I notice there are about 30 folks in this chat room, and no fewer than 12 of you have ops status.
Yup.
Is there some practical benefit to this arrangement, or have ops merely become some mindless banner of popularity for you to wave in each other's faces?
The latter. *Kick!*
Guess you've got to admire the honesty there.
That reminds me, can someone gimme ops? /ME grovels!