How to Get and Use X3

X3 is the new channel service bot used by the AfterNET network. It is here to make life much easier for those who run their own channel.

X3 has many commands which make it a powerful service, and it is extremely simple to use. I will be showing you only those features which are needed in order to run your channel successfully.

Another bit of useful information for everyone to know is that X3 works in conjunction with Authserv, so you must authenticate to authserv in order to use X3, otherwise you will not be able to use X3.

If you do not already have an authserv account, the command to learn how to register a username with authserv is:

/msg authserv help register

Authserv will then show how to register a username. If you already have an account, the command to authenticate is as follows:

/msg authserv auth username password

Then you are ready to begin using X3

Once you have chosen which channel you wish to own, you can register the channel with X3 by simply typing the following command:

/msg x3 register #channel

X3 will then tell you: “You now have ownership of #channel”. And now the channel is all yours to command.

To unregister a channel, you simply type in the following command:

/msg x3 unregister #channel

X3 will then tell you: “To confirm this unregistration, you must use 'unregister #channel passcode' ”. Of course this means to simply type in this command:

/msg x3  unregister #channel passcode

It is important to know that X3 has a built in help system. If you are stuck on a certain feature, or just wish to know how to do something in particular (without waiting for an answer from someone), you can use the built in help system that X3 provides. Here is how to begin using it:

.help

The command above will bring up the main help information. X3 will also show you some examples of how to use the system.

If you have noticed from the main help information, you have seen that it says: 'GENERAL - how to use x3', 'USER - Commands to add and remove bans, ops and managers from your channel.', etc. etc. This means that you can give arguments to the help command. Here are some examples:

.help general
.help user
.help channel

Each of the above commands will show you some very useful information, so make sure you read all of it.

You will also need to know that you will need to give more than one argument to the help command for certain types of information. A good example of this is with the set command. Example:

.help set

With the above command, you will see it gives some help information on how to use the help command to find out more information about the set command. Examples:

.help set defaulttopic

.help set enfops

.help set setters

Again all of those give great information on how to use the commands. So please feel free to read all the help information you can, it will make your life much easier. If you prefer to read the help in your browser, the X3 project site has the help files in HTML format. Note though that they may differ slightly from AfterNET's version.

Setting up your channel with X3 is a simple process. There are various settings you can use. To view your current channel settings, type this command:

.set

X3 will output all the current channel settings, such as the 'Default Topic', 'TopicMask', 'Greeting', etc. etc.

To set the default topic, you can use the following command:

.set defaulttopic Welcome to #channel

That will set the default topic to: 'Welcome to #channel'. TopicMask (new feature)

X3 has a new feature called 'TopicMask', this mask is useful for those of you who always want the topic to contain certain content (no matter what someone else sets the topic to). To use this feature, type in the following command:

.set topicmask Welcome to #channel - *

That will set the TopicMask to: “Welcome to #channel - ”. The asterisk indicates the area in which the mask will appear. So if i change the topic using the

.topic

command, it will be added to the mask. Example:

.topic reading is good.

That will set the topic to: 'Welcome to #channel - reading is good.' . See how that works? You can even set the mask to be before the content that will always be displayed:

.set topicmask * - Welcome to #channel

That will set the mask before the permanent content. Example:

.topic reading is good.

That will set the topic to: 'reading is good. - Welcome to #channel'. You can also set the mask to be in the center, example:

.set topicmask Welcome to #channel - * - Please enjoy your stay.

That will set the mask at the center of the permanent content. Example:

.topic reading is good.

That will set the topic to: 'Welcome to #channel - reading is good - Please enjoy your stay.'. See how easy that is? Channel Greeting

Now I will teach you how to make X3 greet every user who joins the channel. Use the following command:

.set greeting Welcome to our channel!

Everytime a user joins your channel, X3 will output this message to him/her.

The UserGreeting is a bit different, X3 will only greet those users that are on its' userlist. To set the UserGreeting, type in the following command:

.set usergreeting Hello, don't be evil towards new users.

That will make X3 output that message only to those already on the userlist, such as ops, managers, coowners, etc. etc.

For more information on how to set the various other settings, please use the following command:

.help set

With X3 you can add users as peons (also known as voice), channel operators (also known as channel op), channel managers, and channel coowners. These users can help you control/manage your channel.

To add a user with peon (voice) access, you type in the following command:

.addpeon Hemingray

That will add the user 'Hemingray' to the X3 userlist as a peon.

To add a channel operator, the following command is used:

.addop Hemingray

That will add the user 'Hemingray' as a channel operator.

To add a channel manager, use the following command:

.addmanager Hemingray

That will add the user 'Hemingray' as a channel manager.

To add a channel coowner, use the following command:

.addcoowner Hemingray

That will add the user 'Hemingray' as a channel coowner.

You cannot add a channel owner, at any given time there can only be one owner per channel.

Note that these only work if the person with that nick is currently logged in to IRC and Authserv. If the person is not online and you know their Authserv account, you can give them access in their absence using (for example):

.addop *account

You cannot add people to the userlist if they do not have an Authserv account.

You can use X3 to ban certain unwanted users, such as those spamming in your channel, cursing (if it's against the channel rules), flooding, etc. etc. A mask will be used to ban somoene. Explanation of a mask A mask is what X3 will use to identify the person you are banning. The mask can contain their nickname and/or their username and/or their host. A mask always follows this general rule: nickname!username@host. So if I wanted to create a specific ban, I would do this:

.ban Hemingray!Joe@123.456.789

Where 'Hemingray' is the nickname, and 'Joe' is his username, and '123.456.789' is his host. Banning by the username

Sometimes you wish to only ban someone by their username. This can be done with the following mask:

.ban *!joe@*

This will ban any user who sets his username to 'joe'. Banning by hostname

You can also ban users by their host. That can be simply done by using the following mask:

.ban *!*@123.456.789

This mask will ban anyone that uses the host '123.456.789'.

A wildcard is used so that anyone who even matches a certain part of the mask will be banned. Wildcards are set by using the asterisk (*). From the examples above which you have seen, such as this mask: *!joe@* contain two wildcards, which simply means: Anyone using that username, no matter what his nickname (the first asterisk) or host (the last asterisk) is, will be banned.

Note: Remember the syntax for a mask: nickname!username@host

X3 supports setting permanent bans, which will be triggered each time the user attempts to enter your channel. Once triggered, X3 will automaticaly ban and kick the user from your channel. Example of how to add a lamer:

.addlamer Hemingray

You must make sure that a user with the nickname 'Hemingray' is currently on the network, otherwise X3 will tell you: User with nick Hemingray does not exist. But if he does, X3 will add him to the lamer list.

You can add lamers by using a mask also, just as you would use a mask in a ban. Example:

.addlamer Hemingray!*@*

This will add a permanent ban which will be triggered each time any user with the nickname 'Hemingray' attempts to join your channel.

The X3 userlist can be viewed at anytime using just a few commands. The following command will show you the complete userlist:

.userlist

X3 will then output the complete userlist, from 'peon' to 'owner'.

To view a list of your peons, type in the following command:

.plist

To view a list of your channel operators, type in the following command:

.olist

To view a list of your channel managers, type in the following command:

.mlist

To view the list of the channel owner, type in the following command:

.wlist

The lamer list is a different type of listing, as it's the listing for those who have been lamered by ops, managers, coowners, and the owner. To view this list, type in the following command:

.llist