How about a switch in the $params block to make the the /join command treat channel names as case insensitive.
As an example, at the moment
/join Debates
and
/join debates
leads to two different channels.
something like
$params['caseSensitiveChannelNames'] = true;
or
$params['caseSensitiveChannelNames'] = false;
A default value of true would preserve existing behaviour.
Just a thought <g>