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IRC Notes

TL; DR

Only the latest version of OpenBooks is supported. New versions are released to address issues with previous versions. Ensure you are on the latest release if you encounter problems.

OpenBooks eliminates the barrier to entry to download eBooks via IRC. Users are no longer required to learn or even understand what IRC is to use it.

However, the success and viability of this project depends on the goodwill of IRC Highway and the users that host content. This project aims to do everything it can to prevent abuse and execessive strain on their servers. Everyone needs to appreciate the fact that the search servers, eBook servers, and eBooks are self-hosted and do not generate any income.

Issues

The admins have reached out multiple times about users making excessive search requests, making many searches without downloading anything, and the influx of nameless accounts (OpenBooks client connection usernames are randomly generated by default). They have blocked other automated tools in the past.

We have put in place the following measures to deter abuse:

  1. Searches are rate limited. Each OpenBooks instance can make at most 1 search request per 10 seconds. This applies to both Server and CLI mode.
  2. Approved OpenBooks versions are allow-listed. IRC Highway sends a VERSION request to each client connection. The version number OpenBooks sends back must be on the allow-list or the connection is blocked.

These mitigations are ongoing and if the IRC admins have any issues or ideas to prevent bad actors, they can reach out via the GitHub issue tracker.