Moderated events

Think of a TV talk show with a live audience. The stage (#live-chat) is where the host and guests talk and the audience watches. Backstage (#live-scan) is the producers' room that the audience never sees. When someone in the audience types a question it does not appear on stage: it drops through a slot into backstage. The producers read the questions, pick the good ones and pass them to the host. Spam, repeats and rude questions never reach the stage.

Companies use this for all-hands meetings, product launches, webinars, customer Q&As, support events, press interviews and shareholder calls: anywhere hundreds or thousands of people attend, the speaker needs calm, and a small team screens the questions.

How an event runs

1. The host and guest talk freely in #live-chat; they have ops or voice.
2. The audience reads along. When they type, the question does not show in the room (it is moderated); a copy lands in #live-scan as <AudienceNick> their question, and the sender gets a friendly notice: "Your message was sent to the moderators of #live-chat. It will not show in the room unless a moderator picks it." (later questions get a short "Sent to the moderators"). No error message.
3. Moderators read the inbox and choose.
4. A moderator pastes the chosen question into #live-chat, for example Anna asks: What is new next quarter? Everyone sees it.
5. The guest answers. Repeat. When the event ends, /mode #live-chat -m opens the room for free discussion.

Set it up for one event (an IRC operator does the two +M/+N modes)

/oper name password
/join #live-chat
/join #live-scan
/mode #live-chat +tnm
/mode #live-chat +M #live-scan
/mode #live-scan +sn
/mode #live-scan +N #live-chat
/mode #live-chat +v GuestNick

+M #live-scan on the stage means: what members without voice say here is also shown in #live-scan. +N #live-chat on the inbox marks it as the room that receives them. Give status only to people who should speak, and keep autovoice off in #live-chat (otherwise everyone gets voice and can talk).

Make the two rooms permanent

Do this once. ChanServ then keeps the rooms, their modes and their topics, and services re-apply +M and +N every time the rooms form.

/ns identify yourpassword
/join #live-chat
/join #live-scan
/cs register #live-chat Live event chat
/cs register #live-scan Live event question inbox
/cs set #live-chat mlock +ntm
/cs set #live-scan mlock +nts
/prop #live-chat MODTARGET #live-scan
/prop #live-scan MODRECV #live-chat
/topic #live-chat Live Q&A tonight: ask your questions, the moderators pick the best.
/topic #live-scan Question inbox: moderators only.
/cs set #live-chat topiclock sop
/cs set #live-scan topiclock sop
/cs sop #live-chat add ModeratorAccount
/cs vop #live-chat add SpeakerAccount

MODTARGET and MODRECV take a room name (or 0 to remove) and need an IRC operator; they exist because the room-name modes cannot be put in an MLOCK. Set the topic before the topic lock. Check with /mode #live-chat (it lists +M #live-scan) and /cs info #live-chat.

Test it with two accounts

1. Moderator: identify, join both rooms (the founder is opped automatically), check the modes.
2. Audience: a second account that is not on the VOP/AOP/SOP list. It joins only #live-chat and types a line.
3. Expected: the audience account sees the notice "Your message was sent to the moderators"; the moderator sees <audience> the line in #live-scan; nobody in #live-chat sees it. If the audience account can talk freely, it has voice or ops; remove it with /cs vop #live-chat del Account.

For a crowd too big for one room, combine this with Auditorium Rows.