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Chat help
Changing
nicknames
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If your nickname was registered and you don't have
the password, it will change to "Guestxxxx" in 60 seconds.
The xxxx is a random number. Please change your name
if this happens. See Picking a nickname for advice
on choosing a good name.
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To change nicknames, go to the right of the chat window, below the sounds, where it says "Nick" and type your new nickname. Hit enter. The other way is to send a command. Inside the chat window, type /nick (space) followed by your new nickname. For example, if you want to change to "MyNick," type /nick MyNick. Make sure the first character is the forward slash.
- Spaces are not allowed. It will truncate.
-
If you enter an invalid nickname, it will say
nick: in front of the input line. Just enter the nickname by itself
at this point.
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Registering a
nickname
-
Once you find a nickname you really like, you
might want to register it so no one else can use it. Type /ns register
password email where "password" is the password you want and "email"
is your email address.
-
Passwords are case-sensitive and spaces are not allowed. Using your nickname as a password is not allowed.
- If you have a registered nickname, you must enter your password. Type /ns identify password.
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Can't remember
password
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Type /ns sendpass nickname and it will send your password to the email address that you specified when you registered.
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Private
conversations
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1. Send
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To start a private conversation with someone,
double-click the chatter's nickname in the right column. This will open a
second chat window.
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The other way is to use the /msg command. Type
/msg nickname message. For example, to send a private message to
OtherNick, type /msg OtherNick Thought I'd send you a private message.
The message will appear in chat as *OtherNick* Thought I'd send you a
private message. It will be visible only to you and OtherNick.
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2. Receive
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The sender's nickname will appear in single quotes
if you receive a private message. Regular messages look like
<Nickname>. It's very important to know the difference.
<OtherNick> Normal message from OtherNick to the group.
'OtherNick' Private message from OtherNick.
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3. Ignore
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You can ignore private messages by typing /ignore
OtherNick
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Posting a link
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Include http:// with the URL and it will
be clickable. Clicking on it will not interfere with your connection. It
will open in a new window.
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Copy and paste
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Press SHIFT + INS to insert text from the clipboard.
This is very useful for posting a link.
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Text colors
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You may notice a small color bar to the left of
where you type. Hold the mouse over a color and click once, and everything
you type next will appear in that color. Single click is a one-time command.
Your next line will reset to normal. To keep the same color, double-click
on the color. You may also boldface, underline, italicize, and highlight
text. To combine features, click one and then the other before you type.
For example, if you want bold green, click green and then bold before
typing.
-
You may decide to add effects to only part of a line. If you
want to type, "I love to chat," type "I" and click
red and type "love" and click black and type "to chat." (Insert a space between
words.) The other way is to type the line and go back with the mouse. Click
before "love" and click red. Then click after "love" and click black.
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You can add background color. Click once for text
color and then click another color for background.
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The color bar will create special characters or
numbers in the input line with your text. Don't delete this or it won't
work.
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Actions
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Use the /me command to perform an action. Type
/me action where "action" is your message. Your nickname will appear
by itself without the < and > signs, followed by the action. For example,
/me likes to chat displays:
* YourNick likes to chat
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Sounds
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There are several sounds available that, if used
in a timely fashion, can liven up chat. Type /sound soundname message
(message is optional.) The list of soundnames are: bell, computer, cowbell,
crash, cuckoo, door, drip, explosion, flush, gong, join, knock, laugh, moo,
music, notice, sci_fi, swish, train, and whistle.
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To run the laugh sound, type /sound laugh.
It will display * YourNick and the sound will
execute. To include a message, type /sound laugh laughs at you
and it will display:
* YourNick laughs at you
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IRC users will not hear the sounds but will see the message following it.
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Multiple chat
rooms
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You can be in several rooms at the same time, provided
the others are hosted by ircstorm.net. Type /join #newroomname. To navigate between rooms, click the room's name on the bottom of the chat window.
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To leave a room and remain connected, type /part
#newroomname. Do not use the /quit command or you will be
disconnected.
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Remember, the # character goes in front of a room's name.
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Chat
etiquette
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1. Picking a nickname
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Pick a creative, screwy nickname. If you have an
interest in something, choose a subtle way to display your name This can
bring attention to yourself and stimulate chat about your name. Creativity
is the key. If the name you want is registered to someone else, see
How to change nicknames.
