I can't check right now because I'm at work, but others might when they check the forum now that they have the network name. Your auth commands are the same, whether you use /msg or not. But if there are channel services, the commands are different than the ones handling your nick registration and authorization.
As for why others are opped automatically, is someone there opping them automatically, or is Q or some other Quakenet bot doing it? Any op in the channel can automatically op people who are supposed to be opped. Otherwise, you need to have the people set up in channel services. Either the others are being opped by other ops as you are or else they were set up in the channel services and you were not.
In the meantime while you wait for someone here who can connect and take a look (or who knows Quakenet services), you might want to check with the help channel like I mentioned. They'll probably be able to help you more quickly.
