Blazing Saddles
The wizard is given the unique ability to wear a
'star' before his or her name. The star or asterisk (*) can only be worn
by people who have activated their wiz privelages. Owners have the
option of wearing two asterisks.
The star or badge has its uses. Firstly, it is a
symbol of office. Visitors see the star and know that they can page you
for any help. Would-be troublemakers may see the star and be properly
subdued.
Secondly, you need to don the star before you can use
any allscray commands. Without the star, the commands will not work.
Whether you wear the star or not is a personal choice.
Some people wear it proudly for the honour that it
bestows. Some people don't like the attention
that it attracts and prefer to creep around in annonymity while they go
about their business.
The A-Team
A good wizard panel has a mix of talents. Different
people excel at different things. Wizard duties should be enjoyable and
less of a chore. Find one that suits you and your abilities.
I have listed a few common wizard types below. Even
though I discuss them seperately, it is not uncommon for one to be
working in two or more of these categories.
Note that I always mention a discreet warning first.
Always give the perpetrator a chance to redeem themselves. I hardly ever
propgag, gag or pin (except in jest, when initiating a new wizard)
because those commands are demeaning and have potential for abuse.
License to Kill
One of the special 'powers' bestowed upon wizards is
the ability to 'kill' or disconnect another user. People tend to use the
words interchangably but there is a slight difference between the two.
Killing banishes a person until they reconnect again with a different ip
address or until their death penalty is over. Users are executed by name
and/or ip address. The maximum period of killing is 120 minutes. Bans on
the other hand are a more permanent solution to excluded potential
palace nasties. Once a ban has been issued, a person cannot come back
into the palace until the ban has been lifted. Banning a person will not
disconnect them from Palace, however it will stop them returning. As
such you can ban people who are not connected at the time. These are the
ultimate penalties for misbehaviour on palace. Use them sparingly. And
if you do use them, do not regard them lightly.
Having said that, how does one turn into a lean mean
killing machine?
There are 4 easy steps:
Step one: Lock onto target
On palace, we do this with the `glist command. Once again this is a
command that can be used only by wizards. It reveals to you the ip
number of each user, user status and location. This information should
be treated as confidential and should not be shared with anyone outside
the wizard panel. Unnecessary sharing of this information within the
wizard panel can also be construed as an invasion of privacy.
The information you see will look like this
*** ;
for e.g: *** ; m Joe 123.1.1.1 Garden of Morpheus
( User status refers to whether the person is a member(m), guest(n),
wizard(w) or owner(g).)
Do a `glist the minute you suspect something amiss.
Note down the ipaddress.
There are 2 additional commands you can add to the
back of the `glist: -k and -o.
'glist -k gives you all the information above plus the
unique registration code for the target.
*** ; m Joe 123.1.1.1 Garden of Morpheus {AJDNPNBG}
'glist -o gives you all the same information plus the
unique software orignation code and machine type
*** ; m Joe 123.1.1.1 Garden of Morpheus (321750
32Bit Windows)
While ipnumbers can change when a person reconnects,
the registration code does not change unless the person reinstalls The
Palace and enters a new registration code. The computer information
(software code) does not change unless the person changes his or her
computer (or so I'm told...).
Only the owner can ban on these two criteria. So take
down this information for the owner of your palace.
Step Two: Anihilate the target
As a wizard, you are able to kill using `kill
. Enter it and watch your troubles disappear. (At
least, temporarily....)
The default time for a killing is 120 minutes (at
least it is on my palace server...).
Most people will wander off in a huff and never
return. But there may be a few who will return to wreak revenge on you
for such violent treatment. This may be a good time to brush up on using
wildcards in the ipaddress. A wildcard is basically an asterisk which
can stand for anything. The more asterisks you use, the more people you
can potentially exclude. Usually people connecting from the same area
and ISP will retain the same first few numbers in their ipnumber even
though the ending changes.
For instance, if you wanted to kill Joe who has an
ipaddress of 123.1.1.1, you can try something like this:
'kill 120 123.1.1.*
To increase your chances to keep him at bay for 120
minutes, you might want to try:
'kill 120 123.1.*.*
And so on...
Step Three: Lock em out and throw away the
key...
At this stage, you should have decided if you wanted
this person killed temporarily or banned permanently. Wizards have the
privellage to ban by ipnumber:
'banip
If you do not enter a duration, the person will be
banished for the default penalty time specified in the palace. Entering
the value -1, banishes the person for the maximum number of minutes
possible (35791394 minutes or in other words, the equivalent of around
69 years...)
But these are bans that were writ in water...
As mentioned before, only owners can ban on more
permanent criteria like registration codes. They can do it even if the
miscreant is not connected at the time. So make sure you take down the
information for them ASAP.
Step Four: Pass Judgement
Don't forget to comment on why you have chosen to ban or kill
somebody. This is easily achieved with the 'comment
command. It places a comment in the banlist that tells other wizards
with your reason on it. This is to facilitate communication between
wizards who may log on at different times and also to protect against
potential abuse of the ban/kill command. To view the banlist, just type
'banlist.
*** ; Banned 35791394 min (35791393) (key = joe
[0.0.0.0]) site banned by ~¤tRiStAN¤~
*** ; comment by ~¤tRiStAN¤~: is fictional character created solely
for the purpose of banning
Is that a Bug in your pocket or are you just glad
to see me...?
Tracking an individual is another special 'power' that
wizards and owners are given. When an individual is tracked, a record is
entered into the banlist. The effects are seen when the person signs on
into the palace. If the person used another name in your palace and is
logging on with a different name, the following signon may be seen:
(varies depending on signon message in your palace)
** ;Joe (a.k.a. Sexy Chicken Lover) 123.1.1.1 has
arrived!!!
Tracking is a great way to exert one's 'omnipotence'
over other palace users. Remember that it is a tool to help you keep the
peace. Do not abuse it if you don't need it.
The Avatar Wizard
The avatar wizard is one of the few specialized posts on
palace. Most wizards in charge of avatars find time for little else (in
terms of palace duties). There is a lot of work involved in maintaining
a decent sized avatar collection. Avatar wizards need to:
