nick collides

[Donald Quixote VI <holeekow@xxxxxxxxx>]

hi all..

As most know abuse of and on irc are rampant.  The demise of blackened on
EFnet only underscore the problem.

One of the reasons irc servers are nuked so much is to cause lag and/or
splits, many times just for a chance to cause nick collides I think.

Wouldn't eliminating nick collides reduce the attacks on the servers
themselves?

I suggested a method that -might- help before.. but another method just
came to me.. restrict-a-nick.

Under some defined collide conditions, restrict the nicks being set.

Some collide conditions:
1] server restart		restrict nicks for 15-30 minutes after restart
2] low server count	iow, if net normally has 70 servers, restrict nicks if
<40? are linked
3] severly lagged server
4] split server
5]] Monitor &kills and on xx kills, restrict nicks - [damage might already
be done]

#1 and #4 might be covered by #2

There are prolly better thresholds in the ircd code to trigger server
collide protections and restrict nicks..

Now the second part.. restrict nicks how?

Several possible ways..  each needs to be thought through..  but
essentially, do not allow self-serve pick-a-nick during the collide danger
period.

1] randomize the 8th and 9th characters in a nick
	a] truncate long nicks to 7 characters and add 2 random characters
		/nick abcdefghi  will be set as abcdefg\5
	b] expand short nicks by adding fillers and extra random characters
		/nick abc is set as abc----c9

2] allow short nicks, 6 or 7 characters to be set as is, but alter 8 and 9
character nicks as outlined in #1.  Those desiring collide protection will
favor the 8 or 9 character nicks.  Those not wanting to bother with nick
variations so they stay on the friends notify lists more often will favor
the shorter nicks.

Prolly dozens of similar ways to restrict-a-nick will come to your minds..

How it could work:

On server restart:

restrict all nicks joining by method #1.  A few minutes after the server
connects to the net, and passes any other collide danger criteria that may
be included, then nick change restriction can be turned off and the users
may then change to the nick they prefer, iow, changing back from the server
randomized form, "abcdefg\5", to the one that desired "abcdefghi".

When servers split or the number linked is below a preset number [1.e.40?]
or another collide condition is detected a similar restriction on
pick-a-nick can be turned on until ther danger of collisions is over.

lengthening the nick is an option too, forcing all new nicks to 10
characters until the collide dangers passes.

These are just seeds of ideas.. perhaps you can flesh it out.. ..

TomCollns
LoBo^LoCo