Pichat user handbook

Do you want to talk with other people? Here you can "chat" with friends, meet new people, exchange news and information. But be careful, chatting can make addicted!

1) First of all connect to a chat, after a few seconds is the connection established.

2) Change your name:	/NICK name	e.g. /nick Rookie (that's your new name)
3) Wake up a user:	/PING name	e.g. /ping Moak (now wait until he responds)

Some tips: Leave all formalities behind... it's very informal in a chat. You don't need to have reservations about getting in touch with others, just start chatting. People are usually friendly. As in real life you will meet lots of nice people but also psychopaths from time to time, simply ignore them. When you want to talk directly to someone enter his name followed by a colon, for example: Moak: Hi, how are you?

With smileys you are also able to express feelings, see smileys and internet slang below.

Pichat is a peer-to-peer chat software. You can use it to chat on the internet and in the local network (LAN). Peer-to-peer (P2P) means that you can directly connect to your friends and don't rely on a centralised server.

Software is available for Linux/BSD/Windows, please see Pichat downloads.

After starting Pichat you also have a running LAN messenger, chat server and web server. Your friends don't have to install the Pichat software in order to chat with you, all they need is a web browser, for more details see below. The integrated web server can be used for file transfer, for example to share files with your friends. There are also plugins to extend the chat with new features.

Pichat comes with a webchat. It makes it very easy to chat and all you need is a web browser. If you are on the road or on vacations you can immediately start chatting with your friends.

Example:	Visit one of the following webchats...
	http://eu.pichat.net/chat - Pichat Europa
	http://us.pichat.net:8008/chat - Pichat USA

The webchat works with nearly any web browser, no plugins required. Most chat features are available in the webchat, a modern web browser gives best results but also text browsers are fully supported. Problems or errors? If you can't log in please activate the 'simple text mode'. Maybe the chat is simply offline at the moment, please contact a chat admin or try again later.

Alternatively, you can access Pichat with telnet. This offers a very simple text chat and great for users who prefer a dead simple user interface. No graphics, no fancy features.

Example:	Connect to one of the following servers...
	telnet eu.pichat.net 9009
	telnet us.pichat.net 9009

A telnet software is required for the text chat, if not already installed on your computer you can get it for any operating system. Not all chat features are available with telnet, for example there are no smileys and no graphics.

There is a lot you can do with text input. Use smileys to express feelings, to laugh, to swear or to flirt. Already the first internet users knew smileys and used them to prevent misunderstandings and emotional ice age. Pichat shows smileys as small graphics in chat window.

With :) you will get a happy smiley, here a list of all smileys and graphics:

smileys	:) :)) :] ;) :p ;p :~ :D ;D :, :' :( :[ :/ :\ :s :x
	:omg: :wtf: :nice: :mad: :red: :green: :sick: :blue: :((
taunts	:swear: :bomb: :zzz: :???: :chat?: :chat!: :taps:
symbols	:sound: :tel: :tv: :dot: :arrow1: :arrow2: :candle: :idea: :asian1: :asian2:
flirt	:love: :hearts: :kisses: :rose:
fun	:coffee: :beer: :beers: :wine: :winew: :sekt: :tequila: :water:
	:cola: :colap: :pizza: :smoke:

Internet slang and common abbreviations:

brb	"be right back", when you are away for a short time
cu	"see you", the most common way to say good bye
lol	"laughing out loud", when you can't hold back loud laughing
mompl	"moment please", when you are busy or working on something
re	"returned", common greeting when you return after a short time
rotfl	"rolling on the floor laughing", having tears in your eyes and better
rtfm	"read the fine manual", read the damn documentation you lazy slacker
ttyl	"talk to you later", when you gonna be away for longer
wtf	"what the f...", when your are very surprised or meet fucking idiots
flame	when somebody massively annoys or provokes other people
flood	one way of flaming, when somebody floods the screen with junk data
lag	delay in communication, responses from other people arrive delayed
rl	"real life", where you still have to eat and drink
we	"weekend", oh yeeeeeeeeeeeees! *happy-joy*

You can use bold and colors to highlight text in the chat. There are four different text colors. The displayed colors depend on the selected color scheme, in the most color schemes this corresponds to the colors red/green/blue/yellow.

Text formatting with the keyboard:

Ctrl+B	write bold, press again for normal text
Ctrl+P	write colored, press again to choose between text color 1-4
Ctrl+O	write normal, switch off colors and bold

Text formatting with wiki text, can be used optionally:

'''bold text'''	bold text
###1text color one###	text color one
###2text color two###	text color two
###3text color three###	text color three
###4text color four###	text color four

After you made yourself familiar with the basic chat features it's time to read further. Let's check out more chat commands and see what they can do. Not all commands have to be available and some commands may be used by chat admins only. Type /HELP to see which chat commands are available at the moment.

Overview of all chat commands:

The following commands and options are available for chat admins only. On your own chat server you are automatically chat admin. Admins look after the chat server and make sure that the chat is not been abused, therefore they have more more rights than normal users. Type /HELP to see which chat commands are available.

