Welcome! If you are here, it means you are presently using (in our opinion) the web's finest, online chat service. This online chat program includes many features, such as multiple subrooms, customization, audio, emoticons, private messaging, profanity filtering, and many more! This page will provide a brief summary of many of the features that you presently have access to.

If you have come this far, it means you have already figured out how to log in. You may also have come to notice that your username may not contain spaces, or other special characters. Usernames, or aliases, or handles, or whatever you like to call them may contain only letters, numbers, and underscores. Usernames may be between two and fifteen characters long.

To communicate in the chat room, you merely need to type text into the little text box towards the bottom of the applet, and press Enter to send your message. Your message will appear in the main (larger) box above it when it is received by our server. Others may then read what you have typed, and respond to you. If you wish to grab another user's attention, simply type in their name somewhere within the message you are sending them. Their message will appear in a different color, and a sound will be played.

You will notice various buttons and checkboxes on the left hand side of the chat room. These allow you to logout, request help (as you have already figured out), float/dock the chat room, turn on/off audio, turn on/off the timestamp and turn on/off the autoscroll feature.

If you wish to exit the chat room at any time, simply click the Logout button. You may then log in again if you so choose.

URL's, such as http://www.kingofpopfanatics.com or www.kingofpopfanatics.com, or even mailto:chat@michaeljacksonkingofpop.com may be entered into the chat at any time to share with, and communicate to others. Once a URL is sent to the chat room, it is automatically added to the URL list at the bottom of the chat room. Any user who wishes to then visit that URL, simply needs to select it from the URL List.

The chat application you are using is capable of hosting multiple subrooms. Subrooms are shown in the list on the lower right hand side of the applet, just below the user list. Depending on how your chat room has been configured by it's owner, you may create, join, and leave subrooms. Subrooms may be password protected as well to accomodate privacy. There is no limit on the amount of subrooms that may be created, however; subrooms are automatically removed when they are empty.

Some systems may automatically place you in your own unique subroom. The subroom will have the same name as your username. Often times this is used for technical-support solutions.

To create a new subroom, type /create [subroom_name]. Subroom names are subject to the same limitations as usernames. They must be between 1 and 15 characters, and may not contain spaces. You will automatically be placed in a subroom that you create. If you wish to password protect the subroom you have created, type /create [subroom_name] [subroom_password]. All users wishing to join your subroom will be required to enter the password you have chosen. Passwords are subject to the same limitations as subroom names.

To leave a subroom, type /leave. You will then be brought back to the main chat room. If the subroom you leave is empty, it will be removed from the system.

To join an existing subroom, type /join [subroom_name]. If the subroom is password protected, you will need to supply the password (not neccesary for system operators) by typing: /join [subroom_name] [subroom_password].

All users within the entire chat are listed in the Main Room (which may have been renamed by your chat operator), however; when inside a room, only users within that room will be listed on the user list. To determine where another user is (what subroom he/she is in) simply double click on that users name in the user list, or type /whereis [username].

You may send private messages to multiple recipients by employing the use of the user list in combination with the /mmsg command. To do so, select the users you wish to send a private message to by clicking on their names on the user list. Each user's name will become highlighted. Then, in the input box, type /mmsg [message]. Each highlighted user will receive the private message. To send a private message to just one user, you can either use the /mmsg command, or you may use the /msg [username] [message] command.

Your chat room may have filters in place to ensure that certain words (such as profanity) are not allowed. You may receive a warning message such as "Please refrain from using profanity" if you use an illegal word in a chat room that censors profanity. If you receive this warning, you can easily go back and edit your message by using the Message Scrollback feature.

Autoscroll is the feature that ensures you are always looking at the most recent events in the chat room. Sometimes you may wish to look back upon previous messages entered into the chatroom. Without being annoyed by autoscroll, you can optionally turn on/off this feature by using the checkbox on the left hand side of the chat room.

You may turn the timestamp on by clicking the appropriate checkbox on the left hand side of the chat room. When this feature is turned on, all incoming messages will be displayed with the time that they were received. This time is relative to your own computer, and the timezone in which it resides.

Click the float button to load the chat room into a seperate window. This feature allows you to surf the web while you chat. When you wish to return the chatroom to it's home page, simply use the arrow buttons on your browser to return to the page from where you floated the chat room, then click "Dock"

Scrollback allows you to scroll back through the previous messages you have entered into the chatroom. To use this feature, simply press the Up and Down arrow buttons in the blue box where you type messages. Often times, we make typos, or we are censored by MichaelChat's profanity filtering. This feature makes it easy to simply go back and edit the message that you have just typed.

AOL Members: Some users have complained that the built-in AOL browser has difficulty connecting to our service, or does not load colors/emoticons properly. To resolve this, minimize your AOL connection, and use the Internet Explorer browser that came with your computer to access our chat room.

If you have forgotten your password, email MichaelTalk's Administrator with the following information: Your username, email address, first & last name. You must include all all of this information or we will not be able to send you your password. Please allow up to 24 hours for your password to be emailed to you.