IRC Channel Operator Tutorial

There are many things that will cause a channel to break down.  Excessive trolling, spamming, flooding, and many other techniques.
First lets examine how irc works.  There are multiple servers sharing the workload of communication amongst the users.
There is a group of channels, all shared, across the servers.  There are system operators who are in charge of the network (all the servers).  Then there are channel operators who run the channels.
In this tutorial, we are covering the expectations of you as a channel operaqtor.
As initially stated, the channel operator keeps the channel functional.  This will require admonishing users about network rules.  Helping users find the right channel for their topics.  It also requires revmoving those users who are disruptive beyond limits.
First let us handle simple things.  On irc it is considered rude to just private message someone.  Proper behaviour would be to ask the user to pm and get their approval.  Users who pm without permission excessively should be removed.
Users who do not follow topic or network rules should be admionished, and subsequently removed if they fail to listen.
Trolling is a bit of a sport, but if the purpose is to disrupt the channel or cause damage to normal relations then it is no longer fun and the user should be removed.
Trolling is behaviour that is provocative, insulting, or has the apperance of extreme stupidity.  SOme users will troll to break up the community and cause them to argue.
Flooding is when a user says the same thing over and over again.  There are bots that control a single user flood, but there may be many users.
Users who flood should not only be removed from your channel immediately, but they should also be reported to the network because it is likely they are doing this in more than one channel.
Spamming is when a user or group of users keep mentioning an op, a link, etc.  A certain amount of spamming is acceptable.  However, there is a limit.  Use your judgement.
On this network, we do not allow recruiting to other ircs, we are not anyones personal army, and we generally do not care about minor issues.
Now we can talk about how to correct a users action.
There are several actions a channel operator can take. They are to admonish the user, silence the user, to kick the user, or to ban the user.
Admonishing the user would be to either in the channel or in om ask them to stop the offending behaviour.
All of the following commands you must take note of the action and remove the action at an appropriate point in the future.
The !mute command silences a user.  An example of this is:  !mute someuser
To unmute them the command is !unmute someuser
To kick a user out of the channel the command is !k someuser stated reason
This action does not actually require a further administrative action as it is not permanent.
To ban someone from your channel type !kb someuser stated reason  This is a kick plus a ban.  You should take note of the users anonymized ip.  It is next to the users name on join but is also displayed by the system with the ban is set.
To remove a ban, type !unban someuser  if they are not still connected to the irc, use the anonymized ip string !unban ipstring
It may be difficult to tollerate dumb users, but try to maintain some patience and sense of humour.  Just blasting people out of your channel is no fun for anybody.
If you would like to see a list of the banned users you can type /stats +b
Try to make sure your channel has 24x7 channel operator coverage.  Also do not just give access to your friends.  That usually leads to bad outcomes.
As with all things on this network, if you need help, seek out a network operator / sysop.  Thank you for volunteering to help this network.