Netiquette applies as always. Don't troll, flame or whatever, don't bother with illegal links, wares, etc. Please note that swearing in the channel can happen usually since it's rather lax compared to the forums.

Ops are staff that will join, or nice non-staff, depending, really. IRC Channel Operators can be easily seen by the "@" symbol prefixed to their name.

You can obviously also ask for HF network fights there, however consider that when a person says "no", accept it and don't continue to bother them, please.

So yeah, really, talk about anything there, and have fun. I recommend "lurking"/"idling", as in waiting for conversation to pop up by staying on the channel instead of quitting a minute after joining, there's a higher chance you'll get into conversation with people!