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4. General notes for server and service administrators

4.1 User privacy

Services can see almost as much information as a server. This means that granting a service connection should be considered with as much care as granting a server connection. In particular, the service type should be limited to the strict minimum needed for the service to be operational. In most cases, a service type of 0 is enough.

A great care should be taken to make sure that a service cannot be (ab)used to obtain information not normally accessible to users (such as showing invisible users). Administrators must remember that the privacy of the users is at stake.

4.2 Guidelines

To avoid confusion, it is a good idea to obey the following simple rules:

Name

The name should be descriptive, and if possible unique on the network.

Information

The service ``information'' should be short and descriptive.

Mandatory queries

The service must reply to at least 2 queries:

ADMIN

Name and e-mail address of the administrator.

HELP

List of queries understood by the service. Each query should also have an help.

Basic queries

These queries should also be understood by the service:

INFO

This should be a short text explaining what the service and its purpose are.

VERSION

The version of the running code.

4.3 Flood control

Also, since services are not affected by flood control, they can easily flood the IRC network with information. They should be conceived so this does not happen.

Services should implement their own flood control (for outgoing traffic) to be safe.


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