Protocol

Operators are glyphs used in the PSYC syntax to define modifications on variable state. The official list of operators is defined in Spec:Variable.

Administration

psyced Roles

psyced has two administrative levels, the operator who is in charge of running the user community with special command privileges in places and the administrator who additionally is in charge of managing the server functions.

Hierarchies however aren't always recommendable for a peaceful atmosphere of equality, so it's best if everyone runs his¹ own server and is his¹ own administrator.  ;D

psyced administrators are defined in psyced.ini, then activated by psyconf.

About chops, voice modes and trust

Sometimes we are asked why we do not provide more IRC-like user rights: Channel operators (+o) or Voiced people (+v). We could, if anyone coded a psyced tuning to activate things like that.. even /mode compatible. So far nobody wanted something like that. We do have place owners however, and conference control in general.

For years we ran some larger webchat communities on PSYC. A few people from the community were given operator rights, but they were intentionally not visible to the others. This resulted in no "i want to be an op, too" effect. No sense of hierarchy.. more tranquility. People were mostly peaceful and operators were expected not to interfere unless really necessary (and then their actions were logged and reviewed, making it not so abuse friendly).

But maybe it would become interesting if we visualized the trust network. Then some people who know many would be ranking high in trust, others less. And while in admin-oriented systems you have to annoy the admin to be raised to some VIP status, in a trust network you can lobby anyone to give you more trust. But trust doesn't add up necessarily.. if someone doesn't know any of your friends, there is no way you can escalate her² trust in you.

¹) Intentional male form. See gender. ²) Intentional female form.