We’re happy to announce a new services feature: NickServ’s RESETPASS command, which lets you reset your nick’s password when you’ve forgotten it — provided you have a valid registered email.

Until today, the only way to recover a nick whose password was lost was to go through the staff. From now on, the procedure is fully self-service and based on the email already associated with the nick.

How it works

The flow is two-step and requires a services operator to perform the first step on your behalf (to prevent automated abuse):

1. A services operator runs /ns SENDPASS <nick> — services email the registered address a single-use authorisation code.

2. You, after checking your inbox, run:

   /ns RESETPASS <nick> <code> <new-password>
   

   If the code is correct, the password is replaced immediately and you can /ns identify with the new one.

Requirements

• The nick must have a registered, still-valid email.
• The previous password is not needed — the whole point of the command is to regain access without it.
• The code is single-use and has an expiry; if it expires, just request a fresh SENDPASS.

How to ask for a reset

If you’ve lost your password and still have access to the registered email, drop into #IRCHelp and ask a staffer to run SENDPASS for your nick. Once the code arrives by email, run RESETPASS yourself.

If you no longer have access to the registered email, the self-service reset isn’t possible: in that case the manual staff procedure still applies.

As always, we keep working to make services more accessible and our users’ lives easier.

See you in chat 👋