See also: Moderation | Good Guy | Admin | Sysadmin
Short for: Operator
One or many people given control over an individual IRC channel. This person or persons can kick, ban, make invite-only, and can even restrict subject matter. Operators are the governmental system in individual channels but very rarely having any control outside of their own channel(s). Akin to a Moderator for IRC.
Individuals can become Operators by starting an as-yet unregistered channel or by being “Op’d” by another operator or by a Admin/SysAdmin.
TakeDown.NET -> “Op”