In this section, "conference room" and "chat room" are often used interchangeably. Both offer live discussions with other members. Chat rooms are freestyle chats. Conferences usually have a topic and a host.
To find a chat area, choose Lobby from the Go To menu. To attend a forum conference, go to the forum and click on the lobby doors icon labeled "Click Here". To see a schedule of conferences in the computer forum and a list of live discussions, use keyword "titf", which stands for "tonight in the forums".
10.01 Chat Preferences
When you enter a chat room, you'll see an extra menu called Chat. Choose Chat Preferences from the menu and set your preferences.
When checked, "Double-space chat" will separate each message with a blank line. This option makes the chat neater and easier to read, but may be inconvenient for members with small monitors.
When checked, "Chat Sounds" allows you to send and receive sounds while in a chat area.
10.02 DON'T USE ALL CAPS!
When you type in all caps, it means you're shouting. All caps messages are obnoxious and hard to read. If you want to spot amateurs, look for the ones who try to get attention by typing in all caps.
10.03 Hiliting other members
You can hilite public messages from certain members. While in a chat room, click the People icon. Then select the member you want to hilite and click the Hilite button. The word "Hilited" will appear next to the person's name.
To turn hiliting off, click the People icon, select the member, and click the Hilite button a second time.
10.04 Ignoring other members
Likewise, you can ignore all public messages from certain members. While in a chat room, click the People icon. Then select the member you want to ignore and click the Ignore button. The word "ignored" will appear next to the person's name.
To stop ignoring a member, click the People icon, select the member, and click the Ignore button a second time.
10.05 Dealing with annoying members
If someone in a chat area is being obnoxious, use the Ignore function described in chapter 12. If someone is sending unwanted Instant Messages, see chapter 11.
If someone is violating the Terms of Service, use keyword "guide pager" to send a message to an AOL guide. The Guide Pager function is available from 10:00 A.M. to 6:00 A.M. Eastern time. You can also send a mail message to screen name "TOSAdvisor". Be sure to include the member's screen name and a description of what happened. It's helpful to cut and paste what the person said. Harassing email should be forwarded to screen name "TOSemail".
To find out more about the Terms of Service, use keyword "tos".
10.06 Member profiles
 
If you'd like to learn more about a person in a chat area, choose Get Member's Profile from the Members menu (or type Command-G). You'll see any information in the person's profile. If they haven't filled out their profile, you'll be told that there is no profile available for a member with that name.
If you'd like to share information about yourself with others, choose Edit Your Online Profile from the Members menu. Enter as much or as little information as you'd like. When you're done, get your own profile (Command-G) to see how it will looks to other people. You can edit your profile at no cost if you're in a free area, such as Members' Online Support.
  The fact that a person has a profile doesn't necessarily
mean they're still a member. Profiles can remain for up
to six months after the member has canceled their account.
10.07 Locating a member online
Choose Locate a Member Online from the Members menu to find someone. You'll be told if they're online, and in what room.
 
10.08 Protocol
Chat areas are usually free-for-alls, but some chats and many conferences observe protocol. Protocol keeps everyone from talking at once, so that all questions can be answered in an orderly fashion. At the end of the conference, the host may say something like "Protocol is over. Free chat is in effect."
There are four protocol abbreviations:
? Signifies that you want to ask a question. You'll be placed in
a queue, and the host will call on you when it's your turn.
! Signifies that you want to comment on the current topic. Wait
until the host calls on you before you make your comment.
... When placed at the end of a message, signifies that you'll send
more information as soon as you can type it.
ga Signifies that you are finished typing, and that others
can go ahead.
10.09 The Help icon
When you arrive in a forum conference, click the Help icon. You'll find out if protocol is in effect, and what the topic for the evening is. It's considered rude to burst into a room and ask "what's the topic?"-
10.10 Sending sounds
 
While in a conference or chat room, you can broadcast sounds to other members in the rooms. When you broadcast a sound, you're not actually sending the sound. You're sending a command that causes the other members' computers to play the sound. For a member in the chat room to hear the sound, all of the following conditions must be true:
1. The member must have chat room sounds turned on in Preferences.
2. The member must be using a Macintosh.
3. The member must have a sound with that name on his or her computer.
Number 3 begs the question "what sounds do other members have?" The "Welcome" and "Goodbye" sounds are part of the AOL software, so everyone has those two. There are a number of sounds that are common to most Macs. (Remember: only members with Macintoshes can hear your sounds.) Some of the common Macintosh sounds include Boing, Clink-Klank, Droplet, Indigo, Monkey, Quack, Simple Beep, Sosumi, Wild Eep, and Zoing.
There are two ways to broadcast sounds:
1. When in a chat area or conference room, you'll see an extra menu labeled Chat. Choose Sounds from the menu (or type Command-[). A window will appear listing all of the available sounds. You can click a sound and click Play to try the sound. To send a sound, click it and then click OK (or press the return key). In the text box at the bottom of the chat window, you'll see "{S soundname}", where "soundname" is the name of the sound you selected. To send the sound, click the Send button. In the message area, you'll see something like:
MacFAQ :*soundname*
and the sound will play.
2. As a shortcut, you can type "{S soundname}" (without the quotes) in the text box and hit the return key. The "S" must be capitalized and there must be a space between the "S" and the sound name.
  Anyone who uses ZTerm will have the Connect,
Filedone, and Termbell sounds. If you use ZTerm,
be sure to read the ZTerm FAQ, written by yours truly.
10.11 Rolling the AOL dice
The leaders of forum conferences often give away free hours and other prizes at the end of the conference. The winner is often determined by a roll of the AOL dice. To roll the dice, type "//roll" (without the quotes) in the area at the bottom of the conference window and click the Send button. In the message area, you'll see a message like this:
OnlineHost : MacFAQ rolled 2 6-sided dice: 3 2
Just for fun, you can roll more than two dice or roll dice with more or less than six sides. The command is "//roll-sidesxxx-dicexx". The limit is 15 dice and 999 sides. "//roll-sides999-dice3" would produce a message like so:
Tom Lichty has a clever use of Memos in his book _The Official America Online Membership Kit and Tour Guide_.
Choose New Memo from the File menu. In the memo, type or paste any information you might want to send while in a conference or chat room. Now save the memo. When you sign on to AOL, enter the conference or chat room and open the memo with the File menu's Open command. Resize the room window so that there are a few inches of space below it, then resize the memo to fit in this space. Now you can copy or cut text from the memo and paste it into the conference window.
10.13 Creating Rooms
If you don't see a public room that interests you, you can roll your own room. You can create a member room or a private room.
Instructions
1. While in a chat area, click the Rooms icon on the left side of the window.
2. When the next window appears, click the Available Rooms button on the right side of the window.
3. Click the Member Rooms icon to get a list of rooms created by AOL members.
4. Click the Create Room button to create a new member room.
5. To create a private room, click the Private Room button. Type in the name of the private room and click the Go button. If a private room with that name already exists, you'll enter that room. If there's no room with that name, AOL will create one.
Private room won't show up in the list of public rooms. Only people who know the name of your room can go there. You can send Instant Messages to your friends to give them the name. Private rooms disappear after the last person leaves.
10.14 Crashing the gate when the lobby is full
During peak hours, you may have a hard time getting into People Connection. The system may report "Lobby is full." There's a sneaky way to get in. It's not guaranteed, but it usually works.
Go into one of the forums. The Mac Communications Forum is my favorite. The keyword is "mcm". Enter the conference room, then click the Rooms icon to the left. Choose the room you want to enter and click the Go button.
