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Topic: RootsChatterbox - Chatroom Information and 'Terms of Use' (Read 4510 times)
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Berlin-Bob
Global Moderator
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 5678
by: My Daughter. Chatting to find her Roots !
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RootsChatterBox
RootsChatterBox is a Chat-Room where you can conduct a Roots-Chat instantly with a number of other people at the same time. It can be very useful if you've only got a quick easy to answer question, or perhaps if you just want to natter. It's sometimes difficult to work out what's going on in RootsChatterBox at first, and it can be confusing seeing others peoples messages on the screen - but after a while you will get the hang of it!
Note: To use the RootsChatterBox you must have Macromedia Flash Player 6, or above installed on your computer. If this is not found, you will be notified of this and automatically directed to the Macromedia Download Center to download Macromedia Flash Player for free.
To enter RootsChatterBox click on the "chat" button in the forum menu: 
Terms of Use
Very important: The Chatroom is part of the RootsChat Forum,
and you are also expected to abide by the Terms of Use and the RootsChat Copyright Policy here.
In particular: "You agree, through your use of this RootsChat forum, that you will not post any material which is false, defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a living person's privacy, or otherwise contrary to law."
Anything that is not allowed on the forum boards
is also not allowed in the chatroom.
Private messages (PM) within the chatroom are private and can only be seen by the parties concerned. However, all RootsChatterBox messages are automatically logged. Please be aware that these logs also include all private messages from within the chatroom. These logs can only be read by the administrators and moderators of RootsChat but this will normally only be done when acting on complaints.
Your decision to use the chatroom must take this into account. If you cannot accept this,
then please do not use the chatroom. Please read Reply #3 for a fuller explanation.
The Chatroom is open to all RootsChatters. Provided all chatters abide by the Terms of Use there are no 'rules' about the subject matter.
BUT: experience shows that discussions about politics and religion bring out the worst in us very quickly,
so to keep things friendly, we recommend that you avoid these subjects.
Some members use the Chatroom for family history research, some members use it to "chat about this and that", most members use it for both purposes, chatting about other things, when nobody wants a FH help.
Please remember that the Terms of Use also limits advertising to one particular RootsChat board,
the For Sale / Wanted / Events board.
Do not use the chatroom to advertise websites.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There have been several discussions about the Chatroom here on the forum and we have been asked by several Chatroom users if we can publish a set of rules in the Chatroom for the benefit of all users, especially newcomers.
The chatroom software is a proprietry "add-on": we cannot change it.
This means it is not possible to add a "Welcome" screen or a "Terms of Use" screen.
Nor is it possible to "sticky" anything in the Chatroom itself, so instead,
we have gathered some of the results of the various discussions into this topic.
As some members rarely read these items, and only log-on to RootsChat in order to visit the Chatroom, we ask all regular Chatroom members to inform new users about the help available and to pass on these links:
Help Page:
http://www.rootschat.com/help/rootschatter.php
RootsChat Topic: RootsChatterbox - Chatroom Information and 'Terms of Use':
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,309726.0.html
Thank you,
The RootsChat Team
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« Last Edit: Sunday 01 November 09 10:10 UTC (UK) by Berlin-Bob »
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Searching for Coleman, Moore, Kallnung in London; Margulies, Remenyi in E. Europe; Ancestors of Hessie Stevenson-Coleman-Baxter (Ireland, 1861) and, of course, any other ancestors for my web-site. All Census Data included in this post is Crown Copyright (see: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk) |
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Berlin-Bob
Global Moderator
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 5678
by: My Daughter. Chatting to find her Roots !
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Some do's and don'ts for the Chatroom ...
Here are a few tips and guide-lines. As usual, in such cases, most of this is
 just normal politeness, good manners and common sense
Every one is very friendly, so don't be put off if every one starts saying " Hello & where ya from " just take your time and type what you want when you are ready. We are pretty patient lot and we were all new once in there.
The chat room can seem fast when you are new, so take your time,
and converse with one person only for a start, and then slowly begin to converse with a few.
You can choose what colour you want your messages to appear in (see below) and it is sometimes easier to follow the colour(s) of the people you are talking to.
If someone puts up information for you, you can click on the "Save" button, just above the box where you type your input, and then click on "File" and "Save as ..." This will save all of the conversation, including any private conversations you have been having, to your computer, where you can process it at leasure.
