There are some basic requirements before a user is able to send or receive memos using MemoServ on DALnet. Here is a list of the more important ones among them:
Both the sender and the receiver of a memo have to have registered nicks. The sender has to be using a registered nick at the time of sending the memo. The receiver will only be able to read their memos when they are using the nick that the memo was sent to.
A message sent through MemoServ has to be no longer than 255 characters. Keep in mind that a memo is supposed to be just that - a short message left as a quick note to someone. If you want to leave longer messages then we suggest that get the person's email address and write an email to them in the future. It's of course possible to spread out a message over several memos. However, any more than 2 memos at a time should really be replaced by an email.
While the memo system is a useful feature that most users take advantage of, there are understandably those who do not wish to be bothered by memos all the time. Therefore, DALnet has an option that permits the owner to turn off the memo receiving ability for a given nick. If this switch is on for a nick, then you will not be able to send memos to it. This feature will be covered in detail later on in this document.
There are some other requirements to sending a memo, however, they are more command specific and will therefore only be covered in the commands that are affected.
There are three types of memos. Personal memos, channel memos and global memos. Global
memos are also referred to as
Personal memos are directed to you only, while channel memos are directed to the Ops or SOps of a given channel. When sending a channel memo, the memo will automatically be duplicated and sent to every nick on the channel AOp/SOp list.
Sending a personal memo is done through the following command:
Example:
Where "PeanutButterLover" is the person who I am sending this memo to.
Channel memos work on the same principle. However, not everyone can send a channel memo. When a channel is first registered, the default access level for sending channel memos is set to AOp. That means that only AOps, SOps and the Founder can do so. However, in many cases, the Founder has chosen to restrict this ability to SOps only or to themselves only. In those cases, only the channel SOps or the channel Founder can send a memo to the entire channel.
For example:
The above would have been sent to all the registered nicks in the AOp and SOp lists. If you would like to send a memo to the SOps of the channel instead, then the following command must be used:
Example:
Think carefully before you send channel memos. If this is an issue that doesn't concern everyone, then you might consider sending a memo to those people instead. Keep in mind that not everyone likes to receive a lot of memos, especially if most of the information is useless to them. You can send a total of 5 memos to a person. MemoServ will deny any other attempts unless the receiver deleted some of the previous memos first.
Each memo you send may not exceed the 255 characters limit. If you exceed the limit, MemoServ will reply telling you how many characters you should reduce. Below is an example if I send a memo of 288 characters to someone. It tells me that I have to reduce the length by 33 characters before I can send it.
When you first use your nick, MemoServ will let you know if there are any memos for you.
This leads us directly to the next command. As its name implies, the MemoServ LIST command allows you to view the memos sent to your nick. It allows you to see the nick of the sender, its number, the time it was sent and the memo's current status (new, read or marked as deleted).
A MemoServ LIST will only display the first 20 memos.If you want to view the remaining memos, you will have to delete some memos before being able to view the rest. You can also use the STARTPOINT option to read the remainder. Example, if you want to list your memos starting from memo 5, you will use:
This will list memos from Memo 5 to Memo 25. The STARTPOINT option is handy if you have been away for sometime and have received a lot of memos.
The READ command has to be used for actually viewing the content of a memo. The syntax is:
As mentioned before, the memo number is displayed in the output of a MemoServ LIST. Example:
If you have received more than one memo, then it's also possible to read a number of them at the same time. For example:
or
Note: All memos are deleted after 30 days, regardless of whether they have been read or not. A total of 50 memos can be stored for a nick at any one time.
Once you have read a memo and have no need for it anymore, then you can delete it. Deleting a memo is actually done in two steps. First it marked as deleted and then it will be purged.
The DEL command allows you to mark one or several memos to be deleted. Marking a memo to be deleted still allows you to view the memo until it has been purged. The syntax of the DEL command is:
For example:
As you can see, the DEL command works in much the same way as the READ command. It does possess an option that READ does not have though:
The ALL switch will mark all memos as deleted and will purge them as well. Once you have used this command, there is no going back. The memos will no longer be stored anywhere.
A memo can also be purged in two other ways. All deleted memos are purged when you stop using your nick. You can also manually tell MemoServ to purge your deleted memos with the PURGE command.
Once again, once a memo has been purged, it is not available at all anymore. So please use this command with caution.
Users can now prevent specific users/masks from sending them memos.
The syntax is:
The first command allows you to add a nick or a mask to your memo ignore list. That user or users wont be able to send you memos anymore.
The second command allows you to delete nicks or masks from your ignore list.
The third command allows you to clean the ignore list completely. All nicks or masks are being deleted, and everybody can memo you again.
The ignore list can hold up to 50 entries. Channel memos are being ignored, too, if the person who is sending that channel memo is on your ignore list.
If you happen to own a secondary nick, then it's possible that you may wish for all your
memos to go to your primary nicks. This way, you won't have to constantly change nicks
to read memos. That is what the
The syntax is:
The first command will tell you if forwarding on your current nickname is on.
The second command will turn forwarding for your current nickname off.
The third will forward memos from your current nick to NICK. You must know the password of the nick you wish to forward memos to.
MemoServ NEWS are news articles sent out by the DALnet administration to inform its users of important changes regarding services. They are also referred to as global memos.
As implied by its nickname, the global memos are sent to all registered nicks on the network, regardless of whether the FORWARD or NOMEMO option is turned on or not. It overrides these features.
You can use the
Due to this, MemoServ NEWS articles are relatively rare and are only sent out
for very important issues. Past articles are available at
Contrary to the other commands, the NOMEMO option is set through NickServ and not MemoServ. It is considered as a nick-specific feature and is therefore a subset of the NickServ SET commands.
The command is very easy to remember. You have two possibilities:
That will turn the NOMEMO option on and off respectively. Keep in mind that the NOMEMO option actually overrides the FORWARD option. It's possible to have a forwarding nick listed even if NOMEMO is turned on, but the memos will not be forwarded and will be refused right away.
It's important to identify to your nick before using the NOMEMO commands. Otherwise
the switch changes will not go through sucessfully. :) You can identify to your nick
with
As with everything, sending memos requires valuable DALnet resources. The DALnet network does not tolerate any abusive usage of MemoServ either through flooding, harassing or advertising.
At no time may you purposely use memos to flood fellow users. This includes repeated memos with the same content or memos filled with general gibberish, designed to annoy.
Repeated harassing memos are also considered a violation of DALnet policies. This includes constant threats, floods or verbal abuse.
You may not use MemoServ to advertise your channel, website or script through memos
to other users unless you
Depending on the severity of the offense, any violations of the above policies are liable to be dealt with through warnings, bans from the network, freezing of the nick, services ignores or an email sent to the abuse department of the user's ISP (Internet Service Provider).
If you have been the victim of services abuse involving MemoServ then you are encouraged to report it to a CSop (Channel Services Operator) or the SAbuse (Services Abuse) Team.
Unfortunately, logs are very easily faked. Therefore, a log of the incident is not
sufficient for us to actually determine the validity of your report. You
First of all, it's very important that you do not delete the memo(s). Keep in mind that a memo that has been marked as deleted will no longer be present the next time your nick is used. The memo must show up on the MemoServ LIST.
>From here on, you have two choices. You can either contact the DALnet SAbuse Team with
this problem or you can seek out a CSop on your own. The SAbuse Team can be reached at
However, if you would like to find someone right away, a list of all CSops
is available with