diff --git a/doc/technical/elemental-deviation.markdown b/doc/technical/elemental-deviation.markdown
index 2217056..81d63ce 100644
--- a/doc/technical/elemental-deviation.markdown
+++ b/doc/technical/elemental-deviation.markdown
@@ -52,3 +52,17 @@ servers and check.  Bots or pseudoservices may also uses these lines to perform
 additional actions (such as `AKILL`s or logging to channels) as needed by the
 bot author.
 
+#### METADATA
+
+The old ShadowIRCD implementation of METADATA used `ADD` and `DELETE` verbs for
+adding and deleting metadata to channels and clients. This, in practice looks
+something like:
+
+    <<< :45X ENCAP * METADATA ADD 1NRAAAABR OPERSTRING :is an IRC Administrator
+    <<< :45X ENCAP * METADATA DELETE 1NRAAAABR OPERSTRING
+
+Functionality is identical to the new `SET` and `CLEAR` verbs, but this deviates
+from the spec by being **only** a server to server command. Support for client
+to server and server to client metadata setting/getting will come in a future
+version of elemental-ircd.
+
diff --git a/modules/core/m_metadata.c b/modules/core/m_metadata.c
index eba59ca..47925de 100644
--- a/modules/core/m_metadata.c
+++ b/modules/core/m_metadata.c
@@ -45,6 +45,13 @@ me_metadata(struct Client *client_p, struct Client *source_p, int parc, const ch
 		if((chptr = find_channel(parv[2])) == NULL)
 			return 0;
 
+		//XXX need to support the old, nonstandard verbs for compatability reasons
+		if(!strcmp(parv[1], "ADD") && parv[4] != NULL)
+			channel_metadata_add(chptr, parv[3], parv[4], 0);
+		if(!strcmp(parv[1], "DELETE") && parv[3] != NULL)
+			channel_metadata_delete(chptr, parv[3], 0);
+
+		//Now moving on to the standard ones
 		if(!strcmp(parv[1], "SET") && parv[4] != NULL)
 			channel_metadata_add(chptr, parv[3], parv[4], 0);
 		if(!strcmp(parv[1], "CLEAR") && parv[3] != NULL)
@@ -61,6 +68,13 @@ me_metadata(struct Client *client_p, struct Client *source_p, int parc, const ch
 		if(!target_p->user)
 			return 0;
 
+		//XXX need to support the old, nonstandard verbs for compatability reasons
+		if(!strcmp(parv[1], "ADD") && parv[4] != NULL)
+			user_metadata_add(target_p, parv[3], parv[4], 0);
+		if(!strcmp(parv[1], "DELETE") && parv[3] != NULL)
+			user_metadata_delete(target_p, parv[3], 0);
+
+		//Now moving on to the standard ones
 		if(!strcmp(parv[1], "SET") && parv[4] != NULL)
 			user_metadata_add(target_p, parv[3], parv[4], 0);
 		if(!strcmp(parv[1], "CLEAR") && parv[3] != NULL)