here.