CHAT ROOM HELP  

What is Chat?

 

Internet Relay Chat, or Chat, is a method of conversing with other internet users, in real time, using a chat software program, or a Java plug-in which operates in your current web browser.

 

Rather than posting a message on a bulletin board, and reading other postings, you are able to post your message in a chat window, and watch others post their messages.

 

This makes for some lively dialogue, and a conversation that is much more enjoyable than simply reading messages. You will interact with other chat channel users, and also be able to send and receive files, such as pictures, using the various IRC chat servers. Most of the Java plug-in chats do not allow you to send or receive files, however, if you have ICQ, you can exchange files through ICQ.

 

A word about file transfers. When you are in a chat channel, and someone tries to send you a file, a warning box will pop up on your screen, asking if you accept or reject the file transfer. Many internet viruses are transmitted this way, so if you are unsure of the person sending a file, reject it. The files are usually marked .exe or .ini. These are program files, and can contain a virus. If someone is sending you a picture, be sure that the file is an .gif or .jpg file. These are extensions used for graphics. If in doubt, just reject the transfer, it won't hurt your computer unless you download and run the file.
 

 

Chat Help Guide

 

Requirements:

 

  • Our Chat Rooms work with all Web browsers. A browser is the software you are using to surf the web and view this page, so there is no downloading or special requirements needed to use our chat rooms.

 

Instructions for the Chat Room Entrance:

 

  • Name: this is the name you'll be known by in the chat room
  • Email: (optional) enter your email address if you want people to be able to send you email by clicking your name in the chat room
  • Other optional features include choosing a chat color, listing your home page or chatting as an avatar, which is a picture that appears next to your name in the chat room.
  • After that simply click the button that says Go chat! to enter the chat room.
     


 Inside the Chat Room:

  • The Chat Message Box looks like this:
    You type your message here and hit "enter" or "return" on your keyboard to post it (or click the send button). The screen will refresh and your message will appear below the older messages.
  • log: a new window will appear containing all the messages saved by the chat room. How long messages are saved is determined by the chat room owner when they order the room.
  • occupants: a new window will appear containing all the current chat room occupants, listing the names of people who are also logged into the chat room

·        log off: be sure to click this when your finished chatting. It tells everyone in the room you're leaving and removes you from the Occupants window.
 

 

Chat Room Tricks:

 

Our chat rooms understand HTML (the language of the Web) which means you can post pictures, links, stream movies and music as well as enhance text. Here's some examples:

 

  • Post a picture:
    <img src="http://address.of.picture">
    The address is also known as the URL.
  • Link to another Web page:
    <a href="http://address.of.link"> The Link </a>
    Fill in the Web site address (URL) where it says "address.of.link"
  • To make your chat words bold:
    <b> Bold Word </b>
  • To make your chat words big:
    <font size=+1> Big Word </font>
    Note: Change the number "1" to a larger number to make the word bigger.
  • To change the color of your chat words:
    <font color=red> Red word </font>
    (You can choose any color, such as green, blue, white, etc...)

·        To post a movie or play sound:
Sound and movie files come in many different software formats, each requiring different code for insertion into a Web page.

 

Chat Room Etiquette

CMS Chat Room Rules
Internet Abbreviations and Smileys

 

The Internet has created its own culture, language, and customs. Granted, some of these are made up as the users operate on the Internet, but, there are some standard rules that do apply.


Disruptive Behavior in a Chat Room

 

Occasionally, in some Chat Rooms, people will sometimes come in, with the purpose of disrupting the chat, either for maliciousness or disagreeing with a particular chat room's theme.  We have seen 'bots, programs designed to flood the chat room; advertising, particularly on Yahoo or other Web Based chats that are unmoderated; and other people private messaging others without asking.

 

On the CMS chat, the offensive user is usually kicked out by our Moderator. Chat users may use the command /ignore or click the block all private messages option.

 

Disrupting our Chat room is offensive, and serves no useful purpose. If a user finds us offensive, the best policy is to simply not join us. No cause will be served by harassing users.

 

Most chat rooms have rules established by their founders. Not following the chat room rules will at the least get you a reprimand, or at worst, kicked or banned from the chat room. Our Moderators are there to assist and make sure the chat room is a fun and friendly place to visit, not to act as guards, but should anyone be disruptive, some of them take their work very seriously, so be forewarned.

 

We have established some simple rules for our chat room,
they are:

 

  • Do not abuse other users in any way.
  • Do not flood.
  • Do not use Inappropriate Chat Requests (such as 'Any sexy ladies wanna chat' or 'Any fit guys want to chat'
  • Follow staff requests.
  • No advertising.
  • No inappropriate nicknames.
  • No swearing – Even masked profanity!
  • No webcam requests.
  • Specific popups may get warned.

