Jump to content

IRC/Cloaks

Add links
From Meta, a Wikimedia project coordination wiki
< IRC
This is an archived version of this page, as edited by Fennec~metawiki (talk | contribs) at 18:42, 21 December 2004 (Much of this is copied from en:Wikipedia:IRC channel cloaks which I originally wrote...). It may differ significantly from the current version.
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

On Freenode, the network which runs the Wikipedia IRC channels, an IRC user cloak replaces the display of your IP address or host name with a cloak. For example, ~dogmaster3000@207.46.245.222 could become ~dogmaster3000@dogmaster.wikipedia in several IRC-related messages (/who, /whois, and various join/part/quit notifications). According to Rob Levin, the head of Freenode, user cloaks are a way to show off your pride as a Wikipedia editor to those who see you in other IRC channels, and are intended to help build a sense of community. They are also a way to hide your hostname for security and privacy reasons.

People who can authorize cloaks

The following people are allowed by Freenode staff to authorize the use of a Wikipedia-related user cloak:

Currently, cloaks take the form of name.XX.wikipedia where XX is the two-letter language code for the wiki at which the user is registered. Users on the English wikipedia currently have this portion of the cloak omitted. Additionally, all cloaks must conform to the DNS hostname specification as described in RFC 1034 and RFC 1035. They may include upper- and lower-case Latin characters, Arabic numerals, periods and dashes. They may not include spaces or underscores; dashes should be used instead.

Obtaining a cloak

Freenode, the IRC network which hosts the Wikipedia-related channels, requires that these steps be followed prior to setting a cloak. You should follow these instructions before requesting a cloak

  • The user must register their IRC nickname.
    • See /msg nickserv help register for details on how to register.
  • The user should set an email address for the nickname (see msg nickserv help set email)
  • The user must register an 'alternate' IRC nickname- typically the same 'alternate' nickname which is specified for the IRC client.
  • The user must link this alternate nickname to the main nickname.
    • Change to the alternate nickname, and identify to Nickserv (see below)
    • Use the 'link' command of Nickserv to link this to the primary nickname (see /msg nickserv help link

To list Wikipedia users who use a cloak, type

/who *.wikipedia
Retrieved from "https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=IRC/Cloaks&oldid=85544"