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Rules for #archlinux-newbie

Before you continue, you might find it interesting to look at the network wide rules for freenode.

This extract from the freenode philosophy reflects the intent behind this channel perfectly:

Don't be elitist. Today's newbies are tomorrow's experts. A support channel is a place where people with knowledge lead by example. Is the example you want to set that technical knowledge is a hierarchy of control, or that people with knowledge have an inherent social advantage over people who don't? Please think before referring people to links such as this one, which combine suggestions for making support requests with a casual attitude of superiority over the newbie. Helping other people takes patience. It's better not to answer a question than to use the opportunity to emphasize the limitations of the person you're trying to help.

Aside from that, here are the channel rules, which are heavily inspired by #archlinux, #archlinux-women, and ##feminist here on freenode.

• Don't be an ass.
• Participate in good faith. You lose the face you’re trying to save when you can’t admit when you’re wrong.
• Remember you’re talking to actual people — think to yourself “is this something I could see myself saying if I were face to face with this person?”
• Don't start or contribute to any flamewars. Saying !anops or !newbie-ops will ping the channel ops if something goes wrong.
• Feel free to ask questions. That's what we're here for, after all.
• Don't misuse phrik, the channel bot. If you're really curious as to what it can do, then test things out in private messages.
• Bigotry, misogyny, antisemitism, racism, ableism, classism, homophobia, transphobia, cissexism, fatphobia, sizism, etc. are unacceptable and will face strict moderation.
• The archlinux wiki is a wonderful source of information, no matter what operating system you're running. It's not perfect by any means, but it can usually help answer your question if you know what you're looking for.
• You don't need to ask things like "are people alive?" or "may I ask for help?" before putting a question out there. Just ask.
• No religious wars. They're a distraction from conversation and are actively detrimental to helping new people understand how to accomplish what they want.
• IRC is an asynchronous medium, though. What this means is that people might not respond immediately to your questions. This doesn't mean that we don't care about helping, just that we're off doing other things.
• Arch != Arch derivatives. If you have questions about working with archbang, manjaro, antergos, or others, head to their respective irc channels, fora, or mailing lists. You will find more comprehensive help there.