Chat HELP for www.sffn.com

Need HELP?

There's a regularly scheduled chat here
Every Friday starting @ 9:30 (cst)
ending when no one can stay awake to type!

Some quick basics before you start:
Type your messages in the "Message field"
& press your "Enter" key to send the message.

To change your nickmname / handle type
/n yourname
so if you want to be
called "DwarfFan" type /n DwarfFan

This spiffy Melange Chat Client & Server replaced the old Mudslide/Lorien lash up back in June 99... Beleive it or not, it's much more stable than it's superflaky predecessor.
Yes it *is* a JAVA based server and client, so if your web browser doesn't support JAVA you may be out of luck :(

Telnet Access is allowed at sffn.com port 6666 but you will need to be telnetting from either a Unix based system or an old "Mud / MUSH" type client. Windows Telnet WILL NOT WORK! (if you have a Windows or Macintosh based Client that DOES work let me know!

MELANGE USER GUIDE 1.10 - INDEX
LIST OF ALL USER COMMANDS AVAILABLE

These commands are available to every user in the chat. Some of them can only be used under certain circumstances, eg. channel ownership, but in general every user can use every command. All commands start with a '/' or a '.' or a ','. It also doesn't matter, if they are typed in lower- or uppercase. The commands are borrowed from IRC to make the usage as easy as possible (especially for users who are already familar with the IRC commands). For backward compatibility the old commands, which were used in the first distribution of Melange are also supported. (In the following lists, they are written inside brackets, eg. (.he) for help)

COMMAND	PARAMETER
/FINGER (.f)	none
Lists all users inside the chat, showing their nickname, their user id (line) the channel they are in, and where they come from.
/GROUP	GroupId grpid, Password passwd
To become a member of a specific group (NOTE: you can only belong to one group at the same time) you have to use this command. grpid is the number of the group you want to join and passwd is the group's password. If you want to leave the group you currently belong to, type /GROUP system. (NOTE: You don't need a password for the system group, of course !)
/HELP (.he)	none
Displays a list of all commands available.
/INVITE	UserID uid
Invite a user to your channel. To use this command, you have to be the owner of the channel. Usually no user can join your channel if it is locked. If you want a user to come into your channel, while it is locked, use this command. The user specified by uid is then allowed to join your channel, although it is private.
/JOIN (.c)	ChannelID cid OR Channelname name
This is one of the most important commands. It's used for joining, or opening a channel. If you use the command with a Channel ID or a channelname of an existing channel, you join/move to this channel (If the channel you tried to join is locked, you receive an error-message, instead). If you use this command with a Channel ID or channelname of an NON-existing channel, you create this channel and move into it. You are then the owner of this channel and can use commands like /TOPIC /KICK /OWN /LOCK /INVITE etc. If you are the owner of a channel and you move to another channel, or if you leave the chat, your channel is closed. To avoid this, you could change the owner of your channel before.
/KICK	UserID uid
Kick a user out of your channel. To use this command, you have to be the owner of the channel. The user, you kick out is not thrown out of the chat, but thrown back to Channel 0 (MAIN).
/LIST (.a)	none
List all channels available. This commands displays all open channels, their channel IDs, their owners and if they are locked. Only those channels which belong to the SYSTEM-group or to the group you are currently in, are shown ! This means, all channels you are allowed to choin are displayed.
/LOCK (.l)	none
Lock/Unlock a channel. To use this command, you have to be the owner of the channel you are in. If you lock a channel, no other users can change to/join your channel (If you don't invite them explicitly before). If you use this command a second time, the channel is unlocked/open again, and everybody can join it.
/LOGIN	nickname
If the unique-nickname feature is enabled, you have to use this command to get into the chat. When you connect to the server you are at first not able to do most things, you even can't chat with other persons. After you found a nickname which is not already in use by another person you can enter the chat using this /LOGIN command. If the guestlogin feature is enabled, instead of an unique nickname you can use the name guest to enter the chat. (NOTE: There may be more persons with this nickname).
/ME (.id)	none
Displays your name, your user id, the channel you are in, the channel name and the group you belong to.
/MSG or /NOTICE (.p)	UserID uid, Message msg
Sends a private message msg to the user specified by uid. The user the message is sent to, has to bee in the same channels as the sender.
/NICK (.n)	Nickname nickname
If you want to change your nickname, use this command.
/OWN (.o)	UserID uid
Change the owner of a channel. To use this command, you have to be the owner of the channel you are in. The user specified by uid is then the new owner of your channel. Note, the user you want to give the ownership to, has to be in the same channel !
/QUIT (.qu)	none
Say goodbye and leave the chat.
/SETGROUP	GroupID grpid
If you are the owner of the channel you are currently in, you can use this command to change the channel's group. (Note: Only groupmembers can join channels which are not owned by the SYSTEM [default])). For example if you type /SETGROUP 10 only those users, who belong to group 10 can join the channel. If you want to make the channel be open for everbody again, type /SETGROUP system. Afterwards everybody can join this channel again (if it's not locked, of course).
/SQUELCH (.s)	UserID uid
Squelch/Unsquelch a user. If you squelch a user, no messages from this person, even if they are yelled, are displayed. If you use the command a second time with the same user id, the user is unsquelched again, and you can see his messages again.
/TIME	none
Displays current date and time of day, using "normal" time format AND Internettime (BMT, Biel Mean Time), which is good for making dates :)
/TOPIC (.r)	Channelname name
If you create a new channel, your channel is called "Channel cid" by default, where cid stands for the channel ID of your channel. If you want to change your channel's name to something else, use this command. For example /TOPIC hansi will change your channel's name to "hansi".
/UP	none
Displays server uptime.
/VER (.v)	none
Displays server's version.
/YELL (.y)	Message msg
Cross channel yelling. If you use this command, all users in all channels (even if they are locked) can see your message. Only those persons, who squelched the user who yells, can't see the message. (But if you use this command too often, don't forget that the chat-admin can kick you out and/or bann your host !)
/WHOIS (.w)	none
Lists all users in your channel with their User ID (line), and if you squelched them or not.

NOTE FOR MELANGE 1.10 or higher:

If the unique-nickname feature is enabled, you can use the user's nickname instead of the uses's ID uid in every command you have to select a user. This does also work if the unique-nickname feature is disabled, but only with those nicknames which ARE unique ! If there are more users with the same nickname you have to use the uid.

The Melange Chat Server is really cool! You should check it out at:
The Melange homepage: http://melange.terminal.at.
If you're running a Linux Server you can set one up for yourself! http://melange.terminal.at/download/clients.html.
*I* did it so anyone shoudl be able to ;)

The Disclaimer:
www.sffn.com was created & is maintained by trs13@sffn.com
The views expressed throughout this website may not be the view of Iowa Public Television

This website relies heavily on Javascript so if your browser can't handle it you may want to upgrade...
If you have any problems please report them post-haste to trs13@sffn.com