IRC Operators Guide: "This is the most important aspect of 'opering'. It will make or break you as an operator. There are a lot of politics that go on in the irc operator community and, whether you like it or not, these politics are here to stay. Fighting this and complaining about it will get you nowhere.

From what I've seen, most opers look down on users, make fun of them, and ignore them. Try to avoid this ego trip side of opering. Answer private messages, unless it is someone just sending you a hate message. Opers would get a lot less crap from users if they would be a little less egotistical. Something I might suggest is that you spend an hour or two every couple of weeks helping the newbies out in #irchelp or whatever equivalent you may find."