IRCNowd: IRC at Scale

IRCNowd is an attempt to build an IRC server that can scale up to handle a network with millions of users. It is forked from ngircd 26.1 which was developed under the GPL. Additional code will be permissively licensed. IRCNowd aims to remain portable with free and open platforms, to be easy to configure and administer, to be easy for users to understand.

Goals:

Keep ngircd's minimalist software philosophy

Keep the code highly portbale

Improve ngircd's spam defenses

Improve ngircd's reliability and uptime

Proposed changes:

Add connection limit exemptions (ilines)

Add scriptable filter so teams can optionally block spam, obscenity. Scripting interface should support yahoo open nsfw; dynamically customizable per server

Have proxy monitor use +r restricted user mode for spam protection

Add defcon mode: during a connection/join/part flood, all new users are automatically given +r user mode until the attack ends

Allow users to enable/disable cloaking

Allow closed loops in the network topology to end netsplits forever

Fix buffer exhaustion issues

Fix SSL connection issue

End netsplits by allowing closed loops

Add ELIST functionality for IRCCloud since this client cannot use /list

Add /ns and /cs aliases