Now and again you will meet someone whose questions may be a bit penetrating,
but as in any other community, don't "give away" too much until you know the people a bit better. If you don't want to 'talk' to people by private messages (PM), you can click on that person's profile and and on "ignore", to block their PMs.
Please be very careful with humour and jokes in the chatroom. In face-to-face conversation you can use body language, tone of voice and facial expressions to convey the "jokiness" of what you are saying, but in the chatroom there is only the printed word to go by, and this can easily be misunderstood. Usually you can pick up the tone of a conversation fairly well, when you know the people involved but one problem about chat-rooms is that there is often no way to "read the intonation" of what a person is actually meaning to say.
Some try to convey this by using smileys or chatroom abbreviations (see below).
If in doubt, ask
I think it can best be summed up by saying:
stay friendly, polite and helpful .... and tolerant of typos !,
the rest is trimmings 
Capitals
As in most internet chatrooms and forums, writing in capitals is considered to be shouting.
(see also: Topic: >>----- Guidelines for Postings / Netiquette -----<< )
You will be told soon enough, if you've accidently locked the shift key
Rooms
There are 2 Common Rooms and England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales rooms in the chatroom, but only Common Room 1 gets used mostly. If you try to enter the chatroom and there are already more than 20 people in the Common Room 1, you will sometimes be "parked" in Common Room 2.
Don't worry, you will soon receive an "Invite" to join the others in Common Room 1.
You should only accept one invite and ignore the others (some kind of software glitch ?).
PS: don't believe any stories you get told about monsters in the other rooms.
It's not true, although you may find some giant dust bunnies there.
(rumours that RootsChatters have disappeared in those rooms and never been seen again are just not true !!
They did turn up later, although they looked a bit pale, and didn't want to talk about it ...)
Abbreviations
Here are a few of the most frequently used abbreviations:
| b4 | : | before | | bbl | : | be back later | | bfn | : | bye for now | | brb | : | be right back | | cyl | : | see you later | | lol | : | laughing out loud | | omg | : | Oh my gosh / God / goodness / ... | | rofl | : | rolling on the floor laughing | | ty | : | thank you | | wb | : | welcome back | | : | |
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« Last Edit: Sunday 08 November 09 10:46 UTC (UK) by Berlin-Bob »
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Logged
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Searching for Coleman, Moore, Kallnung in London; Margulies, Remenyi in E. Europe; Ancestors of Hessie Stevenson-Coleman-Baxter (Ireland, 1861) and, of course, any other ancestors for my web-site. All Census Data included in this post is Crown Copyright (see: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk) |
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Berlin-Bob
Global Moderator
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 5678
by: My Daughter. Chatting to find her Roots !
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Individual settings
Colours
The standard background colour in the chatroom is blue. You can choose which colour
you want your text to appear in, but some of the colours clash with the blue background.
(click on small panel between option and save)
In particular, a red text on blue backround can "flicker" and give rise to headaches.
If you choose an "unfortunate" colour, you'll be told soon enough
But here's another tip: change the background colour !
I find it easiest to read with a black background.
Click on [Options], the first register is "Themes"
Example: For a black bacground,
- click on the drop-down menu on the left and select Indigo Metallic
- click on the drop-down menu on the right and select Windows XP
- unselect "show background
there are probably other methods too, but play around with the options till you find the combination of colours, size and font that suits you.
remember, this is your health we're talking about !!
Sounds
Some like them, some don't. Change the settings here:
Fonts
Use the drop-down menus to change font-size and font-family to suit your tastes
my personal preference is Font-Family / Font size : Verdana / 13 (easiest to read)
Warning: you may get "booted" when changing options.
Example colours:
You will sometimes see references in the chatroom to 'little men' or 'leprechauns'.
Some people have the 'head and shoulder' icon next to the names in the user list (image on the right)
some don't. No explanations found so far, why this is so 
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« Last Edit: Sunday 08 November 09 13:42 UTC (UK) by Berlin-Bob »
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Searching for Coleman, Moore, Kallnung in London; Margulies, Remenyi in E. Europe; Ancestors of Hessie Stevenson-Coleman-Baxter (Ireland, 1861) and, of course, any other ancestors for my web-site. All Census Data included in this post is Crown Copyright (see: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk) |
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Berlin-Bob
Global Moderator
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 5678
by: My Daughter. Chatting to find her Roots !
