Network Bot policy

ICQ-Chat does allow bots on the network, as long as they and their owners comply with our Bot Policy. The NetWork of ICQ-Chat bots are exempt, Chatters Bots and owners who do not abide by this policy are subject to removal from the network. You are responsible to read and understand the network policies, and failure to read them does not exempt you from being required to abide by them.

Every Bot must:

  • Act in accordance with the Acceptable Use Policy, the same as any other user.
  • Bots must have a registered NickServ account, independent of any user. It must be registered with a valid email address to contact the owner if necessary. The only exception to this rule are IRC Search crawler bots.
  • If the bot is online in a public network channel, the owner must be present in the channel also, and the owner must be registered with NickServ.
  • It must be obvious who the owner of the bot is. This may be by the owner's primary nick being in the real name field, and/or the owner's name in the associated metadata for the bot's NickServ account (Metadata is viewed with the command /msg NickServ info See /msg NickServ set property for details on how to set the information. The command must be run from the bot.)
  • The bot owner must be able to be contacted and must respond promptly to any requests for information from network admins.
  • Bots are prohibited in the NetWork game rooms such as Trivia/Uno or any game room owned by ICQ-Chat, Every bot must serve, if admins catch any the result can be permanent ban.
  • You may Not have your private game bot running games in the Network-owned channels.
  • very bot must serve a purpose. Bots may be used in private rooms for channel protection, statistics, informational or even entertainment. A bot that has no function is considered a filler and is prohibited in the Acceptable Use Policy.
  • It is encouraged for bots to have user mode +B set, which identifies it as a bot if someone performs a /whois nickname on the bot nick.
  • Bots programmed to answer any type of inquiry should respond via private message, as auto messages are generally not appropriate in the public chatrooms. (This would include bots that run a "seen" script, news bots, google response bots, and the like. It is up to private channel owners whether to allow such bots to post into their private channels.
  • Please do not post more than ONE bot in PUBLIC NETWORK channels.
  • There is a limit of no more than 5 bots in a private channel, except for Approved channel bots channels. (see Channel Bots Channels)
  • Bots are also subject to the same rules as any chatter and can be warned, kicked, and banned if they violate any of the network's rules.
  • Under some circumstances such BOS/BOBB set on Bot's owner are also applied on Bots until the ban expired.

This network does not provide bots for private channels, however some chatters may offer this service. You may ask about such bot owners in #help or through the helpdesk.

Anyone contemplating offering channel bots to private channel owners MUST get permission from the Network Operators. Please use the helpdesk ticket system to do this. Only a limited number of such channels/services are allowed on this network. Approved Channel Bot Channels are allowed up to 5 bots in their bot holding rooms, and will be limited to a certain number of bot holding rooms per service. (Network Operators will advise.) If you have any questions about these policies, or any other, please ask in #help or on our HelpDesk.

this notice has been updated/approved by ICQ-Chat Network owners/admins/opers 29 Jan 2025