Editing IRC takeover (section)

==Riding the split==
The most common variety of channel takeover uses disconnections caused by a [[netsplit]]; this is called '''riding the split'''. After such mass disconnections, a channel may be left without users, allowing the first rejoining user to recreate the channel and gain operator status. When the servers merge, any pre-existing operators retain their status, allowing the new user to kick out the original operators and take over the channel.

A simple prevention mechanism involves ''[[timestamp]]ing'' (abbreviated to ''TS''), or checking the creation dates of the channels being merged. This was first implemented by [[Undernet]] (ircu) in November 2000<ref>Add channel creation TS (timestamp) to JOIN protocol messages, Kevin L. Mitchell, November 2nd 2000, undernetc-ircu SVN server - ircu2 - r306, https://github.com/UndernetIRC/ircu2/commit/008a01428ae6d628d31abe35d361b51b3f4f154f</ref> and is now common in many IRC servers. If both channels were created at the same time, all user statuses are retained when the two are combined; if one is newer than the other, special statuses are removed from those in the newer channel.

Additionally, a newer protection involving timestamping is used when a server splits away from the main network (when it no longer detects that [[IRC services]] are available), it disallows anyone creating a channel to be given operator privileges.