First things first, explore and have fun! But remember, this is a single linux server trying to support the weight of several hundred nerds. Don’t host servers, don’t run heavy processes, don’t host giant files. In short, be gentle.
More about scripting netiquette here
Now let’s talk about drama. There is a Mary J. Blige song called “No More Drama.” If Mary J. Blige would think it was drama, it is drama. No flamewars about emacs/vi, no matter how historically accurate they may be. No guilting people, shaming them, or making them feel bad. More benefit of the doubt and less “are you kidding me?”
I will do my best to do the following things:
I will make a weekly backup of the public_html directories so when some teen in Estonia decides to hack in and ruin everything we can bring up a new server and limp back to life.
I won’t shut things down without a month of warning and once it’s shut down I’ll make sure a file with all the public_html directories is uploaded to archive.org.
If any community forms at all (DUBIOUS BUT SURPRISE ME) I promise I won’t blow up the community without, like, first pointing everyone to some free IRC channel or something.