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IRCops and how IRC is organised administratively
IRC is huge, with hundreds of thousands of users online 24 hours a day. Anything this big needs some sort of organisation and IRC isn't any different. Each IRC server and network will probably be organised in a different way since each one is unique. The smaller servers/networks tend to have less people who are in charge and so less beauocracy.
For a stand-alone server there usually is a chain of command. Again, probably will differ between servers.
Administrator(s)
Global IRCops
Local IRCops
The administrator(s) are in overall charge of the server, they are the only ones to have access to the computer the server is running on. Next below that is the IRC Operators (IRCops). These people have extra commands available to them that ordinary users don't. The actual commands vary between servers but usually contain powers to stop people logging onto the server (kline) and also to throw people off the server (kill)
On a stand-alone server the difference between global and local IRCops makes very little difference and so IRCops tend to be global on stand-alone servers. If this server was on a network the differences would be important. Global IRCops can usually kill people from any server on the network whereas local IRCops can only kill people from the server they have IRCop access on. Global klines (they can be called a variety of things - akill, gline being the most common) differ from network to network - some networks allow any global IRCop to set a global kline while others only let admins do it. There are other differences but these are the main ones
Note : on a network IRCops normally only have access to IRCop commands when they are connected to a specific server on the network.
As well as the technical side, the admins and IRCops also have to decide the rules and regulations of the server/network. On a network there are usually various committees which deal with various aspects of keeping the network running. There is usually a small committee which is in overall charge of the network (net-com), along with committes for things like the web page (web-com), coding the servers (coding-com) and various others, depending on the network.
There is a limit to what IRCops can and will do, this is especially true on large networks. IRCops will rarely get involved in personal matters (eg an argument between two or more users) and they don't usually get involved in channel matters unless the channel ops can't deal with it themselves. Also, don't expect an IRCop to get you unbanned on a channel if an op there banned you - it's up to the channel owner and the ops (s)he chooses to decide who is allowed in their channel (just like you wouldn't expect the police to force you to let someone into your house). I have seen quite a worrying number of users who have come to the administration channel to ask to be unbanned and then when the request is refused, argued about how they have a right to be able to go in the channel - they don't. (See this page for more about this and your rights on IRC)
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