GeekShed IRC Network
Planned Maintenance for Tuesday, January 24
Jan 21st
The ISP for some of the GeekShed equipment is changing this week, so we’ll have some downtime for a few of the bots and specific services on the site and in IRC. The Services bots will NOT be affected.
The majority of the sites and servers will be unaffected. You may notice downtime, however, for the Twitter bot and MagicalTrevor.
The absence of MagicalTrevor means that if you happen to be unlucky enough to forget your password on Tuesday, you will need to wait for an oper who can help you. The half-ops in the channel will not be able to reset your password during the period of downtime.
Because we are at the whim of the ISPs involved, we cannot be more specific about when the downtime will occur. We only know it will happen Tuesday. Please know we’re sorry for the inconvenience, and we’ll have things back up and running as soon as possible after the ISP switchover. If you have any questions on Tuesday, you can check in #help.
—posted by tengrrl
10 Most Visited Tips for 2011
Dec 31st
Ready for a little quiz? According to our website analytics, listed below are the ten questions you had about using GeekShed IRC during 2011. Do you know the answers, or do you have to click through for details?:
- Grouping a Nick: Why and How?
- Setting Up Greeting Messages
- How to register a channel on GeekShed
- How to Use the Ignore Command
- Can I Make A Private/Secret/Restricted Channel?
- How do I add User Count Badges?
- Setting a Channel Entry Message
- Why should I register my nickname and how do I do it?
- How do I redirect one channel to another?
- How do I Add a BotServ Bot to my Channel?
Thanks to everyone for a great 2011 on GeekShed. If you have any questions you’d like us to write about, just post the details in the Comments and Suggestions board on the GeekShed Forums.
—tengrrl
New SSL Certificate
Dec 31st
We’ve finally splashed out on a Wildcard SSL certificate for the geekshed.net domain. We have applied this to the site, a few subdomain sites, and all of the IRC servers.
What does this mean for you? Well, the most notable change is that all of our IRC servers now have an SSL certificate which is trusted by all sensible operating systems. If your IRC client ever throws up a certificate error when you are connecting to GeekShed, you may not be connecting to our servers – rather, possibly, a malicious imitation.
This is applied to the BNC server(s) also, however it won’t be shown as valid unless you remove the first . from the server you connect to – e.g. lucifer.bnc.geekshed.net goes to luciferbnc.geekshed.net.
You can find out more about using SSL on GeekShed at http://www.geekshed.net/2010/03/what-is-ssl-what-benefits-does-it-offer-and-how-do-i-use-it/
GeekShed relies on the generous donations of its users in order to implement features such as this, which benefit all of our users. Why not consider making a donation today?
What does this mean for you? Well, the most notable change is that all of our IRC servers now have an SSL certificate which is trusted by all sensible operating systems. If your IRC client ever throws up a certificate error when you are connecting to GeekShed, you may not be connecting to our servers – rather, possibly, a malicious imitation.
This is applied to the BNC server(s) also, however it won’t be shown as valid unless you remove the first . from the server you connect to – e.g. lucifer.bnc.geekshed.net goes to luciferbnc.geekshed.net.
You can find out more about using SSL on GeekShed at http://www.geekshed.net/2010/03/what-is-ssl-what-benefits-does-it-offer-and-how-do-i-use-it/
GeekShed relies on the generous donations of its users in order to implement features such as this, which benefit all of our users. Why not consider making a donation today?
2011 GeekShed Birthday Winners
Nov 10th
Today marks the 236th birthday of the United States Marine CorpsWikipedia: The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea,[6] using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver ... and the United States Marine Corps birthday ballWikipedia: The United States Marine Corps Birthday is celebrated every year on the 10th of November with a traditional ball and cake-cutting ceremony.. That reminded me that we had some leftover GeekShed birthday business of our own to deal with.
I tried to make Phil dress up in his military uniform and pass out some cake, but he declined in order to spend more time developing his new WordPress plugin. Besides he’s a Royal EngineerWikipedia: The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army. so his clothes would be all wrong. I guess that means I have to forego baconWikipedia: Bacon is a cured meat prepared from a pig. It is first cured using large quantities of salt, either in a brine or in a dry packing; the result is fresh bacon (also known as green bacon). Fresh bacon m... acquisition for a few minutes and fix our oversight.
