Chat room for Final Book of Daniel

This is active only on Saturday Evenings, into early Sunday Mornings, Mountain Standard Time. Daniel will be present at most times, and will join in. When entering a handle (name) use something less obvious than a simple name, as it will belong to another person registered in the system. In other words, use something specific such as "sam1946" instead of just "sam".

Chat help:

I cannot connect! Sometimes the chat software cannot connect and reports a "Failed to Connect." error. That could have two reasons: Either, our chat server are not running for a short period of time. Simply try it again some hours later. In case it never works, it could be that you are behind a so-called "Firewall" which prevents that you chat. In that case, contact your provider with a friendly email and ask them to open the ports 3000-3003 for TCP connections. Should your provider refuse to do that, your only chance to chat on our system is to change your provider. What does that mean: "You are banned." ? In rare cases, when the operators could not prevent that a certain user disturbs the chat all the time, SPiN intervenes and "bans" that user. That means, that nobody can connect to the chat anymore using the internet provider of that person. When somebody from such a provider tries to connect he gets the error message "You are banned." So note that being banned does not mean that you have done something wrong yourself. Maybe just somebody else using your provider got in conflict with our operators all the time, so that you are just a victim yourself. We cannot do anything about that in that case. We would love being able to exclude just that one person from the chat, but without the help from the providers, that is not possible. Just be patient and wait some weeks. Maybe you are unbanned again then. I'm asked for a password. What does that mean? You accidentally tried to login with a name which is protected by a password. Simply try to use another name then. How do I password-protect my name? If you want to stick to your name after you chatted for a while and want to prevent that somebody else abuses it, simply go to our Password Registration Page and apply for a protection. Please do not send emails - we do not process them. How do I change my password? Go to our Change Password Page. I forgot my password! Simply go to our Password Resending Page. How do I delete my password-protected name? Simply go to our Delete Login Page. Why may I register only two names? Well if you register a name nobody else can use it anymore - and if everyone in the chat registers more then two names, there would be more then twice as many names which were protected then the number of active chatters. And we think everone should have the chance to register the nick he wants to. If you want to have a new name you may delete one of your old ones. I cannot enter the / character for commands! Some computer systems have problems with their keyboard layout while the chat software is running. Especially Apple Macintosh PCs are known to have that problem. The / character belongs to the set of characters which is misplaced/not reachable often, but it is needed because commands start with it. In that case simply use a dot instead of the slash to start commands. SPiN is messaging me something about a reboot! What's that? SPiN has new features for the server or any other reasons to restart the Software. So you get a countdown, that you are not surprised by being disconnected. The Server will usually restart after a few seconds so just be patient please. Is it possible to connect using software like Mirc or Pirch? This is unfortunately not possible because Spinchat is technically different from the IRC system.

2. Spinchat on your own homepage

How do I integrate Spinchat in my homepage? Simply follow our instructions. May I use Royal on my Homepage, too? Sorry. That is not allowed. SPiN, our company, has to earn money, and one of our possibilities to earn money is too sell more comfortable and sophisticated chat systems - so we cannot give them away for free. When I use the chat applet on my homepage I'm not opped. Why? The only purpose of the Channelparam is to let you choose to what channel your applet is pointing. The chat-applet is only an entrance to our chatsystem and if you want to control a channel you have to register it, as mentioned below. What's the difference between Chat System V2.4 and Spinchat? The Chat System V2.4 is the successor of our Communication Line 1.x which Spinchat is based on. The demo pages for that system on chat.spin.de are just demonstrations of our new system for our (future) customers - please do not include it into your homepages or use it for chatting.

3. How to use the software

How to send private messages? In Royal, simply select the name of the user in the list and then use the menu "Start Dialogue". In Spinchat you can send private messages using the /msg command. If you want to send a message "hello!" to user "test" for example, you just have to enter: /msg test Hello! What is a "channel" ? Channel is the name of the place where some people gather to chat - the equivalent of a room in a house. How to change the channel? In Royal just select another channel in the list and push the "Join" button. In Spinchat use the /join command to change channels. If you want to jump to a channel called "testchannel" for example, enter: /join testchannel How to create a channel? Simply join a not-yet-existing channel using the /join command in Spinchat or enter the channel name in the text field in the channel list window of Royal. How to create a hidden channel? Creating a hidden channel is exactly the same as creating a normal channel - just add a "_" sign in front of the channel name. So if you want to create a hidden channel called "test," simply join the channel "_test". How do I discover other hidden channels? Not at all. That's how hidden channels are supposed to behave. (ed. don't laugh - some people really asked me that question) Are there any other useful commands? Yes - of course. Just have a look at our manual for the Spinchat client

4. The rules on Spinchat

What are the rules on Spinchat? No insults or offensive names Do not scroll/flood the channel with senseless messages, repeat the same message or URL all the time Do not write everything using CAPS No talk about sex, drugs or having cybersex in public. Take it private. Do not fight in the chat - take it private Do not abuse nicknames - never willingly use the names of other people or change them in a way to mock them No discrimination of somebody because of age, gender, religion, political views. This is no allowance for extremists, though. Illegal religious/political statements will not be tolerated in public What is an "Operator"/ "Op"? A user of the SPiN chat who was granted special rights to keep the chat clean. How do I become an operator? Well - at first: Begging for being permanently or temporarily opped will not help you. In contrary, this will only reduce your chances to be opped ever in one of the public channels. By the way, if you open your own new room (i.e. you join a not-yet-existing room) you'll get temporarily opped by the software automatically. Now how do you become operator in a public room like International or Welcome! ? If SPiN realizes that there is need for more operators we will choose those of our chatters who we already know for a long time and trust a lot - those will become operator. Asking to be operator will not help - such emails are immediately deleted. If we need operators, we will choose them. What is the meaning of "You got kicked out" ? That means that an operator kicked you out from the chat channel because you broke one of the rules. I was kicked without any reasons. Well - at first, remember that there are two sorts of channels: Channels which are opened by the users (temporary channels) and those who are there all the time (permanent channels). If you are kicked out of a temporary channel, you cannot do anything. It is the right of the person who opened a channel to kick out anyone without reason. If you are kicked from a permanent channel without a reason, then try to think about the rules again and wether you are sure that you did not break one accidently. Also - never return to the room and start to insult all operators! Sometimes people are kicked accidently because an operator hit the wrong button. Anyway - if you are absolutely sure that you were repeatedly kicked without any reason, your can report that incident to info@spinchat.com with the subject "op-abuse". Please make sure that you include the exact name you used in the email, the day and time (preferable in either CET or GMT), the name of the channel where you were kicked and the name of the operator(s) you think who kicked you.