FOSSwire

Okay, so you've gotten IRC running and working. You know how to chat, and someone even has given you operator privileges at one point.

Wait, what... operator privileges?

Yep, operator privileges, commonly shortened to "ops," let you manage a channel. Some cool things you can do include:

• Changing the channel topic
• Changing channel settings
• Kicking/banning and inviting users
• Giving other users privileges

To get ops in the first place, you need to have someone else "mode +o" you to elevate your permissions. This could potentially be done with a bot (such as on freenode). Once you have them, you can do all of the operations listed above.

For example, to change the topic, type /topic the new topic is here!. Easy enough. To change a channel mode, such as banning colors in a room (a common setting) just use /mode #channel +c. To remove the channel mode, just use a - instead of a +.

You can use the same method to give operator privileges to others. Just type /mode #channel +o user; user being who you want to op. You can also use this to ban someone by using "b" instead of "o". Nifty.

Another thing to do is kicking people. This is always a "fun" reason to be an operator. It is easy to do, also. Just /kick user reason. Tada, they have left the channel. If you don't want them to return, +b them (see the previous paragraph).

Also, it is a good idea to give up op privileges when you are done using them if you are able to get them easily again. To do this, use /mode -o yourself. Having ops in a channel is fun, but sometimes it can draw unwanted attention.

For more information on channel modes, see IRC on Wikipedia. Happy chatting!