very interesting.... thanks for pointing out the syntax error, but in this case the command description in the help file is wrong
I've been doing some experimenting, and /ignore WILL accept <network>, <channel>, or <server> as the last parameter, then the mIRC address book editor displays the parameter as it was entered, and control.ini is updated with the entered value
I suspect that mIRC is unable to know if a particular string is a network or server name, so simply permits any string as the final parameter
if the command is used WITHOUT the <network> parameter, the default value saved in control.ini is the SERVER name
if the -u<time> parameter is supplied AND the <network> name or <channel> name or any other string EXCEPT FOR THE CURRENT SERVER is supplied, the -u parameter is ignored by mIRC, so yes, the $chan value was interfering with the removal timer
also, mIRC rounds whatever value [in seconds] was supplied with the -u parameter to whole minutes
so, the help file should specify [server] instead of [network], and the timeout value used with -u is measured in minutes