Back in October, GeekShed celebrated its second birthday with a couple of contests for the folks on the network. Unfortunately, due to a bit of miscommunication, the winners were never notified. To remind everyone, the contest required folks to post on Facebook and/or Twitter and meet some basic requirements. Winners were chosen randomly from the entries that were posted.
So drum roll please. It’s time to announce the winners:
- Cirian75 was randomly chosen as the winner of the Twitter contest.
- CamBlack was randomly chosen as the winner of the Facebook contest.
Cirian75 and CamBlack can contact Phil to arrange the gift vouchers to Amazon. He’ll need an email address. If either of you has any particular objection to Amazon, we can make a reasonable accommodation. Just talk with Phil.
Now back to my bacon acquisition…
—bunny/tengrrl
666 for Halloween!
Oct 31st
We just noticed a spooky Halloween present from all of you on our homepage:
Thanks to everyone who is following us on Twitter. If you haven’t followed us yet, what are you waiting for? And don’t forget to like us on Facebook!
2nd Birthday Celebration
Oct 24th
Today GeekShed is two years old! To celebrate our second year, we have some giveaways for you. We are giving away two $25 (USD) gift vouchers to Amazon. These prizes will be purchased after the giveaway, so if you have any particular objection to Amazon, we can make a reasonable accommodation. You can enter both giveaways, but you can only win once. Any questions? Ask in #help.
Giveaway 1: Tweet #WhyGeekShed
This first competition is designed to spread the word about the network and what we offer. Here’s what you need to do:
- Follow us on Twitter (if you don’t already).
- Post a Tweet that explains why you like the GeekShed network and include the hashtag #WhyGeekShed and the web address geekshed.net.
- After you post your Tweet, /join #twitter then copy your Tweet and paste it into the channel. Be sure to include your Twitter username.
To win, you must be a registered user on GeekShed for at least 60 days and a follower of us on Twitter. You have until midnight Hawaii time (6 AM Tuesday Eastern, 11 AM Tuesday London) to post your Tweet. You can use the Time Zone Converter to determine the specific time for where you live. The winner will be chosen randomly from the people who have posted their Tweet in the channel and meet the eligibility requirement. The prize is a $25 gift voucher to Amazon.
Giveaway 2: Like Us on Facebook
The second competition is to try to boost our user numbers through the use of Facebook. GeekShed has a new Facebook Page (to replace our old Groups page). Here’s what you need to do:
- Like us on Facebook (if you don’t already).
- Post something on our Wall about why you like GeekShed.
To win, you must be a registered user on GeekShed for at least 60 days and Like us on Facebook. You have until midnight Hawaii time (6 AM Tuesday Eastern, 11 AM Tuesday London) to Like us and post on our Wall. You can use the Time Zone Converter to determine the specific time for where you live. The winner will be chosen randomly from the people who have posted on our Wall and meet the eligibility requirements. The prize is a $25 gift voucher to Amazon.
Note that we’ll gather some of the best reasons that people post from both Facebook and Twitter into a list on the GeekShed website.
Server map updated
Oct 5th
We have just updated the server map. We have had such a massive turnover of servers in the past few months that it became very quickly outdated. You can find it at http://www.geekshed.net/servers/.
BNCs Moved
Oct 4th
We have, tonight, moved the BNCs from their previous unreliable homes onto a new server. Your previous connection credentials should work, as before. We hope the new server will be more reliable and less prone to downtime.
Any questions, ask us in #help
Any questions, ask us in #help
Welcome CornishNerd
Jul 19th
CornishNerd has recently kindly accepted our offer to join the GeekShed staff team. He will be primarily responsible for the forums in a bid to make them an active part of the community. Network administration is not an easy job and we are thankful for the time he has dedicated to us.
P.S. I realise this is the same as the post I did for Brigitte with the name and gender changed. Why reinvent the wheel, eh?
P.S. I realise this is the same as the post I did for Brigitte with the name and gender changed. Why reinvent the wheel, eh?
Welcome Brigitte
Jul 17th
Brigitte has recently kindly accepted our offer to join the GeekShed staff team. She will be primarily responsible for the forums in a bid to make them an active part of the community. Network administration is not an easy job and we are thankful for the time she has dedicated to us.
