After some experimentation i've got it.
I am not sure exactly what happened or why but... the first user, (after the owner), mabus2... i had to add the flags and hostmask, and then part and rejoin before it FINALLY worked... all my other users now are being added normally and it works now...
Strangely, the other users do not need to part and rejoin, just the second user. It's like it resolved some sort of bug or something. Anyway, it works now
Thanks to everyone who helped