Calling chat room experts

[cariad]

Laughing, hold on, if we give all the secrets away how will appear knowledgable?

Sighs, okay then.....the basics.......

Command number one. Be yourself and have fun and respect your fellow inmates.

Command number two. Read the room rules which are on the page just before you get into the room. They are there to make chat a pleasant experience for everyone.

Command number three. Don't panic when you have no idea what is happening in there. It can be impossibly comfusing when the room is very busy and you don't know anyone. Try and key into on conversation and follow what is happening, or find someone who is just talking a little in the room and chat to them. If they are not talking at all, it could be that they are hiding away in whispers or sleeping, either way they will be completely unresponsive.

Command number four. When the room is busy it helps to put the name of the person you are talking to at the start of the line; so the line might look something like...
cariad(CC): gregsta: welcome to the chat room gregsta, the M&M machine is over by the fridge, please help yourself.
You can do this by either typing the name, or by clicking on the last entry of that name in the chat stream, and it will automatically appear.

Command number five. If you wish to whisper to someone, aka pm them, double click on their name in the list on the right hand side of the screen, and type in the popped up window. They will then be the only ones who can read what you are typing. Please note guidance in the room rules about asking before whispering.

If you see an entry in the main chat stream which says "name says to you....." it means that person has just whispered to you. You can either reply to them in the room, or if you wish to whisper back to them double click on their name in the list on the right hand side and open the pop up window - see above.

Command number six. Many people like to personalise their font colours. This does make it easier to spot who is saying what when the room is busy. Near the bottom of the screen is a button with a 2x2 coloured grid, click on this and choose away.

Command number seven. Profile. Any public information which you have saved in forums will appear on your profile in the chat room. You can change this by going to the profile tab at the top of the page, but any changes will only be there for that session, and you will have to re-enter them each time. This is also the place to select an avatar to go by your name.

Command number eight. To emote a line aka blue writing, i.e. to get something like "gregsta offers cariad some chocolate ice cream" type '/me offers cariad some chocolate ice cream".

Command number nine. See command number one.

Looking forward to chatting with you....

cariad