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Some possible technical problems ...
Flash Player
To use the RootsChatterBox you must have Macromedia Flash Player 6, or above installed on your computer. If this is not found, you will be notified of this and automatically directed to the Macromedia Download Center to download Macromedia Flash Player for free.
"Macroed", "booted", The Revolving Door Syndrome
Please be aware, that you will sometimes be "thrown out" of the chatroom.
This is purely a technical problem.
If it's any consolation: this is not solely a RootsChat problem. It happens in other chat rooms as well. Chat rooms are happening in "real time" and are therefore very "resource hungry". There could be umpteen computers, routers and switchgear, and hundreds of miles of phone cables between your computer and the RootsChat computer, and if a reaction doesn't come within a certain time - anywhere along the (computer) chain - one of the components involved might "say": I'm not getting a reaction - and will "timeout", thus cancelling the program.
- It could be a bottleneck (high traffic load) at one of the many servers between your computer and the RootsChat computer,
- it could be that your computer has a lot of other stuff running and can't always cope,
- it could be that your computer is a bit older and simply can't react fast enough, thus causing a timeout.
- it could be that the phone lines are being affected by weather conditions
(don't laugh, I'm being serious. It does happen !) - it could be ..... well, we just don't know
This is often referred to in the chatroom as being "macroed" or being "booted" !
If it happens to you, just log back in again, and carry on
Some days it can be particularly bad ... then it's called RDS - Revolving Door Syndrome
The Big BOOT
I have been told that once a day everybody gets thrown out of the chatroom.
The regular users call this the "big BOOT".
I don't know what causes this: it could be some automated maintenance tasks that kick in around this time.
Or it could even be the cleaning lady !!
There is only one power point in the room and she has to plug the vacuum cleaner in somewhere !!!
All right, all right, it's an old joke - I just wanted to make the point:
these things happen, please just accept them with a sense of humour.
Trouble getting in
Some members report having a problem entering the RootsChatterBox.
we still have no answer to this.
Possible cause suggested so far:
- computer can't cope: older computers sometime have problems coping with Flash (see also 'Flash Player' above)
- Internet connection problems (see ' "Macroed", "booted", The Revolving Door Syndrome' above)
Split screen
Some users have reported having a split screen (a second output window) along with "no answer ? ring the bell" and a bell symbol above the message box. The split screen seems to be a window for reporting direct, with a bell to "ring him" if he doesn't anser immediately.
We still don't know why some people are getting this and others (the majority) aren't :(t
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« Last Edit: Saturday 07 November 09 08:16 UTC (UK) by Berlin-Bob »
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Searching for Coleman, Moore, Kallnung in London; Margulies, Remenyi in E. Europe; Ancestors of Hessie Stevenson-Coleman-Baxter (Ireland, 1861) and, of course, any other ancestors for my web-site. All Census Data included in this post is Crown Copyright (see: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk) |
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Berlin-Bob
Global Moderator
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 5678
by: My Daughter. Chatting to find her Roots !
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Chatroom Moderation / Complaints from the Chatroom
We do not moderate the Chatroom on a daily basis, and there is no specific "Chatroom Moderator" but all moderators (with chatroom access) can be asked to help out.
Nor are there any "Chatroom Bosses", neither officially appointed, nor self-appointed.
So if any (non-moderator) says "I'm the boss here", ignore them
You can recognise RootsChat moderators in the chatroom by the (M) in front of their names.
The Chatroom software automatically records all messages entered in the chatroom (chatroom logs).
These logs can be read by the administrators and moderators of RootsChat. Normally nobody reads these logs, except to make occasional spot-checks,
that the chat room users are complying with the RootsChat "Terms of Use".
Please be aware that these logs also include
all Private Messages from within the Chatroom
Your decision to use the chatroom may be influenced by this fact. If this is a problem for you then you may decide not to use the chatroom, or, we recommend this advice, from a member:
"I don't post anything here, pm or otherwise,
that I wouldn't be comfortable with the mods reading!"
In the case of a complaint about unsuitable behaviour in the chatroom, the moderators will read these logs, to determine what has happened and act accordingly.