 

As with anything else, where one chats is a matter of personal taste, and the responsibility to chat or not chat lies with the individual. We cannot stress this too strongly… Please, allow those who wish to chat their freedom to do so in which ever room they choose. We are sure that you would wish the same courtesy extended to your chat.  
 

 

Internet Abbreviations

 

The Internet is full of cryptic shorthand that makes a point, without having to spell out every word. This can be very useful in a chat channel that is fast moving, other chatters can see your message in an instant. Some of the more common abbreviations are:

 

·        LOL-Laughing Out Loud. Mild Amusement At A Remark By Another User. Or, you could do LOL at the end of a remark, to show your remarks are in humor, not to be taken seriously. Or, use a smile, :-)

·        ROFL-Rolling On Floor Laughing. Strong Amusement At A Remark.

·        LMAO-Laughing my ass off. Pretty powerful laugh, use sparingly.

·        BRB-Be Right Back. Indicates The User Is Away From The Keyboard For A Short Period. Perhaps Getting A Cup Of Coffee.

·        BBL-Be back later. No set time period, could be weeks, LOL!

·        AFK-Away From Keyboard. User Is Still Online, And In Channel, But Is Taking An Extended Break. Usually Means "Too Much Coffee", Or Perhaps A Phone Call.

·        CLICK-Used In Yahoo Chat and elsewhere, This Means The User Is Ignoring Someone Who Is Offensive. When you put someone on ignore, you "click" them.

 

Smileys

Smileys are used in chat rooms to show various emotions, also called emoticons.  Look at each one from the right to left side, usually the "eyes" are a : with the nose a - and the mouth everything from a smile ) to a frown ( 

  • :-o    Wow!

  • :-c     Real unhappy

  •  :-|    Grim

  • :-C     Just totally unbelieving

  •  := |   Baboon

  • :-B     Drooling

  •  :-v    Speaking

  • :-,     Smirk

  •  :-V    Shout

  • :-||    Anger

  •  :-w    Speak with forked tongue

  • :-)     Smiling

  •  :-r    Sticking tongue out

  • :-(     Frowning

  •  :-*    Oops!

  • '-)     Wink

  •  :-T    Keeping a straight face

  • ;-)     Sardonic Incredulity

  •  :-D    Said with a smile

  • %-<I>   Drunk with laughter

  •  :-x    Kiss kiss

  • :-"     Pursing lips

  •  :-[    Pouting

  • :-#     My lips are sealed

  •  :-X    A big wet kiss!

  • :-P     Tongue hanging out in anticipation

  •  :-Y    A quiet aside

  • 8-|     Eyes wide with surprise

  •  >-<    Absolutely livid!!

  • &-|     Tearful

  •  |-{    "Good Grief!"  (Charlie Brown?)

  •  8-]    "wow, maaan"

  •  8-O    "Omigod!!" (done after "rm -rf *" ?)

  •  :-,    "Hmmmm."

  •  |~(    "Someone just busted my nose".

  •  :^D    "Great! I like it!"

  •  B-D    "Serves you right, dummy!!"

 

Here are a few Yahoo! smilies from Germany. 

  • cow:   3:-0

  • skull:   8-x

  • rose:   @};-

  • alien:   =:)

  • monkey:   :(|)

  • cowboy:   <):)

  • pig:   :@)

  • light bulb:   *-:)

  • US-flag:   **==

  • pumpkin:   (~~)

  • Yahoo! Chat Smileys

  • (%) is a ying yang.

  • o-> is a yahoo fighter.

  • o=> is a yahoo fighter.

  • o-+ is a yahoo fighter.
     

The Unofficial Smiley Dictionary

  • :-)   Your basic smiley. This smilie is used to inflect a sarcastic or joking state- ment since we can't hear voice inflection over Unix.

  • ;-)   Winky smiley. User just made a flirtatious and/or sarcasticremark. More of a "don't hit me for what I just said" smiley.

  • :-(   Frowning smiley. User did not like that last statement or is upset or depressed about something.

  • :-I   Indifferent smiley. Better than a Frowning smilie but not quite as good as a happy smiley

  • :->   User just made a really biting sarcastic remark. Worse than a :-).

  • >:->  User just made a really devilish remark.

  • >;->  Winky and devil combined. A very lewd remark was just made.

