Chat Room Instructions - page 1

The chat room is provided courtesy of NBC, the television network. It is remotely hosted, which means that I do not have any control over it. Therefore:

      1) There are no automatic logs of the chats,
      2) I have no control over the default features, and
      3) The price for the room is that we must contend with the flickering, advertising banners.

On the plus side we have:

      1) Each chat member can adjust some of their own screen characteristics, and
      2) The chat room is private for this site.
      3) we can have up to 25 individuals in the room.

The first screen encountered asks for User Name, Full Name, Your Password, and E-mail address. Only the User Name is required. This is called the Nickname in most chatrooms. Once you have entered your nickname, click on "OK, Connect". Some names return a message that the name requires a password. Simply return to the login function and type a variation of your name, or pick another nickname. If every name that you pick requires a password, then add something to the end. For example, if your trying to use Mary and it won't accept it, try MaryW, or Mary04. Or another possibility is to use capital letters such as maRy. I'm sorry for this problem but I don't have control over their 'reserved' names.

It should take only a few seconds to connect. There is no way to determine if there is anyone in the room before you sign-on. As soon as I am connected, I click on the "Float" button in the top right corner. This 'unlocks' the position of the chat window and increases the size of the chat window by about 4 lines, but most importantly, you can then click on the "Maximize Window" character if you are using Windows (I don't know how other operating systems handle this).

If you are new to chat rooms, there is a text window, near the bottom, where you enter your comment/reply. The controls for changing font size and fontcolors are difficult. You have to enter the commands, one at a time, in the reply window. As soon as I am signed in I enter :

*chat fontsize 14   (note - the asterisk is required as the first character for each instruction)
*chat fgcolor black
*chat bgcolor ivory
*chat nl on
*beep enter on
*beep leave on

You can substitute whatever font size you want. The default is 12. I know that 16, and 18 are also available. I prefer black for the textcolor but you can use the default blue, navy, red, maroon, green, yellow, or whatever other color will work. I also prefer ivory for the background color because the reduced contrast makes it a little easier on the eyes. You can also have a blank line appear between each chatter's comments by entering: *chat nl on . This improves the readability. If you wish to receive audio notice when someone is entering or leaving, use the command, *beep enter on , or, *beep leave on . To turn them off just substitute the word 'on' with 'off'.

The program also allows you to 'ignore' certain other chatters, and you can also have private conversations. For these and the rest of the features, click on the FAQS button near the top of the chat widow area.

This chatroom was my selection because it gives us a private room. The controls on many other packages are easier but their rooms are listed in a 'common' library on a variety of sites and there is more likelihood of troublemakers logging on whose only goal is to disturb the chat.

Author Chat Protocols - next page

Please report any problems to Crystal