(Winged - now with added grumpiness. Sorry but I need to rant. ;)

1. Assumptions are stupid. I will think you are an idiot if you assume that, just because I help run an IRC network, I am:

1. knowledgeable on all aspects of running the aforementioned IRC network, including coding IRCd and services, server config editing, and so on and so forth. Because I don't. I've only messed twice with a server's config, and both times I had word-by-word command-by-command instructions and somebody holding my hand via email, and I was still terrified of screwing up (especially since I'd been given the root password. meep.)
   I am not the l33t all-knowing oper. Nobody is. That's why most networks have teams of opers that do different things - some do coding, some run servers, some teach, some deal with users, and so on. So, if I don't know enough to help you out, do your own research or ask somebody else, don't whine that I "should know these things".


2. available to help any random person that wanders by with setting up their very own IRC server. Frankly, why should I? This may sound selfish, but you're not setting up a server to link to Serenity-IRC, are you? So really, I have better things to do with my time.


3. willing to go bug other opers who know the things I don't know, just so you can set up your very own IRC server. You're too lazy to read the documentation that comes with the pre-made IRCd and services you're using (or to ask your coder if you're using custom stuff)? Your problem, not mine. Especially since some of the other opers are even busier than I am, and have better things to do with their time (see previous comment about helping setting up a server that's not gonna be linked to Serenity-IRC).

3. No damnit, we don't want to merge our network with yours. We split from another network in the first place, and we don't want to lose our individuality. How about you link your servers to our network instead? Oh, what's that? You don't want to do that, because it would make your network lose your individuality? Then shut up and stop asking other networks to join yours, ffs. You're asking others to do something you wouldn't like to do, that's stupid, not to mention rude.

4. Yes, I enjoy scripting for mIRC. Yes, I'm an op in #mirc. Yes, I'm a semi-regular in another mIRCscripting-related channel on another network. Yes, I hang out on a couple of forums and help people out with mIRC scripting, writing small code snippets for them and correcting their mistakes when I have time. Yes, I enjoy looking at other people's scripts to figure out how to do things. But:

1. No, that does NOT make me a script-on-demand service. If you want somebody to script something for you, there's several good scripting forums where you can ask your question. I may even be the one who scripts what you want for you. But joining #mirc and demanding that I drop everything else I'm doing, and script something for you right now, is rude and annoying and will earn you a kickban if you do it again after being warned not to. It's a help channel, not a do-this-for-me channel.


2. And for that matter, I've had enough of people showing me bits of code and asking "does this work?" I don't know if it works, I can't see what you're trying to do from a very random, very small snippet consisting of two lines of code. You have mIRC installed too, you test your own scripts and see if they work or not. A good question to ask when you're looking for help with a script is "why doesn't this work?", not "does this work?".


3. Also for the sake of all that's holy, test your scripts before posting them with your "ooooh lookit me! I'm a good scripter!" airs. You'll save yourself the humiliation of me picking apart your script and highlighting all the wrong code in red, because I'm fed up with you posting scripts that don't work because you don't even know the basics of mIRC scripting. (Hint: if you call yourself good at scripting in mIRC, and then you have to ask what /amsg does, you're an idiot.)


4. PHP isn't mIRCscript, mIRCscript isn't PHP. I don't care if you do it that way in PHP, it won't work in mIRC. Similarly, mIRCscript isn't Java, Javascript, C, C++, HTML, Perl, VB, or CSS. I don't care if you know how to code or script in those languages. You're still shit at scripting in mIRC. Get off your high horse and pull your head out of your ass, already.


5. One could think that, after being kicked out of a channel three times in a row by a bot for flooding while attempting to paste your script into the channel so people could tell you if it worked or not, you'd grow a brain and realize that maybe, just maybe, you should paste the script on an external site rather than get kicked the fourth time. Alas, it was not to be.


6. No, you can't paste your script to me in private so I can fix it for you. Use pastebin.org and paste the link in the channel if you want others to look at your script, and don't expect me to go through your messy code with a fine-toothed comb to pick out all the mistakes and make your script work. Troubleshooting a script is the author's responsibility.


7. When I post a script example, I usually explain how it works. Reading my explanation will save you from looking dumb later.


8. "I've found a bug in mIRC! [command that was introduced only in the newest version of mIRC] doesn't work!"
   "Are you using the newest version of mIRC?"
   "No. ...Oh."
   Four times. One could think you'd have learned by now, but nooo...


9. "I don't know what this command does." /help /command will pull up the helpfile, twit. RTFM.

Damn girl. Smoke come out your ears yet? :-P

"make it idiot-proof, and someone will make better idiots"

;)

*giggles* Well, Air, I needed to rant. That's what friends and weblogs are for, to rant so I can, afterwards, continue dealing with idiots with patience and without getting annoyed at them. ;)

So, I'm confused...would a person hypothetically have to do each of those things to annoy you, or would one from the list do? ;)

Hehe... naw, just one will do. More than one and you get smacked. More than two, you get messily murdered. Beware ;)