[IRCServices] Question on usage of ChanServ ACCESS LIST

[Andrew Church]

     I'm currently working on unifying the usage formats of the various
LIST-type commands available in Services (LIST, ACCESS LIST, AKILL LIST,
etc.), and I'd like to get some information about how the commands,
ChanServ's ACCESS (and AKICK) LIST in particular, are currently being used.

     In Services 5.0, there are three different styles of LIST command:

- NickServ ACCESS LIST:
      LIST (no parameters, unlimited)
- NickServ LIST/LISTEMAIL, ChanServ LIST, OperServ AKILL/EXCLUDE/SxLINE LIST:
      LIST <wildcard-mask> (limited to NSListMax, CSListMax, or 50 entries)
- ChanServ ACCESS/AKICK LIST, OperServ EXCEPTION LIST:
      LIST {<wildcard-mask> | <number-list>}

I won't go into detail since discussion of development versions is
off-topic for this list, but I'm working on merging all of these into a
common format.  The major issue is how to handle numbered and numberless
lists; the easiest thing to do is simply to drop support for using a number
list with the LIST command, but I don't want to do that if it's a
frequently-used feature.  So:

     (1) How do you (or your users, if you're an admin and aware of usage
patterns) usually use the ChanServ ACCESS LIST and AKICK LIST commands:
just plain LIST, LIST with a wildcard, or LIST with a list/range of
numbers?

     (2) Would you object to having the ability to use numbers with the
LIST command removed?  (The numbers would still be usable with DEL.)

     As a side note, the issue of whether to add numbers to lists that
don't currently have them--nickname access lists, autokill lists, and so
on--has been brought up before.  I haven't decided yet whether to do that,
but it's a separate issue from this one, so please don't discuss it in
this thread.

  --Andrew Church
    achurch at achurch.org
    http://achurch.org/