Chatting
Information
Information
for use while in the Yahoo AKODs chatroom
So,
you want to use our chatroom!
We're
so happy you want to join us! Here are some guidelines to use and
consider while chatting:
-
Regular
chats are Thursday at 9:00pm (eastern time) until ???
Sometimes the chats can last (with people
leaving and others coming in) until 1 or 2 AM eastern. Sometimes
they are over in an hour. It all depends on who's around, how many
new people we are meeting, who wants to talk about what, and everyone's
general mood. If we're all "up" then a chat will last longer.
If everyone's "contemplative" we tend to sack out early!
-
We
are AKOD's, not mindreaders.
A lot of us go in the chatroom to blow off steam. We're stressed
from work, parents, spouses, and sometimes we want to vent and sometimes
we want to relax and have a good laugh.
But sometimes people come in and want other things from chatting.
They want a sounding board. They need someone to listen. And
that is absolutely ok!
Sometimes the rest of us get so caught up in our good time, people get
shuffled to the side, unintentionally. If you want to talk about
something, SPEAK UP!
The only way we can know you have something to talk about is if you say
"Hey! Guys! I have a problem."
The word "problem" strikes instant silence in the chat room. AKODs
seem mentally trained to recognize that word and instantly comprehendthat
we are the ones to solve everyone's problems! We've solved the problems
of animal abuse, political injustice, prejudice, and school issues in our
spare time, and loads of AKOD problems as our primary goal, so please just
tell us you're hurting and need to talk!
And when you have our attention, TALK! It hurts, but it is the only
way to get it out and get new perspectives. While we're all AKODs,
our stories are all vastly different and we all have our takes on various
situations!
-
Coming
in to the chatroom for the first time, everyone is chatting and you don't
know anyone!
Believe it or not, we were all once as you are now! We didn't know
each other. The only way we got to know each other was to go in there,
time after time and talk, discovering common bonds, debating over differences,
laughing and telling jokes, crying and whining, and just discussing whatever
topics we fell into. It continues to this day. We still don't
know everything about each other! When you come in, we get to talk
about ourselves, talk about you, and you add a little something new to
our mix! So yes, we will laugh and joke and pal around and you may
think we don't even know we know you're there! A simple "Hi!" will
wake us up if your name and the yahoo prompt doesn't do the job!
And trust us, visit the chat room once, and you're in for life!
A Brief
Run-down of the Chatroom Functions
Visiting the chatroom for the first time can be a bit tricky. You
don't know all the features. You don't know who's in the room or
where to look for anything. Here is how it works!
Like everything else about the club, the chatroom runs on Frames.
I personally hate frames, and if you simply hit the chat button in the
main page, the 2 frames of the chatroom will show up in the 2 frames of
the main club page and you'll be looking at 4 frames total. Eyes
getting buggy yet?
Here is a quick tip to eliminate your frames by 50%. But your arrow
on the word chat and RIGHT click with your mouse instead of left clicking.
A menu bar will pop up. Scan through the menu bar and click on "Open
Link in New Window." The chat room will pop up in a second browser
window and you'll have the full screen to devote to it.
As for the rest of the chat frame, it goes a little something like this:
-
The
largest frame you will encounter is a display. This will tell you
who is saying what, which of the people from your Yahoo Pager/Messenger
friends list are on line, if you have yahoo mail, and when people enter
and leave, go on or off line. This is the frame you will spend 95%
of your time looking at!
-
Directly
beneath this frame there is a bar which has a place for you to change
colors, change to bold, italics, underline, and which has something called
"emotions." Pressing the emotions button pops up a new window.
This window is a list of emotions and actions you can choose to portray
within the room, including hug, faint, groan, scream, and blush.
By double clicking on any of these emotions, your emotion will pop up with
your name in the main screen. There is also an "Emote User" button
on this new window, which I will explain in a minute!
-
Beneath
these buttons is a long skinny box with a "send" button on its right.
This is where you type in your message to send to other chatters.
If you choose an option from the bar (see previous bullet point) it will
display that option in the box, but will not show the commands when you
type. For example, let's say you choose to chat in bold font with
blue ink. The commands <bold> and <blue> will appear in the
box, but when you actually hit enter, all we will see is your message displayed
in bold blue ink. If you delete the commands, your message will appear
in basic black.
-
The
skinny frame on the right hand side of the screen contains a list of people
who are currently in the chatroom. Let's say you enter the chat room
and no one else is in there. In that frame you will see your username
"JoeSchmoe." Then, your buddy comes in and in the frame you now see
"JoeSchmoe" and "PhilHills." Then another pal comes in and you see
in the frame "JoeSchmoe" "PhilHills" and "PamSpam." But Phil's mom
calls, and he has to go, so he leaves. You'll now see in the frame
"JoeSchmoe" and "PamSpam." By right
clicking on a person's name in that frame, a new menu will pop up, and
you can view their profile, ignore them, or send them a private message.
-
Now
back to "emote user." Remember that from above? If you left
click once on a name in the right hand frame,
and click on "emotions," select an emotion, and click emote user, you will
send the action or emotion to the person you clicked on. Ready for
an example? Let's say you and PamSpam are back in the chatroom, and
you want to give PamSpam a hug because she's having a rough day.
Click on her name once with your left mouse button in the right hand frame.
Click on the "emotions" button and click one time on "hug." Then,
click on "Emote User" once, and on your screen you will see "JoeSchmoe
gives PamSpam a big hug." You may have to practice this to get it
down, but it's probably a lot easier than I'm making it out to be!
And that is it! Unless you are still confused, you are now ready
to use the chatroom! If you are still confused, please email
me! Hope to see you in there!
Press the "back" button to go back from whence you came.
Click here
to go to the club.
Click here to visit Sue's main page.