 

Those are the basic ones...Here are some somewhat less common ones:

  • (-:   User is left handed

  • %-)   User has been staring at a green screen for 15 hours straight

  • :*)   User is drunk

  • [:]   User is a robot

  • 8-)   User is wearing sunglasses

  • B:-)  Sunglasses on head

  • ::-)  User wears normal glasses

  • B-)   User wears horn-rimmed glasses

  • 8:-)  User is a little girl

  • :-)-8 User is a Big girl

  • :-{)  User has a mustache

  • :-{}  User wears lipstick

  • {:-)  User wears a toupee

  • }:-(  Toupee in an updraft

  • :-[   User is a Vampire

  • :-E   Bucktoothed vampire

  • :-F   Bucktoothed vampire with one tooth missing

  • :-7   User just made a wry statement

  • :-*   User just ate something sour

  • ;-(   User is crying

  • ;-)   User is so happy, s/he is crying

  • :-@   User is screaming

  • :-#   User wears braces

  • :^)   User has a broken nose

  • :<)   User is from an Ivy League School

  • :-&   User is tongue tied.

  • +-:-) User is the Pope or holds some other religious office

  • `:-)  User shaved one of his eyebrows off this morning

  • ,:-)  Same thing...other side

  • |-I   User is asleep

  • |-O   User is yawning/snoring

  • :-Q   User is a smoker

  • :-?   User smokes a pipe

  • O-)   Megaton Man On Patrol!  (or else, user is a scuba diver)

  • O :-) User is an angel (at heart, at least)

  • :-P   Nyahhhh!

  • :-S   User just made an incoherent statement

  • :-D   User is laughing (at you!)

  • :-X   User's lips are sealed

  • :-C   User is really bummed

  • <|-)  User is Chinese

  • <|-(  User is Chinese and doesn't like these kind of jokes

  • :-/   User is skeptical

  • C=:-) User is a chef

  • @=    User is pro-nuclear war

  • *<:-) User is wearing a Santa Claus Hat

  • :-o   Uh oh!

  • (8-o  It's Mr. Bill!

  • *:o)  And Bozo the Clown!

  • 3:]   Pet smiley

  • 3:[   Mean Pet smiley

  • d8=   Your pet beaver is wearing goggles and a hard hat.

  • E-:-) User is a Ham radio operator

  • :-9   User is licking his/her lips

  • %-6   User is braindead

  • [:-)  User is wearing a walkman

  • (:I   User is an egghead

  • <:-I  User is a dunce

  • K:P   User is a little kid with a propeller beenie

  • @:-)  User is wearing a turban

  • :-0   No Yelling!  (Quiet Lab)

  • :-:   Mutant Smiley

  • The invisible smiley

  • .-)   User only has one eye

  • ,-)   Ditto...but he's winking

  • X-(   User just died

  • %\v   Picasso

  • C=}>;*{O)  Mega-Smiley... A drunk, devilish chef with a toupee in an updraft, a mustache, and a double chin
     

Note: A lot of these can be typed without noses to make midget smileys.

  • :]    Gleep...a friendly midget smiley who will gladly be your friend

  • :)    Happy

  • :>    hmm, let me think...

  • :D    Laughter

  • :I    Hmmm, not funny!

  • :(    Sad

  • :[    Real Downer

  • :<    what pretences!

  • :{    oh boy, the headmaster!...

  • :O    Yelling

  • ;(    Crying

  • []    Hugs and

  • :*    Kisses

  • :-`   smiley spitting out its chewing tobacco

  • :-1   smiley bland face

  • :-!           "

  • :-$   smiley face with it's mouth wired shut

  • :-6   smiley after eating something sour

  • 8-)   smiley swimmer

  • :-*   smiley after eating something bitter

  • :-&   smiley which is tongue-tied

  • :-0   smiley orator

  • (:-(  unsmiley frowning

  • =:-)  smiley punk-rocker

  • =:-(  (real punk rockers don't smile)

  • +-:-) smiley priest

  • :-o   smiley singing national anthem

  • :-p   smiley sticking its tongue out (at you!)

  • :-Ž   smiley blowing a raspberry, or just a friendly sticking out of your tongue

  • :-[   un-smiley blockhead

  • :-]   smiley blockhead

  • :-{   smiley variation on a theme

  • :-}   ditto

  • {:-)  smiley with its hair parted in the middle

  • }:-)  above in an updraft

  • g-)   smiley with pince-nez glasses

  • :-\   undecided smiley

  • :-/   lefty undecided smiley

  • :-|   "have an ordinary day" smiley

  • ;-)   winking smiley

  • :-<   real sad smiley

  • :-x   "my lips are sealed" smiley

  • :-c   bummed out smiley

  • :-v   talking head smiley

  • :-?   smilely smoking a pipe

  • 0-)   smiley cyclops (scuba diver?)

  • :<    midget unsmiley

  • :>    midget smiley

  • :-)    ha ha

  • |-)    hee hee

  • |-D    ho ho

  • :->    hey hey

  • :-(    boo hoo

  • :-I    hmm

  • :-O    uh oh

  • :-P    nyah nyah

  • |-P    yuk