Hello again!
We continue our discussions on one of the most talked about aspects of the Info Superhighway...
CHAT!
If you've been curious when paged to look who's talking now, read on...
As we last covered on the BBS side, you will find chat to be available dependent on the number of lines the BBS has. If it has 10 lines than that will allow for 10 simultaneous users online at the same time. If there is only one line, only one user can be on at a time. In the latter instance, the level of chat you would find would be at best, a conversation between you and the SysOp, the person running the BBS.
In this lesson we will look at the CHAT services available on the commercial online services. How does one know that he/she is being called upon for a Chat Session. Usually a message scrolls across on your screen indicating this such as...
***User LazyBoy (#6) would like to speak with you***
No what is important here, if you really want to speak with Lazyboy is finding out where the Chat Area is. So as you use an Commercial Online be aware of the Chat commands that are available to you. You will find more on the BBS side that you actually most move to the Chat Area on a multi-line BBS system to chat with others. (On single lines systems the SysOp will actually bring you there.) With the Commercial Online Services you will often find that you can type a command and respond directly back to the person calling you. Often that "#6", following Lazy Boy's name is his I.D. in which you can respond back to him. You may be able to type SEND 6 "LazyBoy How are you?" and he would get the message. On other services you may be able to click on a menu option and respond to this person. (On the BBS Side, systems are getting sophisticated so that you will have these options as well and often so much so, you will not be able to tell the difference of the type of service you are using).
You will find that this SENDING of messages back and forth is only one means of communication in the Commerical Environment. You may very well be able to use Chat Rooms or Conferenc Rooms to communicate directly in a command line setting. In other words, when Lazyboy contacted you, you could have been typing a message. So you are at your message prompt and having to type back and forth. You can tell lazyboy if he is no too lazy (no pun) , he can meet you in Conference or Chat Room number 10 in say 5 minutes. In the conference you you are will be able to type back and forth to Lazyboy.
Now offline, we try to converse in the most convenient way possible. We may be using a Cellular Phone while walking down the street, we may be using a speaker phone or a car phone. Online we often want to use the best possible means as well. It is good to choose if available the Split Screen Option while in Chat. This will allow you to type messages back and forth without your words running over Lazyboys. The message appear much clearer as well such as follows:
(1,Lazyboy) Glad you made it
(2,me) glad I made it too
(1,Lazyboy) So what did you think of Jason's Lyric's
(2,me) Wasn't all that
(1,Lazyboy) I thought it was Phat
(2,me) to each his own
Now with out a Split Screen it might look something like this...
(1,Lazyboy) Glad you made it (2,me) Glad I (1,Lazyboy) So what did you think (1,Lazyboy) made it (1,Lazyboy) of Jason's Lyric's
A split screen will assist in conformity.
Often you in the Commerical Environment you will be notified when new people join in such as follows:
(**NUBIAN PRINCESS now joins the Open Conference**)
It is always good to greet new comers to the channel, just as you would offline at a meeting. Now you don't have to greet everyone, but it's nice to show some hospitality at times.
Going back to where you first got paged (called in for chat) with Lazyboy. You may not want to be paged, especially while you are reading that message that you have been waiting for or downloading the file that finally is now in public view. What you want to do is find out if there is a command that will allow you to suppress paging so that you can specify when you get pages. You may want to turn this off altogether and just wait until you actually visit a Conference/Chat Room as oppossed to be called into one. As mentioned in the previous lesson, make use of the ? question mark and HELP commands to familiarize yourself with the system. Often I will capture the information displayed in help or print it, if there are no docs and read them offline.
We'll rap this lesson and continue the coverage of Commerical Online Chat in our next lesson, before we move on to the monster, IRC. Next lesson we'll try to find out what kind of discussions you can expect and maybe why folks actually "get married" online and even follow up with the offline real thing. Chat is powerful!
Hoping your CyberTravels are good ones. Remember these Info Highway Lessons brought to you by Holman's World Ministries, can alway be found via...
http://www.holmans-world.com/lessons.html
http://www.holmans-world.com/files/lessons directory. The INFO# files as well as the complete Electronic Book (IHLESSON.ZIP) will be found there.
Our Tip of the Week
-------------------
Where do you go on the net, if you want information on for those who do not necessarily eat meat? Where are the answers to the questions are vegetarians and more info?
Answer.
Gopher
Where?
quartz.rutgers.edu
Go to?
Food,Recipies, and Nutrition
Vegetarian-FAQ>
Question.
You need a program that will drill you in Spanish,French,Italian and more? Where can you one stop shop for this?
Answer.
FTP
Where?
oak.oakland.edu
Go To?
pub/msdos/langtutr/vocab217.zip
Question.
Ok. You got your PowerMac, now what? Where's the beefware? ..uhhh software??? >
Answer.
FTP or Gopher
Where?
mac.archive.umich.edu (FTP) or gopher.itd.umich.edu (Gopher)
Go To?
mac/powermac/* (FTP) or for Gopher Locations:
Software Archives
Macintosh
Powermac