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Don't go with a name that is rude, crude, vile,
or outright obnoxious. People will automatically tag you as a pervert and
a host of other names taken out of a thesaurus on the word "bonehead." Don't
do this if you intend on staying for a long time. You will be ignored, considered
a hazard, insulted out of chat, or kicked out by the operators overlooking
the place.
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2. Talking to people
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The next step is to talk to people. Saying a nice
greeting to everyone is the best way to catch someone's attention. If that
doesn't work, usually it's best to address someone with a question. To address
someone, please use this format:
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Person's name: Your question
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Most of the time you will get someone's attention
this way. Please use this format when responding to someone. Otherwise, it
can be difficult to keep track of what's said when many people are in the
room. It can turn into a jumble.
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Try not to yell. This is when you type in all caps
or boldface your entire message. It is considered rude.
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3. Abbreviations list
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To cut down time on typing, many people have started
using abbreviations for various actions and phrases. Many of the abbreviations
have pretty much become universal and a lot have become creatively humorous
thanks to many regulars in those chat rooms. The following abbreviations
and their meanings are some of the most commonly used out there. They were
taken out of the WBS chat book.
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AFAIK
AFK
ASAP
BBL
BBN
BBS
BEG
BRB
BTW
BWL
CNP
CYA
CYAL8R
DLTBBB
EG
FYI
GMBO
GMTA
GTSY
HHIS
IC
IGP
IMO
IMHO
IRL
IWALU
JMO
JTLYK
L8R
L8R G8R
LOL
LSHMBB
LSHMBH
LTNS
LTS
LUWAMH
LY
OIC
OTTOMH
PDS
PM
PMFJI
PMP
POAHF
ROFL
ROFLAPMP
ROFLMAO
ROFLMAOAY
ROFLMAOWTIME
ROFLUTS
RTSM
SHID
SWAK
SWL
SYS
TA
TOY
TTFN
TTYL
WB
WTH
YBS
ttyl
ttys
tcob
ttfn |
As Far As I Know
Away From Keyboard
As Soon As Possible
Be Back Later
Bye Bye Now
Be Back Soon
Big Evil Grin
Be Right Back
By The Way
Bursting With Laughter
Continued in Next Post
See Ya
See You Later
Don't Let The Bed Bugs Bite
Evil Grin
For Your Information
Giggling My Butt Off
Great Minds Think Alike
Glad To See You
Hanging Head in Shame
I See
I Gotta Pee
In My Opinion
In My Humble Opinion
In Real Life
I Will Always Love You
Just My Opinion
Just To Let You Know
Later
Later 'Gater
Laughing Out Loud
Laughing So Hard My Belly is Bouncing
Laughing So Hard My Belly Hurts
Long Time No See
Laughing To Self
Love You With All My Heart
Love Ya
Oh, I See
Off The Top of My Head
Please Don't Shoot
Private Message
Pardon Me For Jumping In
Peed My Pants
Put On A Happy Face
Rolling On Floor Laughing
...And Peeing My Pants
...My A** Off
...My A** Off At You
...With Tears In My Eyes
...Unable to Speak
Read The Stupid Manual!
Slaps Head In Disgust
Sealed With A Kiss
Screaming with Laughter
See You Soon
Thanks Again
Thinking Of You
Ta Ta For Now
Talk To You Later
Welcome Back
What/Who The Heck
You'll Be Sorry
talk to you later
talk to you soon
taking care of business
ta ta for now |
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4. Defensive and offensive
techniques
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On occasion, you might come across a chatter who
will be irate with you about something you said or who just thinks they are
a know-it-all. This will usually be the result of a disagreement on a particular
subject and it can seem derogatory to many chatters. Also, there are a growing
number of chatters who just go into rooms to annoy other chatters. These
people will pick someone out of the crowd at random and start insulting them
for no apparent reason other than to make themselves look "cool" and to pretend
they know everything. Whether you purposely or inadvertently make some chatter
irritable, you will need to know how to defend your comments or yourself
against such people and how to get back at them.
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Most cyber fights consist of insulting the other
person. How you insult them and how you time the insult is critical in
embarrassing the other person. First, we will talk about how to defend yourself.
Firing back is the normal thing to do, but not always. The best defense is
to ignore the offending chatter. Usually this will prompt them to continue
ranting on about how much of a weenie you are for not fighting back. But
believe me, it is an effective way to deal with insulting people. Try the
/ignore nickname command and see if it works. If it gets really bad,
the chat room operator will either kick someone out of the room with a warning
or ban them completely.
