Chat Room Help Section
If you have not read the Chat Room Guidelines, click here.
Accessing Chat Room Area
The Chat Rooms are available
24/7. Currently only registered users of the Caringonline Discussion
Board are able to use the Chat Rooms.
There are two ways to access the Chat Room Area:
1. Just below the section titled
DISCUSSION BOARD LINKS there is a link titled
FlashChat.
If you click on this link the Discussion Board will stay open and a
new browser will open for the Chat Room Area.
2. You may also open the Chat Room Area by going directly to:
http://www.caringonline.com/discussion/mods/flashChat/flashchat.php.
Chat Rooms are best viewed in Explorer 6.0+. We recommend that you save the
URL in your Favorites folder.
Once you log into the Chat Room Area, it takes a moment for the Chat Screen to open. Once in the Chat Room Area choose the Chat Room you want to visit.
Information on the Chat Screen Interface
Chat Rooms
On the top left side of the screen you
are able to choose which Chat Room that you want to be in. On the
top right side of the screen you will see a Room Manager with a
listing of rooms, how many people are in them. If you click on a
room you will see a drop down list of the users that are currently
in a room.
How do I send a private message?
Find
the user's name in the room manager on the top right and click on the name
and click Private message. The recipient will be alerted
of the private message, regardless of the room that they are in.
A small
private message window will be opened, which you can keep open indefinitely.
This is useful if you want to send multiple private messages to one person,
or if you want to engage in several private chats simultaneously.
Sending a message
You send a message by typing in the text field box that is
on the bottom right side of the screen, to the left of the Send
button.
How do
you insert text in bold or italic print?
There are 'B' or 'I' Icons
just above the message input field. Click either icon, type your
text and then click the icon again. Your text can be plain, bold,
and italic, all in one message.
How do you change text color?
You click on the right square between
options and Save. A color chart will open up. Click on the color you
want and then type your message. The text does not change color in
the text field, but will appear in the color you choose in the
message screen.
How do I use smilies?
You may send a smilie in one of two ways: select the smilie from the list of
available smilies, or type the smilie code into the chat input area.
Screen Options
How do I change the
background?
Click options and you can change the 'Theme' of the website and remove the
background if you like. You may have to change the color of your text.
How do I change the look of the buttons?
Click on options and change the 'Skins' type.
How do I turn off the sounds?
Go to options and choose the 'Sound' tab.
What is the sound "Pan" feature?
This option allows you to set the amount of sound coming from the right and
left speakers on your computer system.
Room Manager/User Options
On the right top side you will see the Room
Manager option and a listing of users. If you left click on a user, you will see
four options to connect with a user:
1. Private message a user.
2. Invite a user into the Chat Room that you are in
3. Ignore a user.
4. Read the Profile of a user
What IRC commands are available for
Chat Room?
If you don't know what IRC is,
then you probably don't need to read this.
There are several command-line options that users can use for advanced functionality.
They are available to you by typing them directly into the message
input box. These commands are "IRC-like" since they begin with the
backslash. The following table summaries these options:
| Command | Description |
| /back ## | Shows the last ## entries of the room's chat, including any chat text that was present before arrival to the room. |
| /backtime ## | Shows the last ## minutes of the room's chat, including any chat text that was present before arrival to the room. |
| /clear | Clears the chat screen. This only affects your screen, not the screen of other users. |
| /broadcast <msg> | Only available to moderators. This broadcasts a message to all users in all rooms. For example, "/broadcast Hello everyone!" |
| /alert <user> <msg> | Only available to moderators. Sends a popup alert to the user. If the user's name has more than one word, then it must be enclosed with quotes. |
| /roomalert <msg> | Same as /alert, but sends the message to all users in the room. |
| /chatalert <msg> | Same as /alert, but sends the message to all users in all rooms. |
Logging Out
How do I logout of the chat?
The best way to logout is to click on the "X" in the upper right corner of the
screen. However, if you simply close your web browser, then you will also be
logged out after a period of time. Users who close their web browsers to logout will still be visible to logged-in
users for a short period of time. However, clicking on "X" immediately
logs you out of the system.