Complaints are usually about
language, flaming, bullying, vandals and sexual harassment
Bullying (in schools at least) is defined as
The repeated intimidation of others by the real or threatened infliction of [..] verbal, written, electronically transmitted, or emotional abuse
Flaming is defined as
... a hostile and insulting interaction between Internet users. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaming_(Internet)
Vandals are people with no interest in family history, who come into the chatroom and make a nuisance of themselves.
If you feel that the chatroom users are behaving unsuitably, please contact a moderator(*).
In the event that a complaint is made to the moderators(*) , they will examine the chatroom logs to determine if the complaint is justified and to act upon same. This action may be a request to members to modify their behaviour, or it may be an immediate ban, either temporary or permanent, depending on circumstances.
A temporary ban will usually be for at least a month. After it has expired, if a further situation arises where this same member is the cause of complaints, then a second ban will be permanent.
The complaints probably apply only to a very small minority of
Chatroom users but we cannot tolerate that they spoil it for the other users.
For your reassurance:
Apart from spammers, vandals and sex-chatters and similar trouble-makers, who will be banned from RootsChat immediately, a chatroom ban is not made impulsively.
In case of complaints the moderators will analyse and discuss the chatroom logs and decide by consensus what action to take. This decision will reflect not only the behaviour that triggered the complaint, but also previous behaviour on RootsChat.
_____________________________________________________________
(*)If there are no moderators in the chatroom
(you can recognise them by the (M) in front of their names)
then to contact a moderator for any reason, please see
Topic: Contacting a Moderator
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,40033.0.html
or
Help-pages: http://www.rootschat.com/help/mods.php#contact
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« Last Edit: Saturday 07 November 09 08:15 UTC (UK) by Berlin-Bob »
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Searching for Coleman, Moore, Kallnung in London; Margulies, Remenyi in E. Europe; Ancestors of Hessie Stevenson-Coleman-Baxter (Ireland, 1861) and, of course, any other ancestors for my web-site. All Census Data included in this post is Crown Copyright (see: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk) |
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Berlin-Bob
Global Moderator
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 5678
by: My Daughter. Chatting to find her Roots !
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Chatroom Moderation
Apart from a short break in the early hours of the (UK) morning the chatroom is open 24 hours a day.
This makes it very difficult to moderate it continuously, so we have the following possibilities:
- 1st. possibility: Self regulation - although the moderators do regular spot-checks using the chatroom logs and occasionaly come into the chatroom, this is not enough, so the chatroom users also moderate their own language and behaviour - i.e. not moderate others, but moderate themselves.
If each and every user checks that s/he is doing nothing in the chatroom that is not allowed on the forum boards, then there should be no problems.
- 2nd. possibilty: We only open the chatroom at specific times when a moderator can be present.
Due to the international membership of RootsChat this is not really a viable option,
as there will always be members wishing to use the chatroom when no moderator is available.
- 3rd. possibility: We close the chatroom down.
As none of the users wish the chatroom to be closed down, this means that only the first option is viable:
Self regulation: Every RootsChattterBox user must always moderate
their own language and behavior in the chatroom.
If it is not allowed on the RootsChat forum, then it is also not allowed in the RootsChatterBox.
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« Last Edit: Saturday 07 November 09 08:14 UTC (UK) by Berlin-Bob »
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Searching for Coleman, Moore, Kallnung in London; Margulies, Remenyi in E. Europe; Ancestors of Hessie Stevenson-Coleman-Baxter (Ireland, 1861) and, of course, any other ancestors for my web-site. All Census Data included in this post is Crown Copyright (see: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk) |
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Berlin-Bob
Global Moderator
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 5678
by: My Daughter. Chatting to find her Roots !
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This topic has been updated:
- Reply #2: Individual settings / Information how to change the colours, fonts and sounds.
As some members only log-on to RootsChat in order to visit the Chatroom,
and rarely read the board topics, we ask all regular Chatroom members
to inform other users and to pass on this link:
RootsChatterbox - Chatroom Information and 'Terms of Use' :
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,309726.0.html
Thank you,
The RootsChat Team
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Searching for Coleman, Moore, Kallnung in London; Margulies, Remenyi in E. Europe; Ancestors of Hessie Stevenson-Coleman-Baxter (Ireland, 1861) and, of course, any other ancestors for my web-site. All Census Data included in this post is Crown Copyright (see: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk) |
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