Live Chat Help

I decided to re-publish this information but it is available for download in Word format (from memory) in Downloads. Usually there’s people online during the working day as well as after 9pm.

There’s a lot here that relates to the web forums as well. If anyone fancies a yap then this hopefully explains how.

Java IRC Help For Nixhelp

There has been several requests for basic IRC help so I’ll have a stab at the basics on how to use it, but the best way is through use of it.

There are some really basic things you need to know so that the new environment is not too confusing and you can understand just what is going on in the room. One of those is the basic commands and what they do.

Any command line will start with “/” and then the command, for example the line:

/msg Lynchpin hello

Would send a private message to me (or the other user you name) for the purpose of this document the commands will be given like this:

/msg [text]

So, on to the basic command list and what they do…

Commands

/msg [text]

This will, when the other person responds open a private conversation between you and the party you messaged, this is a private conversation and no-one else can enter that private chat room.

/join

This is a simple command that allows you to join a channel, the channel name is always preceded by a “#” so the Whitegoods channel is therefore “#whitegoods” and the command to join the channel is “/join #whitegoods”

If you wish to have a conversation in your own channel with several people simply type this with a channel name of your own and it will be created, you can then ask others to join your new chat room and several people can be in there at once. This is done automatically when the channel name does not exist.

/quit

Quits all channels and leaves all rooms that you are in.

/leave

Will quit that one channel or conversation you are in where you type it.

/invite [channel]

Invites the specified user to the channel you define.

General Use Emotions & Actions

/me [text]

Is an action and would be displayed on screen and your username or nick performing an action, for example: “*Lynchpin goes for coffee” is how you would see it.

Emoticons

Emoticons are really the next thing and there are literally scores of them, but the common ones in use are as follows:

😮 – colon/lower case “o” – surprise
🙂 – colon/end bracket – smile
😀 – colon/uppercase “D” – grin
:@ – colon/@ – angry
:/ – colon/forward “/” – frown
🙁 – colon/start bracket – sad
😛 – colon/uppercase “P” – tongue hanging out

Those are just a few of the vast range of emoticons out there, a simple Google search will produce loads of pages listing, in some cases, upwards of a hundred of them. Many are easy to work out and some are not, if you don’t know then simply ask as most people on IRC are more than willing to offer help.

Abbreviations

There are loads of these too, but the common ones are:

IIRC – If I remember correctly
ATEOTD – At the end of the day
LOL – Laughed out loud
LMAO – Laughing my ass off (also LMFAO, with F**king inserted
ROFLMAO – Rolling on the floor laughing my ass off (also ROTFLMFAO)
OTOH – On the other hand
STFU – Shut the f*** up
RTFM – Read the f***ing manual
AIUI – As I understand it
IYSWIM – If you see what I mean
SWMBO – She who must be obeyed
BTW – By the way
HTH – Hope that helps
OMG – Oh my God

Any questions feel free to ask.

To use the Java applet used on the site you will need Java installed which is available from http://www.java.com, you want the one for Windows as if you’re using another OS you should know what you’re about anyways. 😉

Some firewalls may block the applet, but most people should not have a problem using this feature.

TIP: if you want to continue browsing whilst chatting then “right click” with the mouse on “Live Chat” and select “Open In New Window”, this will open that link in a new window allowing you to carry on what you were doing in the original window.

K.