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GENESSA -- ENJOYING WEBRING'S SHOUTBOX! WebRing has a little floating chatroom (well, it's as close to a chatroom as can be without actually being one) called the Shoutbox. It floats so well, GENESSA presents it floating here. This is not a reproduction; it's the real thing, albeit remote (off WebRing's own site). If you are logged into WebRing you may enjoy it here as fully as anywhere else, and if you are a webmaster you may even place one on your own site by copying the code from here, choosing "Shoutbox" from among the items in the green toolbar, and placing the code from the resulting page on one of your own website's pages. (It will not be your own private Shoutbox; it will be WebRing's.) In fact, you will find a real live Shoutbox at the bottom of this page. It's not an example; it's the real deal! The Shoutbox has several sections. Because they are also called shoutboxes, I will distinguish by capitalizing Shoutbox when I am referring to the whole entity and keep it lower case when speaking of a specific shoutbox. The most often used section is the public shoutbox, represented by a small yellow megaphone. Another is the help shoutbox, represented by a question mark in a blue circle, where members may informally ask each other for help and advice (regarding WebRing of course). Premium members have a shoutbox all their own, and this is represented by a brown and yellowish object which might be two moneybags, or two sacks of flour, or Mickey Mouse's head after a horrible accident, or... if you figure out what it is, be sure to let me know. It is not often used, though, because most people, regardless of membership status, like to jabber away in the public shoutbox with everyone else. Please remember that the Shoutbox is not always inhabited, and that the help shoutbox may be useful if you catch someone in there and, that someone also happens to know the answer to your question, but if you want a formal, reliable answer, or if you are asking for some kind of action (to fix a technical error, for example) the help shoutbox is not the place to go; instead, submit a support ticket. Post to the Shoutbox by typing in the blank line under the box and then either hitting "Enter" on your keyboard or clicking the blue speaker icon next to the blank line. Posts are time-stamped but you have to hover your mouse over an actual post to know when it was made. If you don't do this, you may find yourself responding to something posted hours ago and not understand why no one talks back to you! The name of the member who posted is also included in the time stamp. Another way to know who is speaking is to hover your mouse over that person's icon; a menu will come up with that member's name in it and a selection of actions you may take regarding that member, namely, talk privately, visit profile, test message (on your cell phone) and email (through WebRing, and sad to say, this is not always a reliable means of communication). Whichever shoutbox you have chosen will appear in the upper lefthand corner of the Shoutbox so you will know where you are. The Shoutbox theoretically autorefreshes but theory and practice are two different animals, so be sure to refresh the page yourself often. There are a few ways to send another member a private message. One is by selecting the "talk privately" option on the menu just mentioned; another is through Settings, about which more later so I beg your patience; another is to choose that menu option from a member's profile; and yet another, applying only to WebRing managers, is to choose that option from the menu that comes up when you hover over a ring manager's name on the ring's hub page. To chat privately from the Shoutbox: hover the mouse over the member's icon and choose "Talk privately with (name of member)." You will find yourself in a new shoutbox with that member's name in the upper lefthand corner of the Shoutbox, instead of one of the icons. Any previous conversation with that member will still be there unless Shoutbox has burped. You may type your message there and it will be seen only by that member. When you go to that private shoutbox, the member will see your name, in a green box, among the icons. When you have posted something, your name will be in a yellow box instead. Likewise, when the member looks or posts, his or her name-box will change colors accordingly... theoretically. It is wise to check often since the color-change doesn't always work perfectly. In addition, manually refreshing the page will make the colored boxes vanish; you can regain them the way you started them. If someone not active in the public shoutbox has initiated the private chat, you can regain the contact another way, about which more when we get to Settings. Patience! Patience! The Shoutbox nominally has an anything