Running without operators
As we all know one of IRC's special features is the users who go on wild power trips. Their aim is to gain op status in every channel for the sole purpose of wielding it against other people at every opportunity.
This unfortunate consequence is a result of the permissions system of IRC which should actually have been done away with when Services were introduced.
Fortunately, you can rectify this for your channel by doing the following :
/msg ChanServ LEVELS <#channel> DISABLE AUTOPROTECT
/msg ChanServ LEVELS <#channel> DISABLE AUTOOP
/msg ChanServ LEVELS <#channel> DISABLE AUTOHALFOP
/msg ChanServ LEVELS <#channel> DISABLE AUTOVOICE
/msg ChanServ LEVELS <#channel> DISABLE HALFOP
/msg ChanServ LEVELS <#channel> DISABLE PROTECT
While this might frighten people into thinking their channel is highly at risk without active ops to keep bots and so on in check, this is actually the most effective way to run a channel.
Without operators having automatic explicit access to /kick, they are less likely to abuse it - people are more at ease, and the point of channel wars and op wars is inherently removed at the source of the problem. This also means that the automated protections we have built into the server are far more effective. They will moderate a channel automatically when it is flooded, or the channel administrators can invoke ChanServ KICK and OP commands only when needed.
Running in secret
Most people consider it hard to run a channel in private modes. This is because the private modes are generally quite badly thought out. Invite-only mode is actually the best way to run a channel in secret.
A relatively unknown mode makes it possible to run a channel in invite-only mode: +I, or invite exception list. So long as the channel is actively populated you can add user masks to the invite exception list. For example, we can add the nickname “joesoap” to the invite exception list so that he may join without an invitation:
/mode #my_channel +I joesoap!*@*
The ChanServ INVITE command can be used to request ChanServ to invite you to the channel.
NOTE: AutoJoin will automatically invite you where possible, allowing you to bypass invite-only mode when connecting to the network.