So what are we gonna be talking about then? Well, as you can expect, we're gonna be talking about channel administration. That is, how to manage a channel according to the degree of power you possess in the channel, what can you do, how to do it, and when. Well, perhaps not when, as I expect you to be (ab)using your power (ir)responsibly. In addition, for the admins in there that got their priviledges from reasons other than IRC expertise, a guide to ChanServ commands and their uses.
Finally, since very few clients have similar GUIs, I'll be giving examples for mIRC, ChatZilla and Trillian, in addition to the text commands. And since this was written for a specific mono-server IRC, I won't be bothering with NetSplits and all that schmuck. Go Google it.First off, we need to figure out what kind of priviledges you have. There are 6 access levels, or usermodes:
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| Trillian | ChatZilla | mIRC |
| The same userlist under three different clients. You'll notice Trillian doesn't recognize all usermodes, as evidenced by the lack of a label for the guys prefixed by & and characters. | ||
Normal User - What most people have upon joining, nothing special, not even a symbol. Well, except in ChatZilla, where they get a lil' black dot.
Voiced User - Mode +v, symbolized with a + sign, is basically the same as a normal user, except they actually get to talk when channel mode +m is on. What is channel mode +m? Suffice to say that it stops unvoiced users from talking.
Half Operator ("HalfOp") - Mode +h, symbol %, but isn't available on every server. They can kick and/or ban anyone of same or lower rank, change the topic, change a few channel modes and set other halfops.
Channel Operator ("ChanOp" or simply "Op") - Mode +o, symbol @. Can do the same as halfops, but the rank limit's raised to ops. Also, most channel modes are available with this.
Channel Administrator - Mode +a, symbol &, is basically a higher-ranked Op, which means Ops can't get rid of him. Woe. He can set other Admins though, as per the "can affect everything up to and including his own rank" rule.
Channel Owner - Mode +q (symbol ) is the highest-ranked being in the channel, which is only given to the guy who made the channel (that is, registered it on ChanServ and all that. More on that later) or by other Owners. I have no idea why we get a purple dot.Since now you should know what's your status, we'll move on to explain the different commands at your disposal, showing the new stuff one can do as you climb up the ranks.
Changes the channel topic. In case you've never noticed and/or bothered to check, it's one of the first things to appear after you join a channel. It often provides a general overview of what's happening and what you should do. Too bad far too many people just don't read it. Which makes it your task to make'em read it. In mIRC, you can change it by opening the Channel Modes window (double-click the chat window or right-clicking and then choosing "Channel Modes"), and changing the "Topic History" textbox. ChatZilla and Trillian have nothing to help ya.
Mods' favorite weapon: The Kick. Wholly uneffective if the other guy actually wants to stay, but serves well as a warning. Or for messing around.
Remember those +h, +o, +m, et. al. I've been referencing? Well, those are user/channel modes. They basically set a certain behavior or priviledge for the referenced channel/user. Examples are the usermodes we saw before, and channelmode +m. They're all controlled with the /mode command, although not all are available to everyone. +something for when they're on (or you wanna turn'em on), -something when you want the opposite.
That alone lets you see what modes are on for the chan/user