Frequently Asked Questions about BitlBee
========================================

Well, maybe not exactly "Frequently", but definitely "Asked" ... mostly by
the developers :-)

Q: WTH were you guys on when you thought of that _weird_ name?
A: Though we live in The Netherlands and one of us even lives in Amsterdam,
   we're not on drugs ... most of the time.

Q: Okay, so the cops are so evil there, you can't even admit the truth, but
   WTH does BitlBee mean then?
A: There are a few explanations. But the most symbolical goes like: the two
   colors of the bee symbolize the two worlds betwee which the Bee flies. On
   the one hand there's the IM-networks, on the other is IRC.
   
   Truth be told, it's absolute nonsense. The biggest nutcase in the
   development team just played around with words for half an hour or so.
   BitlBee was the result. We liked it, we kept it. We lovingly shorten it
   to "the Bee" or even "het Bijtje" (Dutch for "the little Bee") sometimes.

Q: What is 'root' doing in my control channel? I didn't start the Bee as
   root.
A: 'root' is just the name for the most powerful user in BitlBee. Just like
   in the system, it is root who is the ... eh ... root of the
   functionality. Luckily, in BitlBee, root follows your orders (mostly), so
   no BOFHs there.
   
   We get some complaints from time to time that 'root' is a confusing name.
   Because of that name, some package maintainers have renamed root to, for
   example, BitlBee. We recognize that some people see that need. If the
   package maintainer hasn't renamed root, you can do this yourself with the
   'rename' command.
   
   The name root is not likely to change in the 'official' releases, though.
   We find the metaphor of root correct and feel that there is no important
   (security threatening) reason to change this non-creative piece of
   artistic creativity.

Q: Why is there no mailing list/CVS/<insert your favourite development tool
   here>?
A: Short answer: we don't need it.
   
   Longer answer: and we're not completely convinced of their merits.
   
   Long answer: we currently use some shell scripts which make sure all
   developers' copies are in sync with Wilmer's master copy. These shell
   scripts also produce development "releases" and packages, as well as
   stick them on a http-server. Patches are sent to Wilmer who decides
   whether or not a patch should be applied and if it may need some
   additional changes. This has the consistency advantage of a one-person
   project while having the capacity of more people available. The system
   works and we are kind of attached to it.
   
   Additional answer: There's a read-only CVS available now, for people
   who prefer that over downloading a devel tarball. For more information,
   see http://alioth.debian.org/projects/bitlbee/

Q: When is $random_feature going to be implemented?
A: Please do consult doc/TODO before asking. You're not going to be the
   first one to ask for file transfer support. ;-) Please also check the
   documentation. You'd also not be the first one to request a feature
   which already exists!
   
   If your fabulous feature seems not to be requested before, just join
   #bitlbee on irc.oftc.net and tell us the news.

Q: EEK! They're sending me HTML messages!
A: help set html ... And please take a good look at the list of settings
   (you can get them all with the set command without any arguments)
   before asking us about a feature. There are some features which aren't
   enabled by default because they're not always wanted. For a lot of
   non-English people, help set charset is probably also interesting, for
   example...

Q: What's that Gaim doing in BitlBee error messages and my Jabber resource?
A: Ah, well, as you probably know we use Gaim's IM-modules, and we don't
   think it's worth our time to do a search-and-replace over the whole
   source to get rid of every reference to Gaim. In fact, we don't want to,
   since we don't want to pretend we wrote all that code.
   
   About Jabber: If you want a different resource string, you can set it
   when logging in by appending it to your Jabber ID, like:
   lintux@jabber.com/BitlBee
