Verandah Chat - Instructions

SITE INFORMATION	THE VERANDAH	LOUNGES
THE FORUM	MEMBER SUITES	MEMBER PAGES
CONTESTS & GAMES	POST CARDS	MEMBER MESSAGING

VERANDAH CHAT INSTRUCTIONS

POSTING

Members may post in a variety of colors and Nickname styles. Guests may post in one color only and their posts will be preceded with this symbol: <> .

The main public rooms at the Verandah are: The Verandah and the Member's Only Room.

The Member's Only Room is the only public room that is "off-limits" to guests and is provided as a reserve place to chat should a guest be acting in an offensive manner if ADMIN is not available.

Lounges are public rooms that are sponsored by Verandah Members. In order to keep public posts on the site focused in a reasonable number of rooms, the number of lounges available is limited and based on a percentage of total members. The current number of lounges reflects a reasonable number for our current membership. Therefore the addition of a new lounge requires that either additional Members join the site or one of the current lounges be removed. Members who sponsor lounges are encouraged to develop a "hook" that will provide visitors with a reason to post in the lounge. (Ideas include: Special topics such as politics, humor, social discussions; Shared interests such as poetry, recipes , etc.) If a lounge becomes dormant, or nearly so (based on a 4-week period of "hit" statistics) the sponsor will be notified and the lounge's sponsorship may be transferred to the next Member who has requested a lounge.

In some rooms "Whispering" is activated. In such rooms you may highlight the name of a person to whom you wish to send a private post (Member or Guest) and only you and that person will be able to see the post. (Please note: There is currently a 12 minute time-out period at the Verandah. For that reason a person's Nickname will "echo" in a room for 12 minutes after they leave. If you whisper to an echo the post will not be visible to anyone but you.

SUITES

When you enter your suite while logged in with your primary username, the suite controls table will appear. Your guests will not see this table.

This table provides the following: a link to the wallpaper room so that a suite wallpaper may be selected; a purge button so that past posts in the suite may be permanently eliminated; and a check list roster of persons currently on the site and your DNS.

TO SELECT WALLPAPER FOR YOUR SUITE

Follow the link to view various wallpapers. Note the 3-digit number of the paper you wish to "hang" in your suite. Type that number in the box provided and click on the "Change the Wallpaper" button. Make a post to the person(s) invited to your suite alerting them to the 3-digit number so that they may enter it in the box provided to guests.

TO REMOVE POSTS FROM YOUR SUITE

Click on the text that reads: Purge the room.
(Please note: Text deletion is instantaneous and unrecoverable.)

TO ALLOW ACCESS TO YOUR SUITE

Click on the box prior to the name of the person(s) you wish to allow into your suite and click on the "Update Roster" button. All persons with an "X" in the box prior to their name now have access to your suite.

If your guest is a Verandah Member you may send a message noting access has been allowed. If your guest is a Verandah Guest than he/she may reload in the control room until the link to your suite appears there.

TO PREVENT ACCESS TO YOUR SUITE

Click on the box prior to the name of the person(s) you have currently allowed suite access to and click on the "Update Roster" button.

(Please note: When a guest leaves the site he/she will have to be readmitted to your suite to gain access. This provides a failsafe against persons who may leave the site prior to your unchecking of their name.)

MESSAGING

TO READ YOUR MESSAGES

Click on a link to the Message Room. Your messages will be displayed to the limit of your Web browser's buffer (usually about 40 average-length messages).

TO DELETE YOUR MESSAGES

Click on the "Purge" button.
(Please note: Message deletion is instantaneous and unrecoverable.)

TO SEND A MESSAGE

Type the Member's name in the "Message to:" box and the text of your message in the box below. Do not use HTML as it will not be displayed. Then click on the Send Message button. A copy of the message will be displayed in your message area.

If the message is not displayed than that means it was not sent. Messages may only be sent to valid login names so double check your typing. No valid names will contain a blank. Therefore "Electric Dragon" is incorrect, while "ElectricDragon" is correct. Letter case does not matter in messaging.

Only Verandah Members may read messages. You may send a message to a guest, but that guest will be unable to read the message unless he/she become a Verandah Member.

(PLEASE NOTE: Due to space limitations and the risk of an occasional "crash" the Verandah cannot guarantee long-term storage of your messages. If there are messages you wish to preserve you are encouraged to copy them to your own computer.)

FORA

Versica and the The Forum serve as the designated forum areas at the Verandah. Versica is provided as an E-zine and currently is open as an area for Verandah Members and Guests to "publish" works of interest.

The Forum acts as a public message center and is also available to Members and Guests. Each Member may have administrative control over his/her own area of the Forum.

NON-CHAT FEATURES

Members and Guests are encouraged to explore the Verandah's additional features which include: Electronic Postcards, a variety of single-player and two-player games, a ListServ, a Members' Gallery, Member's Mini-Home pages, and confidential e-mail forwarding.

Enter The Verandah.

Questions? Comments? Let us hear 'em! ADMIN