Greetings IRCop wannabe surfing in from ,
when you have found your way to this page, I am more than certain that you are interested in becoming an IRCoperator on DALnet (or any other net for that matter, but I'll just mention DALnet here). There are some things you would want to know before going any further though. You should ask yourself first if you really would want to be one. It is not a nice thing to be at most times. You need to be prepared with alot of patience, alot of work and time spent online to help and assist. Being an IRCoper doesn't mean you can roam around DALnet killing people you don't like, or avenge kicks from channels, etc. People will most likely ask you very strange questions, that you need to try to answer with patience, without laughing at them, without telling them how stupid they are for not knowing something, people will flood you, just to see if you kill them for it. They will swear at you, tell you how lame you are, and that you are just a computer geek that thinks he/she is something. You will be kicked and banned from certain channels, merely because you are an IRCoperator, and there is nothing you can do about it. And you might have to spend long times trying to resolve conflicts between users, just to have them stop complaining to us about small, silly things. Some of us even get our own fanclubs of people trying to be just like us, using our nicks, trying to tease us and make us enough upset to kill them, a pleasure which we of course very seldom give them. It works alot better to ignore them, children only think a thing is fun as long a you get upset over it, if you take it easy they will get bored, and hopefully stop doing it. If you are ready for all of this, you have come a far way ahead.
There aren't just bad things going on when you are an IRCoperator, if it were not many of us would still be one. There are actually people who thank you for the help you are giving them, send you a virtual rose (@}--'--,--), or perhaps a hug or simply a "Thanks". These are the people we work for, and this is why we do our best to help people resolve their problems.

Knowledge

"What? Do I need to know things to become an IRCoper too?"
Yes you do. Alot of things are handy to know, if you don't know anything then how are you supposed to be able to help people? Then all you could do is direct them to someone else, or ask for help yourself, which doesn't really make you very useful. Therefore you should try to gain as much experience as possible, try to learn the basics of all the clients you can get hold of, merely to be able to help people that have problems with them. The most important thing though is to know your own client, inside-out. And learn how all the commands work. /quote is a command you should take a look at for example (/raw when using mIRC), it is used to directly access the commands built into the server.
Also learn how to operate the services. Learn the command syntax for ChanServ, NickServ, MemoServ and HelpServ. Since we are fortunate enough to have them, they should be used as much as possible since they are really helpful. HelpServ contains the helpfiles for all the commands supported by the ircII client for Unix, and most of them work with all other clients as well, easy to look-up. Take use of it.

Dedication

Be sure that you really want to be one. Just don't try to be one because it seems "cool", or you think it seems fun. Try to be one if you think you have something to add to DALnet. You will spend alot of time online, and you have to be prepared for it. All the time it takes before you become an IRCoperator (and believe me, it can take time... years of time), and it's not even certain you WILL become one (strangely enough not all who want to be an IRCoperator, become one after a while), is merely the beginning. If you finally become an IRCoperator, don't think you can just quit helping people because you have reached the "goal" you had in mind. If you do, you won't be an IRCoperator for very long.
Other than helping people I also recommend you to get involved with DALnet in all the ways you can, be active and show interest in the network and the things around it. Also subscribe to the DALnet mailinglist, so you have some ideas of what's going on beyond what you might've seen for yourself. To subscribe to this, send a mail to majordomo@dal.net with subscribe dalnet as the message body.

Help

Help, help, help and help. And help even more. Help all you can, since there is always a need for a helping hand. Help people even though there aren't any IRCoperators in the channel, that might notice what you do. Help because you want to be helpful, and enjoy helping. Don't be afraid to ask an IRCoperator if there is something you yourself are curious about, or don't know the answer to. Learn how to find a CSop when there is need for one (type /motd services.* and see if you can find one of the nicks online, ready to help). Note that you might not get opped on the channels you help out in at once (if at all), but don't give up. If you really put up with an effort and really try to do your best in helping people, someone WILL notice you.
Channels you can help out in are for example #dalnethelp, #irchelp or #mIRC. Please try to stay clear of #operhelp unless you need the immediate attention of an IRCoperator.
Also keep in mind that the channel operators on each channel decides who are allowed to be on the channel, and who aren't. If a channeloperator kindly asks you to leave because they don't want you to help on that channel, listen to what they say and leave. Don't argue with them and whine "..but Ahnbergs page said I am supposed to help here so I can become an IRCoperator.".

What now?

"So, now I am helping out all I can. And I spend alot of my time on DALnet."
Be patient, keep on helping. As I said earlier, you might not even become an IRCoperator EVEN though you are helping out alot of people. One thing you should keep in mind too is that you should never, *EVER* beg someone to make you an IRCoperator, letting someone know that you are interested is okey, but don't repeat yourself over and over again as soon as you see an admin. This will just make you look bad, and make people believe that you are of no real use to DALnet, since you don't even have patience to wait.
I also want you to be aware that no matter how much you get involved with DALnet, no matter how active you are in the various helpchannels and no matter how well qualified you are, you might never be chosen to be an IRCoperator by an admin. As I mentioned in the "Dedication" part above, you should try to be seen as an active person on DALnet and involve yourself in all possible things you have time for. And finally some words for you: "Have patience..."