-
The Chatbox
The Chatbox
The chatbox has once again gone through a massive update. There are a lot of new features, so it would be in your best interest to start here, and read as up.
Note: the user's color to the left of the post is defined by the user group. See this post for details.
Troubleshooting: If the Chatbox isn't seeming to refresh
If the text has all gone gray, you were logged out of the chatbox for inactivity (more details below).
If it just seems to be not doing anything, however, a request for the chatbox might have timed out. Which sucks. You can either refresh the page, or click the name of the room you are in. You will see a small red animated square to let you know when it is trying to refresh the messages.
If you remain in the chatbox for 5 minutes without activity, you will automatically be logged out of the chatbox. You can easily tell when this happens, as all the text in the chatbox will go gray. This is easily fixable. The green icon above will turn to the white icon when you are logged out. It is located to the left of where you input text. If you click the white icon, you will be logged back into the chatbox without having to refresh the page.
Changing Rooms
In the upper portion of the chatbox you will see multiple rooms listed. The default set contains 'The Lounge' which is for general discussion and community building. Spoilers are not allowed in this room. The 'VIP Room' allows you discuss any spoilers and have in depth discussion, without having to fully prepare something to post.
Currently, there is also a chat room for the staff of the site, which is only available to certain user groups, which is designed to have conversations about the upkeep / moderation of the site.
Background Notifications From Other Rooms
Rather than have you keeping multiple tabs open just so you can be in multiple rooms at once, a system was built to check the rooms that you are not in. These checks happen once a minute, and you can see when they happen by looking for the refreshing icon next to the other room's name. If there are new messages they will appear in a small red bubble next to the room name. It will clear the notifications if you visit the room.
Targeted Comments
Every message you submit to the chatbox can be "targeted" to a specific individual. This will allow that person to see your response with a black background to stand out. This helps in chaotic chats with many people. To "target" someone, just type their name exactly as is preceded with an '@' symbol. You are allowed to target multiple people in a single response.
Don't like to type? Hate users with long names, so you just don't target to them?
We've got you covered. Just click their user name in they chat window. It will autofill in their username into the chat input! If you still want to visit their profile like you use to be able to, just double click on their name!
Also, you will see a subtle arrow next to every post you make, and a harsh white arrow pointing the opposite direction when you have a response targeted at you.
Font Size
Is the font in the window too tiny to read? Is it way too large? You can correct that by clicking the - or + next to the AA in the to the right of your text input!
Unfocused Window Notifications
Now, if you open another window or tab, but leave a page with the chatbox open, it will let you know of new messages in the background. If you have the audible notifications enabled (see below) you will hear the pop noise ONLY when your window doesn't have focus. Also, it will now flash 'New Chat Message' in the title bar of your window or tab until that window or tab has retained focus once more
This is that popping noise you've probably heard by now. If you don't like it, you can disable it easily! Just click the mute button to the right of where you input text into the chat box. (People who use Internet Explorer may not hear this. Yay, bugs!)
Full size window / popup
This is very easy to get to, by clicking the 'maximize' button in the upper right of the chatbox.
Changing your font color
You might have noticed people typing in other colors than the default sea green. You can do this by clicking on the colored box just left of the Bold button, and then selecting the color you desire to type with.
BBCode in the ChatBox
Certain BBCodes are allowed in the chatbox. [B], [I], [U], [URL]. As well as any smilies. Certain other ones are still active (not necessarily disallowed), but many are disabled. Basically, if people abuse something, it's more likely to get turned off. Speaking of which...
Policies
Any of the normal forum rules apply to the chatbox as well. Final judgement calls are up to the staff. The staff can give you a temporary ban from the chatbox, a permanent ban from the chatbox, a temporary ban from the site, or a permanent ban from the site. If you feel any of these are in error, feel free to PM me, or email me: jobeis [at] gmail.com.
Certain rooms may be restrictive in the content that they allow in that chatbox room. The Lounge does NOT allow spoilers, whereas the VIP Room is designed specifically, so you can discuss anything you'd like.
Followup
If you have any questions, or anything I should add to this just let me know in response!
