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Chat Help
This page provides a brief summary of many of the features that you have access to in our Chat.
To communicate in the chat room, type into the text box towards the bottom of the chat applet and press Enter or click the Send button to send your message. Your message will appear in the chat box above. Others may then read what you have typed and respond to you.
Above the text box are a row of buttons which provide access to various chat room features:
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Color Button Allows you to change your current text color.
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Bold Font Allows you to type in bold text. (Press to turn on and again to turn off.)
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Italic Font Allows you to type in italic text. (Press to turn on and again to turn off.)
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Underlined Font Allows you to underline text. (Press to turn on and again to turn off.)
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Audio Emoticons Button Allows you to select an audio emoticon from the popup window.
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Avatar Button Allows you to select an avatar from the popup window.
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Font Zoom In Button Allows you to increase the current font size.
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Font Zoom Out Button Allows you to decrease the current font size.
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Clear Screen Allows you to clear the contents of the chat screen.
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Audio Button Allows you to enable or disable audio within the chat room.
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Float/Dock Button Allows you to float or dock the chat room.
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Logout Button Logs you out of the chat room.
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Help Button Allows you access to this chat help page.
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Private Messages
You may initiate a private message session with another user by double clicking on his/her name in the User's List. Once doing so, a popup window will appear for you to communicate with the other user privately. To close a private message session, simply click the X in the upper-right hand portion of the window.
Our Chat allows you to open multiple private chat windows simultaneously and you may initiate a private message session with anyone currently logged into the chat, even if they are in a different public room than you are.
Online/Away Status
You may indicate whether you are available for chat or temporarily away by using the drop-down menu above the User's List.
Selecting "Away" places a small hourglass icon ( ) next to your name so other chatters are aware of your status. Selecting "Online" removes the hourglass.
Regardless of your chosen status, you will be automatically logged out of the chat room after 30 minutes of inactivity.
Ignore User
If a fellow chatter is in some way disturbing you, you can ignore them by right clicking their name in the User's List and selecting "Ignore". Any posts from that user (in public or private chat) will now be invisible to you.
To stop ignoring an individual chatter, right click their name again and un-check Ignore and you will once again be able to view their posts.
Graphic Emoticons
Emoticons are textual representations of emotions. Certain text emoticons are recognized by our Chat and will automatically be translated into their graphic counterpart.
A list of the presently recognized graphic emoticons can be found here. Simply type in the text you see in the second column of the listing and the graphic will appear in the chat room.
You will also find a clickable list of the graphic emoticons by right clicking your mouse in the area where you type to chat.
Audio Emoticons
Audio Emoticons work similar to graphic emoticons except instead of displaying an image they play a sound for all to hear. You can turn the audio off/on by right clicking anywhere in the chat area and selecting (or de-selecting) Audio.
You will find a clickable list of the audio emoticons available by clicking the Audio Emoticons button or right clicking your mouse in the area where you type to chat.
Acronyms
Acronyms are abbreviations often used in chat to represent common phrases quickly.
Here is a list of some of the more common acronyms:
| AFK |
away from keyboard |
| ASL |
age, sex, location |
| BBL |
be back later |
| BRB |
be right back |
| BTW |
by the way |
| CYA |
see ya |
| G2G |
got to go |
| IMHO |
in my humble opinion |
| JK |
just kidding |
| LMAO |
laughing my a** off |
| LOL |
laughing out loud |
| LTNS |
long time no see |
| OMG |
oh my god/gosh/goodness |
| ROTFL |
rolling on the floor laughing |
| TY |
thank you |
| WB |
welcome back |
| YW |
you're welcome |
Font Size
You may change the size of your font by right clicking on the content area (the area where messages are displayed) and a small menu will appear. Select "Font Size" to show the font selections - available options are Very Small, Small, Medium, Large, and Very Large. After a font selection is made, the content area is reset.
You can also use the Font Zoom In and Font Zoom Out buttons to adjust the text size.
Text Color
You may change the color of your text by clicking on the Colors button located below the main chat area. After clicking on "Colors", a popup window will appear allowing you to select a color then click "Ok".
Commands
Our Chat recognizes various commands. Below is a partial list of commands presently recognized. You will notice that these commands are IRC-like in nature. Macros allow you to quickly perform some of these functions by reducing keystrokes.
Do not use brackets. Brackets are shown for demonstration purposes only.
| /a | Macro for /action |
| /action [verb/action] | Perform an action |
| /clign | Clear Ignore List |
| /cls | Clear Screen |
| /create [subroom] | Create Public Subroom |
| /create [subroom] [password] | Create Private Subroom |
| /i | Macro for /ignore |
| /ignore | Show Ignore List |
| /ignore [username] | Ignore User |
| /join [subroom] [password] | Join Subroom |
| /listen [username] | Do not Ignore User |
| /m | Macro for /msg |
| /mm | Macro for /mmsg |
| /msg [username] [message] | Send Private Message |
| /p | Macro for /msg |
| /whereis [username] | What Room is [username] in? |
| /whoami | Who Are You? |
URL Addresses
URL's, such as http://www.vppolitics.com may be entered into the chat at any time to share with others. Once a URL is sent to the chat room, it automatically becomes a link that will open in a new browser window when clicked.
Temporary Chat Rooms
In addition to our permanent chat room, users may create their own temporary rooms. You may create a public room or password protect it to accomodate privacy. There is no limit to the amount of rooms that may be created, however rooms are automatically removed when they are empty.
To create a new room, simply click the "Add a Room" button ( ) below the User's List. Once you have created your room, you will automatically be placed in it. If you password protected your room, all users wishing to visit will be required to enter the password you have chosen.
Float & Dock
Click the Float/Dock button to remove the chat room from the browser page and resize it to your liking. When you wish to return the chat room to its page, simply click the Float/Dock button again.
Chat Name Registration
To register your chat name, click the "Register a Username" link on the Login Page and complete the form. There is no guarantee you will get the registered name you request and VPPolitics reserves the right to deny name registration to anyone.
A note about registered names: Once you have registered your name, you "own" that sequence of letters so you may capitalize all, some or none of the letters when logging into the chat. No one else can register the same sequence of letters by simply capitalizing the name or typing it in lower case.
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Political Chat