IRC vs. PSYC conference control comparison chart

Since IRC is widespread and has the most elaborate form of conference control currently in use, a chart of IRC conference control features, and how they would be implemented in PSYC, follows. See RFC1459 for details on the IRC MODE command. The conference control functions of psyced are documented on "Create Places".

IRC MODE SEMANTICS PSYC IMPLEMENTATION DIFFICULTY AVAILABILITY IN PSYCED
+o/-o channel operatorship internal data structures in group manager trivial yes
+p private channel don't list group in server list, don't publish URL trivial yes
+s secret channel don't list group in server list, don't publish URL
run a very quiet manager, that is: don't list the users trivial not needed yet
+i/+I invitation only manager doesn't allow entry into group
unless a member has told it to invite the person trivial /invite does go through the place, still it hasn't been implemented that way. instead you have to define a RESTRICTED + OWNED room, then /mandate the people you /invite
+t privileged access to topic string topic and similar things (homepage url, coat of arms, whatever) are handled by the manager internally trivial yes
+n no messages from outside the channel default behaviour none yes
-n messages from outside the channel a) manager provides method to send a message to the group
b) manager has set the _allow_externals property and provides a way to obtain the list of people trivial ALLOW_EXTERNAL_FROM for instance
+m/+v/-v moderated channel a) use the _group_listeners variable
b) no members, no listeners, everything goes through manager
c) manager joins the group and forwards messages to invisible listeners varying symlynX does its professional moderated chats using PSYC for thousands of users
+l numeric member limit manager lets only a limited number of people into the group trivial not needed yet
+b/+e list of banned users internal data structures in group manager trivial we have several mechanisms to ban users from the server or otherwise stop them from disturbing others. one of them is /kick, although it operates differently to IRC's kick.
+k password protection requested at entry. internal manager feature. trivial not needed yet. in fact completely pointless because it is much better to rely on PSYC authentication, thus propose an explicit list of people allowed to enter rather than sharing a password.
+a anonymous channel all messages need to pass through the manager and are then anonymized by it. trivial not needed yet

IRC MODE	SEMANTICS	PSYC IMPLEMENTATION	DIFFICULTY	AVAILABILITY IN PSYCED
+o/-o	channel operatorship	internal data structures in group manager	trivial	yes
+p	private channel	don't list group in server list, don't publish URL	trivial	yes
+s	secret channel	don't list group in server list, don't publish URL run a very quiet manager, that is: don't list the users	trivial	not needed yet
+i/+I	invitation only	manager doesn't allow entry into group unless a member has told it to invite the person	trivial	/invite does go through the place, still it hasn't been implemented that way. instead you have to define a RESTRICTED + OWNED room, then /mandate the people you /invite
+t	privileged access to topic string	topic and similar things (homepage url, coat of arms, whatever) are handled by the manager internally	trivial	yes
+n	no messages from outside the channel	default behaviour	none	yes
-n	messages from outside the channel	a) manager provides method to send a message to the group b) manager has set the _allow_externals property and provides a way to obtain the list of people	trivial	ALLOW_EXTERNAL_FROM for instance
+m/+v/-v	moderated channel	a) use the _group_listeners variable b) no members, no listeners, everything goes through manager c) manager joins the group and forwards messages to invisible listeners	varying	symlynX does its professional moderated chats using PSYC for thousands of users
+l	numeric member limit	manager lets only a limited number of people into the group	trivial	not needed yet
+b/+e	list of banned users	internal data structures in group manager	trivial	we have several mechanisms to ban users from the server or otherwise stop them from disturbing others. one of them is /kick, although it operates differently to IRC's kick.
+k	password protection	requested at entry. internal manager feature.	trivial	not needed yet. in fact completely pointless because it is much better to rely on PSYC authentication, thus propose an explicit list of people allowed to enter rather than sharing a password.
+a	anonymous channel	all messages need to pass through the manager and are then anonymized by it.	trivial	not needed yet

As you can see there are even variations on how to re-implement an IRC feature, and of course hundreds of variations of things you could let your PSYC group manager do to your group, which IRC cannot do.

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