Join Our Chat

[NightStorm]

Hello everyone at Killanet! Welcome to "Chat 101". I am your teacher today, g0d (aka NightStorm). Let us get right down to the basics, shall we?
http://www.killanet.net/chat/index.html is the link to our brand new Webchat. I'd like to give a small shout-out to "Bench" from koach.com, who designed this webchat to be run quite nicely without the need for such add-ons as java, ActiveX, or even CGI. His homepage is ChatCore.com if you wish to register and set up your own webchat. It really works well, and one of the Killanet Chat Network Staff would be more than willing to help you in setting up a chatroom here with us, should you be interested.
Next, I will walk you through a few options that are available from the main page of our chat.

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In the top box, you will place your desired nickname. This is the name that everyone else in chat will see when you join the room, and when you talk. Due to restrictions with the server software we use and the limits that I have used when installing the Chat Server, your nickname cannot begin with a number, and cannot be longer than 30 letters long. Other than that, the only other restriction is that you must use alpha-numeric, and your nickname must be "G" rated (sorry, but it's an all-ages room, and we have to respect that).
The next box, "Password", is an optional field. You would only put something in this box if you plan to register your nickname (I'll get to that later), or identify to our network as being the actual owner of the nickname you are using (also explained later). If you do not plan to utilize either of those features, you can leave the box empty.
Our third box, "E-mail", is only used if you are registering your chat nickname. We assure you that the email address is secure, and we do not sell it to any Viagra spammers... unless they promise us REAL good money (kidding!). You don't have to put anything in here if you aren't registering though, so feel free to skip it.
There is also a little white box, and "Register my nickname as well as connect me" at the bottom. If you plan to register your nickname, put a tick inside this box.
Lastly, click on "Login", and you are good to go. The first time you connect to the chat, it may take a few seconds to go through the initial communication process with the server, so be patient while it runs its course.

Now. What is "Registering your nickname", right? Well, in simple terms, it's a way to secure your nickname on our chat network, so as to avoid anyone else coming in "as you" and causing trouble. When you register your nickname, you provide a secure password that only you know. From that point on, every time you connect, you will provide that password to our services proving that you are really you, and it will help us to filter out the "fakes". If you do register your nickname, PLEASE use a valid email address... because if you ever forget your password, that's where we will be sending it to.

So now you're in our room and see us all chatting away and want to join in... enter a "super short" how-to on the functions of the actual chat.

To talk to us, there is a small bar at the bottom of the page (labelled in the screenshot below). You simply type your message into this bar, and hit the "Enter" key on your keyboard. If you can't find the Enter key, then it might be time to pack up the computer and return to a pad of paper and a pen. <img src=\'http://www.killanet.net/forum3/public/s ... igwink.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\';)\' />
You may see some people performing "actions". It will appear to you as purple italicized text coming from the person (yours will look this way too, but it will have your nickname at the beginning instead of anyone else's). You can do this by typing /me before the action you plan on performing. For example:
/me jumps
will put this into the chat: NightStorm jumps
To be "Away", you have two choices... typing /away <reason>, or clicking on your nickname on the nicklist to the right, and selecting "Away". Pretty easy, right? So is "coming back". You just type /away again (this time without the reason), or click on your name again and select "online".
Want to whisper someone? What's a whisper, right? Well, it's a private message between you and that person, that no one else can see. Click on their name on the nicklist to the right, and at the bottom you will see three icons. The icon on the far right is for Whispering (the one with two people), and will open up a new window just for you and that person. Again, no one else but the person you selected will be able to see the text in your whisper.
Say you are being harassed or someone in the room is just being dumb and you don't want to see anything from them anymore. You have the option to ignore them. I highly suggest against doing this to any of the staff, as you may miss a critical warning if you can not actually see them talking. But anyway, to ignore the user, click on their name on the right, and at the bottom, click on the icon on the left (the person with a red circle).
You can change such things as your font colour and nickname by clicking on "Options" on the top right of the chat screen. This will load a new window, so you won't be bumped from the room.

To leave (why would you want to do that??), click on Logout.

If you have any other questions or problems, there is sure to be someone in the room who can help you. See you in chat!

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