[Imagine Chat]

Entering The Rooms: When you arrive at the opening page to a room, it's very important to read the room description, layout information and rule information. Though Imagine Chat has set universal rules, each site and indeed each room may have its own guidelines for play within. Please use this to make an initial judgement about whether this room is right for you.

Below is a sample of the type of "Entrance" you will find:

1-Screen Name: The name of your character. Common HTML commands such as <img src> can be placed here.

2- Says: This indicates the first post you will make in the room. Common HTML commands are also recognized here.

3- Disable all Pictures: If this is checked, you will not see any images posted in the room. This is recommended to help the room move more quickly for you. It is also a good precaution to keep you safe from hackers who may be able to obtain information about you.

4- Enter: *grin* When you've finished your above settings, you're ready to go in.....after you fill in this pop-up:

If you are a member, you would fill in your username and password here, otherwise, any combination would do.

Inside The Rooms:

Below is what the top frame of the chatroom looks like once you're inside the rooms:

(From left to right)

1- "Calista Archambeault" - This displays your chat name as it appears on the who chat and on the pulldowns.

2-says to- That is showing the "default" drop down. Below this, there are different locations. In order to participate in role-play in this room you must "role play" your way to where other people are or at least put yourself in a public area where others can get to you.

The Settings:

Probably one of the trickier parts of ImagineChat initially - especially for those used to normal chatrooms- are the layouts of the ImagineChat rooms.

Many are set up to encompass whole cities or camps or regions. In the top frame of the inside of the chatroom ((see above illustration)) there are two drop down boxes. The first is for 'location' (This is used for "says to", "kisses", etc- emotes in 'regular' chat rooms.) and by using the location, when you post a message to the room, it also posts where you are in the city/camp/etc. Each room that is set up like this usually has a link on the entrance called "Chat Room Layout" which will provide a list of what the drop downs say, often with maps and pictures of the area.

Keep in mind too, that there may be more to going into a camp or city than just entering the room and plopping onself down by someone's fireside....you're entering a home. How many families do you know let you waltz right in their front doors?

3- ALL- This is showing the "default" as well. Below this are listed the names of the characters playing in this room. Some people use "Ghost Codes" which make their posts appear to be coming from a person other than what is listed on the drop downs. This can be done in one of two ways. The most common method is for them to use very tiny black font above their actual name. For example:

The character "Calista" is what you see in the room, but if you highlight the name, the picture and the line above it, you see that the first value for her name is listed as "----Blossom of the Plains----" and that is the name in this drop down that you would use to address your posts to her.

4- Message- This is the message field. This is where you type in what you want your character to say. Common HTML commands such as <img src> <center> etc are accepted in this field. You must hit "submit" to post your message.

5- Leave- This button removes you from the chat room. Helpful to use instead of just closing the screen so that others can know that you've gone. When you "X" out of a room, your name will remain for several minutes.

6- Reload- use this button sparingly. It will "refresh" the room for you. ((Do not use the refresh button on your browser.)) Sometimes when a room is crowded or your internet connection is very slow, it could take several seconds for your posts to go through. The times to use reload are when A) you've not seen a post in several minutes and making a 'test' post does not help. b) your browser has stopped cycling and the room has frozen on you.

7- FullConfig- Probably one of the most useful tools in the chat programming. Clicking on this takes you to a page that looks like this:

Most of the options on this page are self explanatory and just a repeat of the options on the entrance page. The "Ignore the following people:" option is very handy and recommended for troublesome situations. To select more than one person on this list, hold your CTRL button down and click on the people you want to ignore. Then hit "reload". When you return to the chat room, those people's posts will not show on your computer.Note: If you are not a moderator, the "enable moderator interface" will not work.

8- Quick Config- Will open a page in the upper frame only that looks like this:

These functions are identical to the ones in Full Config, but you can still see the room in the frame below.

9- "Auto Scroll" - This makes all the posts scroll by automatically and when things are busy, you may miss posts because of this. Unchecking it will mean you have to manually scroll down the page as each posts loads and you'll find it easier to catch what is happening.

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