Revision as of 09:43, 3 December 2005

Getting Started

Start Chating 

Go to the EB Chat Page. If you are logged into EB, you will automatically be assigned you EB user id.

Entering/Quiting Room

Entering Room 

Log in first as user or guest, and wait until all rooms list loaded. Move your mouse over rooms and you will see them be highlighted one by one. Stop when you find a room you want to chat in. Click to enter. Every room has user limit. If a room is full for the time being, you will be told to come around later. When you enter a room, a default host (robot) of system may notify all that you have come in.

Quiting Room 

When you finish chatting, or when you want to quit one room to enter another room, you can click the top button "exit room" to quit current room. If you choose closing browser, you will close this chat client for all. If you just click "quit", you will return to the room list and you can enter another room.

Chatting

General

Sending messages 

After selecting a room to enter, you can type a message in the input field near the bottom of the screen to chat and hit "enter" on keyboard or the button "send" to send the message out. Your message appears on the chat screen followed your nickname. Press ctrl+"enter" or cliking "Newline" button to start a new line.

Idle status /typing status 

After a duration of time when a user remain silence both in public and in private window if any, his/her status will be automatically changed to "idle". The time length is defined by administrator. When idle user begin talks, the idle status disappear automatically. When user begins to talk , whether in public or in private window, the speaker and other people in the same chatroom will see a "typing" status after his or her name, when speaker clicks "send" button, the "typing" status disappear automatically.

Interval between two utterances 

Please wait a while before sending another message. This pause is for preventing flooding on screen. This value is defined by administrator and the default value is one second.

Change Nickname 

After logged in, your name will appear at the middle-top behind a small figure icon. If the icon is not clickable, that means admin has disabled "change nickname" function. If there's a small arrow behind the icon , click the icon to activate a "change nickname" panel. Enter any nickname you prefer. If this name is taken, please enter another nickname. Nickname is different from username. Username is the name you entered when registering, you'd better remember it with your password. Nickname is the display name you used to chat, it's more flexible. For example, you can set it to be "someone- having lunch now".

Ignore 

If there is any repulsive chatter in the room, simply select his username in the user-list and click "Ignore" from the popup menu. From then on, every message the chatter posts to you, whether private or public, will not appear on your screen. When you changed your mind, you can re-select this user and "Cancel ignore" to give this user the second chance to talk to you. If you continued to post message to someone but got no response, you probably is ignored by him or her, that means you'd better watch out your behaviour or words.

Action New! 

The "/me" command is used to describe an action. Your nickname will automatically be inserted and the text will appear differently than normal channel messages. This command can be used in chat lobby or private messages. For example: "/me waves goodbye." then it will display on the screen:"<someone> waves goodbye." The "/me" command has to be at the beginning of a sentence to be effective.

IRC Commands

IRC commands must be at the beginning of a sentence to be effective. They are used to control the interface.

Getting Help

/help 

Shows a list of IRC commands.

User Commands

Announcing availability

/away 

Sets user as away. Typing this command again sets user as "here".

/here 

Sets user as here. This reverses the "away" and "busy" states.

/busy 

Sets user as busy. Typing this command again sets user as "here".

Managing messages

/back <number> 

Shows the last <number> of entries of the rooms chat.

/backtime <minutes> 

Shows the last <minutes> of the rooms chat.

/clear 

Clears the chat screen. This only affects your screen, not the screen of other users.

/me <action> 

Issues an IRC-like "action" to the chat.

/msg <user> <message> 

Initiates a PM with <user> and fills PM box with optional <message>.

/query <user> 

Initiates a PM with <user>

Accessing rooms

/join <room> 

Switches the user to <room>. For example: "/join The Lounge"

/part 

Logout of the chat.

/quit 

Logout of the chat.

/logout 

Logout of the chat.

Managing users

/ignore <user> 

Ignores PMs from <user>.

/invite <user> 

Invites <user> to the room that you are currently in.

/names 

Shows a list of all user names in all public rooms

/showignores 

Shows a list of users ignored by you and which other users are ignoring you.

/sos <message> 

Alerts moderator in current room or all moderators. <message> is optional.

/unignore <user> <message> 

Removes your ignore of <user> : with optional <message> to user.

/who <user> 

Profile page popup for <user>. If you are <user> login information is added.

/whois <user> 

Profile page popup for <user> where <user> must be logged in to the chat.

/whowas <user> 

Profile page popup for any registered <user>.

Other

/motd 

Displays the Message of the Day.

/topic 

Shows the topic or welcome message for the room you are in, if any.

/version 

Shows which version of the chat you are using.

/welcome 

Same as /topic.