Charged with the task of running an IRC network or server, the IRCop's job is never done. They have many jobs such as making sure the network holds together, throwing idiots off it and finally making sure the rest of everyone is behaving themselves.

Operators come in two forms - server admin or not server admin -- the server admin has the power of deciding which part of the network their IRC server connects to. There's also local and global ops -- a local op has power only on their server wheras a global op can affect anyone on the network.