Hi, I am Roni. I am new to the HQ and to any member oriented web sites. Most of all, I am fascinated with the chat rooms and forums where members get to communicate with each other. I read materials concerned about chatting and browsing etiquettes before I dared to enter the HQ's chat room.

You could imagine the surprise that I received when I finally entered the HQ's chat and forum. All the rules were broken and everybody is happy.

The traffic in the chat room is usually heavy. To lessen the traffic, chatters have been using the private message and personal chat/conference rooms. If you are not familiar with these methods then read on.

CHAT ROOM

Before anything else let us pay attention to the basic elements of the chat room.

1. MAIN. The main is the huge box where the messages are displayed.

2. NAMES. Chatters List. The area on the right side of the MAIN.

3. ROOM. The chat room names. These can be seen on the upper border of the MAIN. Usually there is only one ROOM, the LLL x. The LLL is the ROOM name and the red x is a clickable icon that is the same as typing /quit.

4. INPUT. This is the box below the MAIN box; it is preceded by your name.

5. OPTIONS. These are the icons below the INPUT box. If you put the cursor over any one of them, the name or option will be displayed. Click them to use them.

6. SMILEYS. This is the box below the OPTIONS box. If you click a smiley, a copy will appear in the INPUT box.

HOW TO START A PRIVATE MESSAGE.

1. Find the name of the person you want to chat with in the NAMES box.

2. Click it.

3. A dialogue box will open over the name you clicked. The upper half of the dialogue box will show a (red x) and the name you clicked. The lower half will show 'private message'.

4. If you inadvertently clicked the name of another person or changed your mind and want to cancel, click the red x.

5. If you want to continue with your request, click the 'private message'.

6. A new ROOM will be created to the right of the LLL room, and you will be automatically transferred there. The new ROOM will show the name you clicked followed by a red x.

7. Send a message and a new ROOM will appear on the screen of the person you requested. The new ROOM will show your name followed by a red x.

8. You can transfer from room to room by clicking the ROOM you want to chat in.

9. The person you requested may not notice the new ROOM, so make sure to call his/her attention by going to the LLL room and send the person a message about your pm. Make sure that you include his name in your message to avoid confusion. Most chatters notify the person before starting a private message.

10. Where ever ROOM you are in, the names of the persons available for you to chat with will be in the NAMES box.

HOW TO START A PERSONAL CHAT/CONFERENCE ROOM.

1. These are usually used by the action groups or by the clubs. Obviously to keep the discussions within the group or club private.

2. For illustration purposes wxyz will be used for the room name.

3. These rooms are started by typing /join wxyz, where wxyz is the name of the chat room to be created.

4. The name is case sensitive.

5. Anybody who types /join wxyz will be brought to the wxyz room.

6. The name of the room will be created and displayed on the ROOM line.

7. So care must be used in telling the members what chat room to use to avoid break-ins.

8. All the available chatters in the room will appear in the NAMES box.

9. That's all there is to it.

NOTE: a dialogue balloon precedes The ROOM names. If there is a person's head on the balloon like the one on the LLL room, it means that it is a private message room. If there is no person's head on the balloon, it means that it is a personal chat/conference room.

FORUM

When you enter the Forum, you will see to the right of your avatar/picture the option line:

“Show Latest Posts ! My Profile ! Logout”

If you click the 'Show Latest Posts' option, the latest Forum postings arranged from the latest to the earliest will be listed.

Obviously, this is a very useful tool especially for those who are regular visitors in the Forum.

Once you have chosen a topic, please note that the FireBoard line above your avatar/picture shows the following clickable items:

“Forum ! My Profile ! Threaded ! Help”

The third item, 'Threaded' can also be 'Flat'.

If the third item shows 'Threaded' it means that the postings below will be displayed in the 'Flat' format.

Conversely, if it shows 'Flat' the postings below will be displayed in the 'Threaded' format.

You can therefore change from 'Threaded' to 'Flat' by clicking on the third item.

The 'Flat' format will show the postings one after the other. That is good if the topic is not really a discussion topic and you would like to see all the postings for it.

The 'Threaded' format will show the posting of the original creator of the topic, or the posting that you previously clicked, followed by a tree-like presentation of the postings. The postings are shown as 1-liners displaying the Topic, Author and Date.

This is good if you are following a discussion thread especially if you are interested in reading the views of certain authors. If properly posted, you will see if there are responses to a particular posting and so on and so forth.

However, some postings are not properly posted that they look like they are replying to the previous post, whereas they are replying to the main topic and it is also true the other way around.

Note that at the lower right corner of each post, there is an option line:

'QUICK REPLY' ! 'REPLY' ! 'QUOTE'

Use these options to reply to the post you are reading.

'QUICK REPLY' gives you a dialogue box where you can post a reply without any bells or whistles.

'REPLY' gives you a dialogue box where you can reply with additional icons, images and files attached.

'QUOTE' is used by those who are more comfortable with the 'Flat' format. Here, a copy of the post being read will be displayed together with the reply.

If you want to post a reply to the main topic, you should scroll up or down to the bottom of the topic where you will see the following option line:

'NEW THREAD' ! 'REPLY TOPIC' ! 'SUBSCRIBE' ! 'FAVORITE'

'NEW THREAD' is used to start a new topic along the line of the selected thread.

'REPLY TOPIC' is used to reply to the main topic.

'SUBSCRIBE' is used if you want to be notified of new posts to the topic.

'FAVORITE' is used to mark the topic as 'Favoured'. Unfortunately, I don't know what will happen afterwards. He he he he.

I guess we have covered enough for now.

I will not take any responsibilities for any negative results that you may get after reading this article.

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Nonoisebarred 2009-02-12 05:40:18 Roni, Somebody has to do this, and you did. You are giving us and our guests a lot of favor by giving us the map. For people who are not in the know - it is easy to get lost, be overwhelmed and get turned off in a place unfamiliar like the HQ. This piece is like an orientation for people not in the know - and for those who they thought they know enough. HQ is becoming multi-faceted that even the regulars will have a hard time catching up. Roni, some minds like you just have to do some things that everybody needed, yet unaware that they actually have that need. People never knew before they need the virtual world, until some minds invented and introduced it, that changed the world forever. Thanks and I wish you well. ~ Jeques

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