Old school IRC right there, on private channels +v (voice) has to be enabled/appointed by an OP (usually the creator of the channel, though assistants could be appointed if I remember correctly) I don't remember half the stuff I used to know about IRC. EDIT : Wait, it's coming back to me. People with + have voice, people with @ are OP's or assistant OP's. And BOTS (just a program serving as a user) can be created as an OP to do various things in the room in the absence of a human OP, such as appointing +v