What does the + next to someones nick mean?
This means that that person has voice in the respective channel he/she is in. The only real function this serves is when the channel is moderated (mode +m). In this case, that person can speak publicly in the channel in the same way the channel operators can. Anyone without operator or voice status can not. But in a lot of cases the channel is not moderated and the voice status is just that – nothing more than a status symbol. It doesn’t allow them to do anything a non voiced user can do. This is often used as a precurser to giving that person operator status, so it might be wise to be friendly to these people for the future :-).
