Chat Safety Tips
In this section I want to make sure people are informed about the dangers of chatting. I’ll be adding to it as I get information that I think is relevant. Continue reading
The Story of Chat27
In this post I want to give some background on Chat27, and maybe address some questions and misconceptions that might pop up when people visit this site. This post will hopefully give some valuable insight, and serve as a useful reference. Please forgive the typos and grammatical errors. I’m a scatterbrain without the luxury of a proofing and editorial team behind me! lol.
If you’re looking for info on how to have your chat room added, click here.
Ok, here we go… Continue reading
Adding your chat room
A general guideline to chat rooms that want to be added:
- You’ll need a minimum of 15-20 chatters (excluding bots & clones) in your room at any given time between 9:00 and 21:00 (GMT +2 SA time). We are however prepared to add any room with less chatters where a convincing case is made.
- You’ll need an official website so people can learn more about your room. A facebook (Page, not Group), WordPress or Blogger page will do perfectly as well.
- You’ll need to provide an Admin email address where people can report abuse and questionable activity.
- Room name has to be unique (not similar to a room listed on chat27 already)
- There actually needs to be activity in the main room (other than join/parts)
- A link to www.chat27.co.za from your website. This is to establish that the website given is associated with the chat room – we’ve had problems in the past with chat rooms giving a website as their own and then receiving a threatening letter to the contrary from the actual website owner. This can be a normal text link, or you’re welcome to click here for some nice graphics.
- Your Network/Room needs to cater specifically to the SOUTH AFRICAN audience. No use adding chat rooms from other countries, though an expat room might be cool.
Notes:
- No offensive chat rooms or offensive-themed rooms will be added… a point which is relative.
- No more “adult-themed” chat rooms will be added. We have enough of those, and just because they’re the most popular rooms, doesn’t mean it’s our intention to cater mainly for such chat rooms. As a rule, we’ll only be adding one adult-themed chat room per server. Variety being the spice of life, we’re looking for some other additions.
- Your chat room on www.atrum.org network a plus.
- Note that CGI (HTML Chat) chat is only available to chat rooms on the www.atrum.org network.
- Servers that use auto-join functionality will not be added, ie when you join a chat room it automatically ads you to other chat rooms as well. If people wanted to join the other chat rooms, they would have done so in the first place.
- If your user volume dips drastically below initial criteria for an extended period (2-3 weeks) the room will be removed from the list without notification.
- No chat room where you have to “register a nickname to enter” will be added.
- No Lagnet or Zanet rooms will be added.
- As this is a free website maintained by one (very busy) person, please allow 7 – 28 days before chat rooms are added. Inclusion is not guaranteed.
So your chat room complies with the above? I’ll need:
- The Room Name
- The Server/Network it’s hosted on
- A short description of each room you want added – you’ll see all our chat rooms have one.
- Your official website address for each room
- The email address for people to report abuse in your chat room/s.
- The location of the chat27 link on your website.
Just send the above info to jc@chatsouthafrica.co.za
PLEASE NOTE:
This website is not about making new chat rooms popular. It is about facilitating access to chat rooms that have done the legwork, gone through the teething process, came out on top, and already have a loyal following. Why? Adding chat rooms with very few chatters will simply frustrate new chatters that connect to it, they will leave immediately. The room will not have the opportunity to grow, and do us more damage than good in the end for having so many redundant chat rooms. We do not have an advertising budget, and thus rely solely on referrals to chat rooms worth chatting in.
HELP! I CANNOT CONNECT!
There are several possibilities:
- You might not have the latest Java Runtime Environment installed. (A little red cross where the chat applet (room) should be.) Go to http://www.java.com to get the latest version. Since 2007/07 Chat27 has a CGI option on some indicated chat rooms that don’t require java, though java is still advised.
- When the popup window first appears and asks you for granting permission, you might have chosen the wrong options. Without such permission, the applet will not be able to connect to any IRC servers around the world. You will be presented with one or both of the popups below. They differ in subtle ways, but it’s important to click the correct button in order to allow the program to connect:
POPUP 1
This popup should present itself only once if you select the correct options below:
POPUP 2
This popup will present itself each time you start a new browser session:
- You might be behind a firewall and cannot connect to IRC servers outside. It means that the CHAT27 applet can only connect to IRC servers inside your local network if you are behind company’s firewall. Currently, CHAT27 supports proxy connections (experimental) via the “Advanced Users” section in the channel list. Since 2007/07 Chat27 has a CGI option on some indicated chat rooms that bypass most firewalls.
- You might be using very old version of IE or Netscape. Only IE4 or above and Netscape 4.08 or above is supported by our chat applet. To view what version you’re using, go to the top menu of your browser, and choose “Help” and then “About…”
- Some IRC servers deny connection from some ISP domains (due to abuse or flooding coming from that domain). For example, some IRC servers do not allow AOL users to connect. And some IRC servers require you to have Identd installed and running on your computer (Identd is included in jIRC, and it is turn on by default). There are thousands of public IRC servers available, you can always find one that is friendly to your environment.
- Mobile devices are currently not supported. As there is a huge variety of mobile hardware and software variations, I don’t expect that we’ll be supporting mobile connections in the foreseeable future. A website on Since our mobile visitors are increasing, I thought it was time to at least address the issue on http://mobile.chat27.co.za/ has however been created to notify mobile visitors of this. I expect mobile technology to catch up with chat27 software before the alternative happens.
Commands, Tips & Tricks
Basic commands
Ok, so here are things you can actually use. Remember (to avoid embarrassment), to substitute the text in red for your personal info when using the commands. Also remember the / when typing a command!
/nick yournickname
This changes your current nickname to whichever new one you choose
/me yourtextgoeshere
Displays the text as an action, like: “/me hops” will be displays as: “Jack hops”
/clear
Clears your chat window of any text it had, starting with a fresh screen
/quit yourmessage
Disconnects you from a server & channel with the personal quit message displayed to everyone
About Java Chat
If you haven’t figured it out by now, double-click on someone’s nickname in the Java Applet’s list to send them a private message, or right-click on a nickname in the list to see your options.
Choose a nickname as original as possible to avoid finding that “Nickname already in use” message
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you give ANY private information like your precise location or telephone numbers to someone you’ve met on here. If you’d like to stay in touch with someone you’ve met in a room, we suggest you make regular appointments to chat here. Please be careful.
The general rule is: Respect others and they will respect you. Do not choose an offensive nickname or make a nuisance of yourself, and you’ll be fine. If someone else is giving you a hard time, there’s the “ignore” option when you right-click on his/her nickname in the list.