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If you are just dealing with someone who is in
disagreement over a comment of yours, you can pretty much remedy the situation
very cleanly by being polite and ask them why they disagree. Now if you are
in the wrong over your comment, then be cordial and apologize about what
you said. These are two ways to effectively diffuse a potential "flame war"
between you and another or more chatters over something very trivial.
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To go on the offensive in a chat room is a little
bit different. You can use insults both as an offensive and defensive screen.
But pretty much it's more offensive than anything else. :) When dealing with
the perpetrator or perpetrators, it's a good thing to have a quick and reflexive
wit or a very good humorous mind. Spur of the moment humorous and embarrassing
insults will usually shut people up and other times it will just aggravate
them, making the whole situation even worse than before. Another thing to
watch is how they do their insults. Don't sink to their level if they use
a lot of profanity, very vulgar references, and mama jokes. By matching what
they type, you're saying to everyone else in the chat room that you are just
as rude, crude, and vile as they are and don't have much of an
imagination.
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By using humorous insults, people in the room will
start laughing at the intended victim, especially if the victim was being
obnoxious from the beginning. This tactic will also get chatters to back
you up against the offending chatter. If you have to get nasty with your
insults, get descriptive but don't use profane words if you can help it.
Believe me, I have gotten very graphic at times to where I pretty much grossed
the offenders out and they left me alone after that. And it definitely got
some good laughs. :) And there have been times where I saw some chatters
defending themselves who went too graphic to the point where it severely
embarrassed the offender or offenders and were left alone after that. There
are two more things to keep in mind. One is that if you have a lot of online
friends, reinforcements in flame wars or cyber-fights really help, especially
if they know you personally, online or in real life. And two, try to keep
cyber fights and flame wars from spilling into email. Things can get nasty
when email gets involved, like floods and email bombs. If email does become
involved, just be careful of what you do.
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5. Dealing with
cybersex
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Another problem encountered in many chat rooms
and it happens to be a rampant thing these days, is cybersex. This really
is just two or more people typing in their fantasies of what they're going
to do to the other person. It's a very simple but offending concept in most
chat circles. Also, it's growing in popularity as an alternative to safe
sex.
-
There are a several ways to deal with someone who
is trying to get you to have cyber sex with them. One, a plain and simple
no will suffice and a minor threat following helps. Two, reporting the little
pervert to the chat room operator is the best way to get them kicked out.
Three, you can mess with their minds by acting like you want to engage in
the act and then start saying some funny stuff that will embarrass them.
If you can totally make fun of them for doing this and turning their keyboard
fantasy into a complete farce, it is well worth the laugh.
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6. Terrorizing people on
purpose
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As previously mentioned, someone might come in
and start insulting people left and right, making crude remarks every which
way. This is definitely not the right way to make online friends.
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If you just happen to be in the mood to be an obnoxious
chatter and want to terrorize this chat room, remember the chat room operator
will kick you out and ban your name and ban your IP forever.
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7. Common courtesies
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There are common courtesies to follow when in chat.
Following them is to be cordial, polite, and a nice person. Some of those
courtesies are as follows. One, be kind to chat room newcomers. These people
usually are not sure what to do and will be a bit unsure of what to say.
Be friendly and welcome them into the chat room. Two, do not abuse your power
if you are a chat room operator or a very well known regular. Just because
you may know more than the others in the chat gives you no right to lord
your intelligence or popularity over everyone else's heads. And three, try
not to take up a lot of space for posting your messages. A lot of chatters
do not like scrolling down a lot just to see a few messages after yours.
If you do have to type a long message to another person, either send it privately
or chop it up into bits. If you have a really long story to tell, save it
for the
Pizza-drivers
email list. You have to be respectful of other chatters if you frequent a
chat room regularly.
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8. Final notes
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Chats are fun to be in, especially if they involve
a special topic you're interested in or you're just looking for a nice
conversation without all the in-your-face hassle. Just remember how to behave
yourself while in them and you will do just nicely. Many people who have
not behaved themselves have had other chatters gang up on them like ravenous
piranha and deal with them appropriately. Just remember to have fun, enjoy
the discussions, and watch out for them 'dar typos!!'
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"Chat Etiquette: The Do's and Don'ts of Online
Conversation" version 2.1
http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Breakers/5257/Chatet.htm
1998.
Last updated: August 30, 2002
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