Access levels – These are the modes that grant a certain ‘level’ to a user.
Set with /mode #yourchan +/-<MODE> <USER>
Example: /mode #help +v William
| Channel mode | Description | Restrictions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| v | Voice. This makes the user able to speak in +m/+M channels. User can also still speak if banned. | May be set by +hoaq users | |
| h | Half-Op. Gives some of the usual channel operator rights, but not all. They are basically a light version of channel ops. | May be set by +oaq users | |
| o | Channel Op. This is the channel operator privilege everyone knows about, allows the user to do almost all administrative tasks in a channel such as /KICK, /MODE, etc.. | May be set by +oaq users | |
| a | Channel Admin. A level above channel ops but with no special extra privileges except for one: people below chanadmin (so +h/+o) cannot KICK +a people. | May be set by +q users | |
| q | Channel Owner. The highest level. Channel owners can’t be kicked by any level below. Usually there’s only one person with +q and the mode is set by services. | Normal users can’t set this |
Note that often Services are used to manage +vhoaq lists in so called “access lists” or AOP/HOP/etc.
List modes – These are so called ‘list modes’.
Set with /mode #yourchan +/-<MODE> <MASK>
Example: /mode #help +b *William@*.chatcorner.live
| Channel mode | Description | Restrictions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| b | Ban. Prevents a user from joining the channel. | Requires +h or higher | |
| e | Ban exception. When a user is banned (due to +b) and they are on this +e list then they may still join the channel. | Requires +h or higher | |
| I | Invite exception. When the channel is +i (invite only) then people on this list may still join the channel. | Requires +h or higher |
All these modes take a nick!user@host parameter, like: +b *!*@*.isp.com. See also Extended bans for other syntaxes (eg: +e ~c:@#channel).
Channel settings – These are channel modes that configure channel settings.
Set with /mode #yourchan +/-<MODE>
Example: /mode #help +cC
| Channel mode | Description | Restrictions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| c | No color allowed in the channel. Will block ANSI and mIRC color codes. | Requires +o or higher | |
| C | No CTCP’s allowed in the channel. | Requires +o or higher | |
| D | Delays someone’s JOIN message until that person speaks. Chanops and higher, opers and ulines/services are exempt. | Requires +o or higher | |
| d | When unsetting +D, Unreal needs to process all remaining delayed users (i.e. invisible in the channel to regular users) to make them JOIN. +d is an intermediate/temporary mode to facilitate this and will be unset once all users are properly “joined”. | Set by server | |
| f | Flood protection. This is a highly advanced feature, see Anti-flood features#Channel_mode_f | Requires +o or higher | |
| G | Filter out bad words (Chat Corner maintains a listing) | Requires +o or higher | |
| i | Invite only. Requires people to be /INVITE’d to the channel or be on the +I (Invite Exceptions) list (for that latter, see the List modes section above) | Requires +o or higher | |
| k | Require users to specify a channel key in order to join (/JOIN #chan key). Example: +k secret | Requires +h or higher | |
| K | /KNOCK command is not allowed. | Requires +o or higher | |
| L | Channel link. If the +l user limit (see below) is reached then users will automatically be redirected to this channel. Example: +L #something | Requires +h or higher | |
| l | Limit the amount of users that may be in the channel. If the limit is reached then any new JOIN’s are rejected (see also +L above). | Requires +o or higher | |
| m | Moderated channel. Only people with +v or higher (+vhoaq) may speak. | Requires +h or higher | |
| M | Must be authenticated to services or have +v or higher to speak. | Requires +o or higher | |
| N | No nick-changes permitted. Normally not set, only during a a nick-flood flood attack. | Requires +o or higher | |
| n | No external messages. If you don’t set +n then users outside the channel may still send messages to it. Thus, almost everyone will set their channel +n. | Requires +h or higher | |
| O | IRC Operator only channel | IRCOp-only | |
| P | Permanent channel. After all users leave a channel it is normally destroyed. If you set +P then this won’t happen and all settings are preserved. | IRCOp-only | |
| p | Private channel (Not visible in /msg chanserv list) | Requires +o or higher | |
| Q | No /KICK allowed. Can be used to force all chanops to use Services for kicking. Unusual, but possible. | Requires +o or higher | |
| R | Only registered users may join the channel. Registered users are users authenticated to NickServ. | Requires +o or higher | |
| r | Channel is registered via ChanServ | Set by services | |
| s | Secret channel. The channel won’t show up in /LIST and won’t show up in /WHOIS (unless you are in the same channel or an IRCOp) | Requires +o or higher | |
| S | Strip color codes. This removes any mIRC or ANSI color codes by converting it to regular text. | Requires +o or higher | |
| T | Channel notices are not permitted (/NOTICE #chan hi!). On many clients a beeping sound will happen on notices, hence why this mode is sometimes set. | Requires +o or higher | |
| t | Restricts /TOPIC to +h or higher. Without +t anyone in the channel may set the topic. Most channels are +t. | Requires +h or higher | |
| V | /INVITE is not permitted. | Requires +o or higher | |
| z | Only clients which are connected through SSL/TLS may join the channel | Requires +o or higher | |
| Z | Indicates that only people who are using SSL/TLS are on the channel. This channel mode is (only) set by the server when the channel is also +z and everyone on the channel is connected via SSL. | Set by server |