Saturday, July 04, 2009.
Chat Rules
These rules will be helpful to follow when using forums, chat rooms, chat sites, and chat programs such as MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger. We recommend that on any type of instant chat and online chat communities where you’re trying to meet people and make friends you follow these chat guide lines.Choosing a Chat Name
Be careful in choosing a username, ID or display name in chat environments as this will be the first way in which people will perceive and judge you. Where possible try not to use your full name but use an abbreviation, alias, nickname or invent an online identity for yourself. This helps prevent people, with potentially wrong intensions, from obtaining your true identity. It can also help to encourage or discourage people chatting with you — helping you target yourself at people with similar interests.Personal Information
You should never disclose personal info when in a chat forum/room. Your name, address, phone number and other information shouldn't be given out. Being anonymous is best. Chat rooms can be an excellent place to communicate online but there are often people who want to ruin things. A lot of chat rooms and chat forums do not allow sexual or offensive content. We advise that you refrain from this and report anyone you see doing it.Email Address
It's best to have an alternative email address when signing up for chat rooms or forums. This is because it can be harvested for spam or allows someone to start emailing you who you really don’t want to know. Again, don’t have your name in your alternative email address as this helps to conceal your true identity. Try signing up for a free hotmail or yahoo account.How to Start In Chat Rooms
When you enter a chat room, take a little while to see what the common subject matter or theme of discussion is. Others engaged in exchanges aren’t going to end and suddenly be concerned in your topic if all you do is leap into a chat room and say, "Hello, anyone up for a chat?". Assess the mood of the numerous personalities in the chat room, offer remarks or chat about the current topic in discussion and you are much more liable to be welcomed into the dialogue.Universal Chat Nicetesies
When inside a chat room do not constantly key in the identical thing over and over again or continue entering words and letters into the chat rooms in a rapid sequence. This causes the chat to hurry and disturbs the rooms by shoving peoples' conversation off the screen faster and creating an environment that’s hard to read. This form of interference is often known as 'scrolling'. Words by their nature do not have a volume management. In chat rooms, when you type in CAPITALS it is understood as SHOUTING!!! You may have good reason to SHOUT, like in real conversations, but it is still deemed as rude the majority of the time. Make certain you are typing in lowercase unless you really feel the need to SHOUT! If this is so, make sure it is an uncommon happening.Chat Mistreatment
Regrettably there will forever be people with zilch better to do than mess up your satisfaction of a chat room. You should never react or reduce yourself to their level.Private Chat Rooms
Private chat usually exists for you to speak to a specific person without others being able to observe what you are saying. This is good if its purpose is for a specific meeting or your catching up with a relative and don’t want any interruptions. However, private chat can be antisocial and may reveal that you have a hidden agenda. If you’re in an open chat room or forum you will discover extra satisfaction in the public chat rooms where you can split your thoughts and time amongst many different users.Open chat rooms aren’t pleasurable when the bulk of people are in private chat. If this series of repeated activities continues then its popularity can diminish so that in the end a chat room becomes ‘past it’ — all because everyone was chatting in private. The warning is: don’t be exclusive in open chat.
Some people attempt to utilize private chat to their gain by engaging in distasteful chat. You can normally report abuse to the chat room owner or monitor, and usually stop private messages completely.
Chat Slang & Emoticons
One of the most overwhelming things for inexperienced online chatters is the enormous assortment of representative letter-symbols and abbreviations which surface in chat rooms. You will find a range of chat abbreviations and chat slang in chat rooms and we have gathered some general ones beneath. Unfortunately we couldn’t ever give a comprehensive index as these phrases are constantly evolving and expanding. Ask chatters if you come across online chat jargon what the expression means or approach a chat guide. Most chat room users will be very happy to provide an explanation.Tilting your cranium to the left you’ll see the miniature facial expressions known as ‘Emoticons’ (Em-oat-ic-ons). These icons are frequently drawn on to express emotions which aren’t observable from wording.
(((name))) brackets are 'hugs' for the name you use
;-) = wink
: ) or :-) = smile
:-D = big smile
:-0 = surprised or shocked
:-/ = confused
:-( = sad
;-( = crying
Abbreviations: These make chatting faster but can look like another dialect or language if you are not knowledgeable of them. Some of the more common ones:
ASL = Age/sex/location
BF = Boyfriend
BBL = Be back later
BBS = Be back soon
BFN = Bye for now
BRB = Be right back
BTW = By the way
FYI = For your information
GF = Girlfriend
GTG = Got to go
IMHO = In my humble opinion
IMO = In my opinion
J/K = Just kidding
K = Okay
LMAO = Laughing my a—* off
LOL = Laughing out loud
NP = No problem
OMG = Oh my God
PML = Peeing myself laughing
ROFL = Rolling on the floor laughing
ROFLMAO = Rolling on floor laughing my a—* off
TY = Thank you
WB = Welcome back
WTG = Way to go
YW = You are welcome
