Chat rooms are computer servers that allow you to log in and send messages to other people in "real time". They may have several hundred people connected at any one time, so to make it more manageable, visitors (or, as we call them..."chatters") are distributed amongst a series of "rooms", with each room typically having no more than 50 people in it. Once you have been allocated to a room, you may only 'chat' with the people in that room. You will see anything that they type, and they will see anything that YOU type. Typically, you can choose to change rooms at any time, and usually the rooms have names that suggest the sort of topic to be discussed there. Hence, if you wanted to discuss news and politics, you would normally be expected to try and join the rooms called "news", "politics", or whatever. This ensures that you can find like-minded people and have sensible 'conversations'.
The largest and most complicated chat system in Europe (and probably the world) is called Lycos Chat (formerly "worlds biggest chat", formerly Jubbichat) . This has some rather special features, which you can read about below
Most chat systems give you plain, unadorned white screens to 'chat' in, with a simple menu allowing you to switch to other rooms. Lycos, in contrast, is a very heavily 'themed' system, with lush graphics and a host of features and special effects. Some find that this makes it far more interesting, others consider that it is unecessary 'frippery', and it gets in the way of chatting rather than enhancing the experience. But then, there is no pleasing some people.
The Lycos Chat rooms are themed around a passenger liner. All of the terminology and graphics have a nautical feel. When you log in to Lycos, you are entering a 'Ship', which has 9 'decks', with each deck having between 6 and 20 (or more) individual rooms. Generaly, each 'deck' has its own broad theme... for example, one deck has rooms pertaining to dating or romance, another is predominantly for younger people, another is for general interests and hobbies, another is broken down into geographical area's (with a room for each major town or city) and so forth.
You can also create your own 'private' cabins, and invite other people into it - in effect creating your own temporary 'special-interest' rooms. There is an internal email system (shipmail), and each 'chatter' has their own 'home page' - an area where they can give information about themselves, invite others to leave comments in their 'logbooks', review various technical prefferences and settings, and much more..top of page
In addition to typeing text messages, Lycos also gives you a range of "smileys" - little graphics symbols that you can include in your messages to reinforce feelings, emotions or idea's. These start of very simple - little smiliing faces (or 'sad' faces), and build up to full-screen animations where you 'throw' a tomato (or a kitten) at another chatter ! This is a fairly common feature of chat rooms. Slightly more unusual are the "emotes" - preprepared little statements that you can trigger with a keyboard shortcut. The higher your 'rank', the more "emotes" you have access to.
Some emotes or features are only available through completing 'chatquests' - little missions or puzzles. New one's crop up from time to time, usualy when Lycos is advertising a new film or product. (one annoying feature is the pop-up adverts inside the chat screen - but you get used to ignoring these after a while). I guess this is the penalty for having a 'free' system.
One amusing feature is the 'profanity filter'. If you try and type in 'rude' words, these are automaticly translated into something silly. However, only the other chatters see the 'substituted' word: you see what you actually typed. This can be hilarious, as immature chatters start swearing and cursing, and wonder why everyone else in the room is falling around laughing at them !
There is also a range of special commands, allowing you to locate other chatters (if you know their names), send private messages, find out when someone was last logged in, or 'ignore' another chatter - more of this in the 'navigators' section below..... top of page
If someone is annoying you , you can issue the "ignore" command against them. They will disappear from your screen, and you will not see any of their messages. Similarly, the "ignored" chatter will not be able to see you, or detect your presence in any way. However, if someone is REALLY being naughty or disruptive, then its time to hit the F2 key and summon a Navigator.
The Navigators are volunteer chatters of long standing. They have to pass an exam, and are kept under constant peer review. (there are actually several ranks within the Navigator community - starting at Assistant and ending up at 1st Navigator - or even Helmsman) There is always at least one navigator on duty in the Embarkation lounge (where brand new chatters start), and various others wandering around the ship available to help. Their primary mission is to guide and advise new chatters - after all, the Lycos system can seem overwhelmingly complicated when you first encounter it, especially if you are used to more conventional chat systems.
However, if someone is being abusive, then the Navigators will mediate to calm things down. If someone is foolish enough to continue misbehaving, or to refuse a navigators requests to desist, then that individual will discover that Navigators have wide-ranging powers - including special "system" commands - to put an offender in quarentine or - if necessary - suspend/ban them from the system altogether. The navigators work to keep the chat rooms a safe, friendly place to be, especially for younger people, and by and large are very effective.
A Navigators role is time-consuming and occasionaly ardous, and they are not paid or recompensed in any way. Bizarely, competition to become a navigator is fierce, and the examinations/probationary period apparantly quite hard.... top of page