my channel has been hacked and I lost founder rights.. is there any way I can get them back apart from the thief to gove me the password?

You should ask your network's help channel, if one exists. Otherwise, there isn't anything you can do except get a hold of a IRCop.

right... and where do I find one of these??.. (it's on espernet btw)

#dragonweyr is the offical help channel of EsperNet, according to wikipedia.

You might also want to try the /motd command in your status window, that usually lists opers/help channels.

As a last resort use /admin

you might wish to try /ircops (not sure exactly if that will work, but it lists the ircop's on an unreal server if they have the module loaded) worth a shot!

Usually,

/who 0 o

Will display all IRCOps who are currently online. (I may have 0 and o backwards, so try both ways, but I think this way is right).

Oh, and yes that is the other way. Thanks for the reminder!