goes, laissez-faire atmosphere, but like any other chatroom, it thrives best with a certain (n)etiquette, and has some technically enforced rules/restrictions as well. To treat the latter first: In a private message you may type an intact url but in the public shoutbox such a post will be sometimes be accepted, sometimes be partially posted and sometimes be rejected outright (as will single-word posts and posts containing forbidden words -- and no, I don't have a list; use your judgment). Now the netiquette part, and none of this is official; it's all my never-humble opinion: be nice! Don't attack other members! It isn't too smart, either, to come into a chatroom full of strangers and make political or religious declarations. If that's the conversation in progress, join in, for sure, but realize that not everyone shares your views or wants to hear you say you're right and everyone else is an idiot. If you want to talk about your beliefs with someone who already shares them or has expressed an interest, go to a mutually agreed-upon PM. Nobody likes to be told they're living their lives wrong, especially by a stranger. If you have a question you need answered, it is reasonable to ask it in the Shoutbox, even in the public shoutbox, but it's nice to say "Hi!" first and please realize (as I've mentioned above) that 1. there may be no one in the Shoutbox at the moment and 2. whoever is in the Shoutbox is probably not staff, might not be a Super-User and at any rate might not know the answer. If you can't get a fast answer that sounds good, or if your problem is technical, submit a support ticket and make sure you use the right topic from the drop-down menu. If you're a premium member, write to your rep instead of submitting a ticket. Remember: the Shoutbox is a shouty kind of chat room, not a help desk. This being said, if you really do know the answer, feel free to share! Attacking other members in the Shoutbox is a no-no and can get you banned... and rightly so. If someone spams the Shoutbox, or you've made a statement you wish to retract, you may hit the little lightning symbol under the Shoutbox to delete any checked comments. Use this judiciously; it is not nice to delete other people's comments and it's not funny either. Spam is what you make of it. To me (and you may feel otherwise) it's anyone promoting their website without being asked to do so, anyone attacking other members, anyone spouting nonsense just to get points -- oh yes, you get (minimal) activity points for posting in the Shoutbox -- or anyone just plain being nasty. Spam is not something you just feel like deleting, or a statement with which you happen to disagree. Here we are at last! In the upper righthand corner of the Shoutbox is a link to "settings." This will take you to a place where you can manage a few preferences, link to other places to manage even more preferences, and even use WebRing's Webspace, about which we have a different informational page. Here we will just focus on the Shoutbox aspect of the settings. Here you can add or subtract groups or people from your contacts list and determine their level of intimacy with you via three columns: red, yellow and beige. Red is your inner circle, yellow the next circle over and beige, well, you've seen them anyway! There is a fourth column for deleting someone from the list altogether. Save what you have chosen by clicking "Save Settings." You can reach your settings just as well by clicking the yellow folder icon under the Shoutbox. You can view your index.html page in your Webspace by clicking the little square blue and white icon under the box, and if you are in a private message you wish to close, you can click the turquoise door icon there to leave. This will not delete the posts in the private message, which will still be there if you ever PM with that member in the future. Shoutbox has something in common with Cardiff, Wales -- at least the Cardiff of the Whovian/Torchwood universe. There is a rift in time and space, through which alien matter falls in either direction. In other words, your other words may suddenly reappear -- from hours, weeks or months ago, and your current words may vanish into the ether. Don't be alarmed. Don't feel obligated to wear an aluminum-foil hat. It's all part of the Shoutbox experience. And here, for your chatting pleasure, is the WebRing Shoutbox! NOTE: From this or any other private, non-WebRing page, the view will default to your settings on the right and a private message with yourself (!!!) on the left. Don't ask! BACK TO WEBRINGS MANAGED BY GENESSA  |
Contact GENESSA:General email: How to Join a WebRingGENESSA's Generic Join InstructionsHow to Become a WebRing ManagerHow to Manage a WebRing WellAsking for HelpHow to Use WebRing's WebspaceEnjoying the Shoutbox1.0 vs. 2.0 MembershipThere will be more topics. Still writing! |
