#techfurs

Rules of Engagement

#techfurs is a work-safe, UTF-8 compliant channel for discussing technology. As with all channels, there are rules; however, this is not a democracy and #techfurs operators can, will, and do exercise their own judgement.

Guidelines

  1. Please be courteous. There's a lot of flexibility here, but being hostile from the start helps no one.
  2. This channel is work-safe. That means no porn, no sex talk, and no adult roleplaying.
  3. For that matter, no roleplaying of any kind..
  4. Please use UTF-8 [encodings] if at all possible. If you need help configuring your client to use this encoding, ask!
  5. Please refrain from posting links without context, particularly ones that are off-topic. (Especially don't try to start an off-topic conversation by doing so.)
  1. Warez, piracy, and other such illegal activities are not permitted; many #techfurs regulars work in content-related industries and/or write or work with commercial software for a living.
  2. We are not tech support, tutors, or homework-assistance personnel. Feel free to ask questions, but we are not a substitute for Google or Wikipedia.
  3. Aerdan's Corollary to Godwin's Law: If you are citing Wikipedia for any argument, you're wrong. [citation needed]
  4. Please don't prolong circular discussions; they irritate the watchers just as much as they irritate the (clueful) participants.
  5. Your personal life & problems are neither interesting nor our concern; please either confine them to LiveJournal or don't bother coming here.

Questions

As previously stated, #techfurs is not a tech support channel. You're welcome to ask questions, but don't expect us to give you the answers you want. (We may even decline to answer the question, period, especially if it violates the guidelines.) Please don't ask if you can ask questions, if anyone knows a particular subject, or if anyone is even here. Such questions serve primarily to waste everyone's time (yours included). Instead, ask smart questions.

Be patient, however; if someone is willing to answer a question, they may not be able to answer immediately. Remember, however, that because #techfurs is not a tech support channel, we are not obligated to be useful to you.

Encodings

Encodings are a mechanism for storing text as a stream of bytes. There are many, many encodings, but the one used by #techfurs is called 'UTF-8'. UTF-8 is an encoding that allows Unicode (a character set that includes all major and many minor written languages) to be stored as a sequence of 8-bit bytes. It is a variable-length encoding, meaning that one character isn't necessarily one byte long. Please consult the Unicode Consortium's website for more information on Unicode, and perhaps the 'UTF-8' Wikipedia article for more information on UTF-8.