User:Dantman/IRC Common Sense

Don't put info up unless you want people to see it
The  and   commands are not commands which only people granted special powers can use. Therefore they are not something you can say to someone, "Please ask me before using such and such".

It's actually common for clients to do /whois on their own. In my client, if I hover over someone's username it displays a bit of info about them. Where does this come from? A whois that the client does to get the info.

So the general line is. Don't put something up unless you want people to see it. If you don't want someone to know your real name, then don't fill in the real name box. If you don't want someone to see your e-mail, url, last ADDR, or last quit message in your NickServ registration then  it.

So, don't tell someone to "Please ask me before you do a whois on me", you'll just be ignored.