Barbara Niven's Chatspace
To E-mail Michael:

Barbara Niven (Kate) very graciously allows us to use the Chatroom on her website as our "Community Center" sort of. Every night several of us, including sometimes people associated with the show, will be in there having a BALL!

Two ways to "register" your nickname in Barbara Niven's chat room:   First, when you are on the login screen, where it says "Guest" in the username field, choose a nickname and if no one is using it, you will enter the room as that nickname. Once there, double click on your nickname on the right hand side of the screen where the occupants of the chat room are shown. This will cause a profile screen to come up prompting you for a password and asking you to register the name if you want to.

Secondly, you can enter the room as "Guest" whatever number, THEN type the following sans quotes "/nick " then the nickname desired. If someone has already registered that name you will be prompted for the password so you can't use that one. If you choose a unique name that hasn't been registered, you will now be the new nickname. Then you can double-click on the name as in the first option above.

How to change the color of the text of you chatroom messages:  If you are in the chat room and wish to change the color of your text messages, hold down the "Ctrl" key, press the lower case "k", then press any number while holding the other two keys down. This will change your text to another color besides black.

How to send sounds:   Some people may SHOOT me for telling this but I am not here to censor information, just disperse it! LOL It is there for the finding out ANYWAY! If you are in the chat room and wish to send a "sound", look in the lower right hand side of the screen and you will see a pull-up menu called "Options". You will then see "Send sounds". Click on that and a separate window will appear, usually in the upper left quadrant of the screen with a scrollable menu of sounds. You can click on a sound AND put an accompanying caption in the text box. Then click on "send". Sometimes it takes a while and you can't do anything else in the chat until it completes. These can be HILARIOUS and so appropriate at times!

How to send "private" messages:  If you are in the chat room and wish to send a "private" message to just ONE of the other people in the chat,first click on that person's name in the table on the right hand side of the screen, then type in your message in the text box as usual, then look in the lower right hand side of the screen and you will see a pull-up menu called "Options". You will then see "private to member". The message will appear HIGHLITED on the screen but ONLY you and the other person can see it. Occasionally, you will be in the chat and two people are carrying on a "private" and one will FORGET to "send as private" and a message will pop up on the screen for ALL to see that has seemingly NOTHING at all to do with the topic, BINGO, you have just seen some "classified" info LOL, usually the "sender" will type in "OOPS" just to acknowledge "hey gang I screwed up, don't ask me what I meant" ROTFL. These can be a lot of fun BUT be careful! If your "private" becomes "public" and you were speaking ILL of someone, could be trouble OR if you send a private MEANT for member A but it GOES to member B and it was ABOUT member B, UH-OHH!, might be a good time to go offline for about a week! LOL

How to have a "private" chat:  If you are in the chat room and wish to have a "private" chat with just ONE of the other people in the public chat,first click on that person's name in the table on the right hand side of the screen, then look in the lower right hand side of the screen and you will see a pull-up menu called "Options". You will then see "request chat". The other person must accept before you can chat. If the other person accepts, a small "mini-chat room" will appear in the upper left quadrant of the screen. You can still participate in the public chat AND participate in the private chat. You just have to watch WHERE your cursor is blinking to know WHICH chat your message will go to. It CAN get difficult sometimes so usually it is better to use ICQ or Messenger if both parties have the same utility.