Welcome!
This help section should help answer some of the most frequently asked questions regarding the Chat Rooms at GoJasonville.com. If you do not find what you need in this document, please post your question on the discussion board. This document does not describe the basic usage of the chat room, however, because it is assumed that it's fairly obvious (answer: type a message and click send!).
Using & Configuring FlashChat
What IRC commands are available
for our Chat Rooms?
There are several command-line options that users and moderators
can use for advanced functionality. These options do not exist in the FlashChat
interface, but 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 |
| /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". |
| /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. |
| /me <action> | Issues an IRC-like "action" to the chat. "/me" will be changed to your user name, and the text in <action> will appear as a system message. For example: "/me is thinking" would translate to "Joe is thinking". |
| /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. |
| /version | Shows which version of the chat you are using. |
| /invite <user> | Invites "user" to the room that you are currently in. |
| /ignore <user> | Ignore "user". |
| /broadcast <msg> | Only available to moderators. This broadcasts a message to all users in all rooms. For example, "/broadcast Hello everyone!" |
| /kick <user> | Only available to moderators. This kicks "user" from the room. |
| /boot <user> | Same as /kick. |
| /ban <user> | Only available to moderators. Bans "user" from the chat. |
| /banip <user> | Only available to moderators. Bans the IP address of the user from all chat activity. |
| /gagX <user> | Only available to moderators. Gags the user for X minutes. For example, /gag5 joe. If the user's name has more than one word, then it must be enclosed with quotes. For example: /gag5 "Joe Shmoe" |
| /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. |
Does FlashChat connect to actual
IRC servers?
In this release version no, although this is a planned upgrade for a future
release. The ultimate goal of the Chat Rooms is to create a sort of "universal"
chat system, which would be able to connect to all known chat servers, including
desktop instant messaging programs like AIM, ICQ, and MSN Messenger. This is
an upgrade which is probably very far into the future, however.
The purpose of the IRC commands listed above is to make the use of Chat Rooms more familiar and intuitive for users who may be accustomed to IRC systems. Thus, many of the commands that you may already know can be used in this Chat Room.
How frequently does FlashChat
check the server for new messages?
By default, every 3 seconds. This is done to control bandwidth usage of our
servers.
How do I send a private message?
There are two ways to send a private message in the Chat Rooms. You can either
find the user's name in the room manager and click on the name, or you can type
"/username:" in the chat input box, followed by your message. The
recipient will be alerted of the private message, regardless of the room that
they are in. If you send a private message by clicking on a user's name in the
room list, then 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.
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. For example,
:red: is the code to display the blushing-face smilie.
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. The system will "time-out"
after some interval. Thus, 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.
Enjoy The Chat Rooms,
GoJasonville.com - Staff