Access Denied

Nightshade · none Joined: 17 Oct 2007 Posts: 2

To the admins:
I am building tools to help users navigate IRC and am very interested in tapping into the information you guys possess. So far I have a JAVA application that tries to search your website, but I keep getting "Access denied" errors when I try to run it. Obviously this represents a policy on your part of disallowing automatic malicious programs access to your site, but I was wondering if I could obtain permission for my app to work around this.
This work is as part of a grant funded research project into human-computer interaction and online navigation systems.
I'd appreciate it if someone gets back to me on this (either in the forums or via email)
Thanks,
~Brad

Mary · SearchIRC Admin Joined: 03 May 2003 Posts: 691

Brad, we don't allow anyone to harvest information from SearchIRC, whether they have malicious intent or not.

Networks trust us with their sensitive information. If we hand it out, we can't call it back if suddenly every channel in IRCdom finds itself being spammed, or worse.

However, I noticed on the meet and greet thread that you are working on tools for the disabled. This is a Good Thing. You have our ear... we're listening.

Email help@searchirc.com and give us as many details as you can. We may find a solution that works for the both of us.

Mary · SearchIRC Admin Joined: 03 May 2003 Posts: 691

Brad can explain it better, but in his email to us he said his project involved using SearchIRC for keyword searches, then sending bots into channels that come up in the results to determine the level of activity.

SearchIRC has a policy of only gathering information networks voluntarily make public. We do not send bots into channels nor will we knowingly allow our data to be used to send bots into channels.

We're not passing judgment on Brad's project one way or the other. We don't have enough information to do that. We're just doing what we feel is the right thing and leaving it up to the owners to decide who they invite into their channels.

ircmojo · Posted: Oct 19, 2007 7:05am Post subject:

I don't have any information other than what you posted mregit, but so far the technology sounds alot like what some XDCC sites use to find warez on IRC.

Personally, as a network admin I share the same views on allowance as SIRC does. I'm a firm believer in Channel Founders own their channels, not the staff of my network and I can't condone such gathering/sharing either because I don't want data farming bots connecting and joining channels I don't own on my network.

If for some reason this is allowed by SIRC, I'd like to politely demand that individual networks have an "opt-out" option for individual channels or if that is unreasonable, then for the entire network when it comes to sharing the networks information with 3rd parties. Otherwise, I can see and definately condone the banning of scrawl indefinately from my network.

Not indending to sound harsh, I'm just being upfront and I take my users privacy very seriously. I have gone as far as using custom services and soon a custom ircd, just to insure our users privacy even from the IRCops. It's not a trust issue, it's just the fact that the IRCops simply don't need to know some of the information that other Services packages allow IRCops to see.

ciao.

Mary · SearchIRC Admin Joined: 03 May 2003 Posts: 691

ircmojo, no worries. SIRC would never allow our services to be used to place bots in channels. Period.

We're on the same page. :)