The chat server can run in 3 different chat modes:

• open = any user can enter the chat
• members = only registered users can enter the chat
• closed = no new users can enter the chat

There are 5 different chat user types:

• zombie = can not talk with other users, no chatroom change
• visitor = maybe restricted to talk with other users or to change chatrooms
• normal = no restrictions, default user type on most chat servers
• moderator = no restrictions, can also talk in moderated chatrooms
• admin = administration rights, immune against bans and mode changes

There are 3 different chatroom types:

• normal = any user can join and talk
• moderated = only moderators and chat admins can talk in the chatroom
• conference = only users with correct code can join the chatroom

Notes for chat admins: When somebody is causing trouble try talking with him first. Generally, chat admins should not get involved into people's fights and disputes. Encourage peaceful communication. If negotiating doesn't help, ban the user from the chatroom and let him cool down for a few minutes. You can also turn a trouble maker into a 'zombie', he can not talk anymore with other users and will be automatically removed from the chat. As a last measurement you can ban a problematic user from the whole chat.

There are some more special commands which are internally used in the chat and not listed by Pichat's /HELP command. Most users don't need them but explore if you are curious.

For your convenience there are a couple of keyboard shortcuts in Pichat. While chatting you can access important functions more easily using the keyboard, especially functions you use often. Please note that not all hotkeys are available for webchat and text chat users.

Up/Down	=	input history, show last typed in text lines
Ctrl+B	=	write bold, press again for normal text
Ctrl+P	=	write colored, press again to choose between text color 1-4
Ctrl+O	=	write normal, switch off colors and bold
Ctrl+C	=	copy text into clipboard
Ctrl+V	=	paste from clipboard
Tab	=	nickname completion at beginning of nicknames,
		to answer a private message press Tab in empty input
Ctrl+K	=	change color scheme (day/night mode)
Ctrl+I	=	change input size
Ctrl+L	=	clear chat window
Ctrl+G	=	pong back last user
Ctrl+U	=	show/hide side bar (chatrooms and users)
Ctrl+S	=	show/hide smiley bar
Ctrl+Z, F2	=	show/hide time stamp
Ctrl+R	=	enable/disable text filter
Ctrl+Y	=	change away status
Ctrl++	=	bigger text
Ctrl+-	=	smaller text
Ctrl+0	=	normal text size
Ctrl+T	=	open new chat window
Ctrl+W	=	close chat window
Ctrl+Tab	=	switch to another chat window
Ctrl+Shift+S	=	show chat status
Ctrl+Shift+O	=	show chat options
F1	=	show Pichat information and version number
F2	=	show/hide time stamp
F3	=	enable/disable sticky window (always on top)
F4	=	show/hide contacts
F5	=	update contacts
F10	=	show 3D window (experimental)
Windows+P	=	show/hide main window
Esc	=	minimise main window

The chatroom
The expression "chat" means "informal conversation" or to talk more than a few words. When chatting you can speak with other people, talk in chatrooms about different topics or simply exchange news with each other. When you enter a chat you will automatically join the entrance (default chatroom). It is also possible to create your own chatroom, e.g. for a new topic or for talking with your friends.

The helpful bots
These are small, automatically running programs in the chat which should make your everyday life easier, they look just like normal users. Bots can perform specific tasks on their own and extend the chat with useful features. There are for example chat bots which greet new users and quiz bots that you can play games with.

The annoying lag
Because of network problems it can come to a delay of data transfer, the so called lag. If you don't receive chat updates for a while or have to wait forever to get an answer from someone then you probably encountered a lag. The chat has an automatic lag detection built in which warns you when bigger lags occur.

The legendary chat admins
They really exist! They look after the chat server and make sure that the chat is not been abused. For this purpose they have more rights than normal users, they can for instance ban a user from a chatroom or even ban trouble makers from the whole chat. Chat admins usually don't get involved into little conflicts and disputes.

• Learning by doing. The easiest way of learning something is through practical experience, just play around and try it.
• When you want to talk directly to someone in a chatroom enter his name followed by a colon, for example: 'Moak: Hey, how are you'. It is common to use "hi" as a greeting (check who is greeting back) and when you want to say good bye you mostly write a short "cu". If you are coming new into a chatroom you should first read along a little bit so that you won't interrupt other users.
• In a chat you can never be absolutely sure to talk with the person that the other pretends to be. It's easy to fake a false identity. When meeting new persons you don't have to be immediately suspicious, but on the other side you also shouldn't believe everything.
• Flirt, love, passion: everything is possible in a chat! There is little difference between net romance and real life, you can act in the chat in the same way you would normally do. What starts as a small flirt can easily become more... there are many who found each other in a chat. By the way, if you are looking for singles you should have a look into the chatroom 'Flirt'.
• How to continue? If you have questions please see frequently asked questions or talk with other users in the chat.

First it was believed the earth is a disc. Then it was announced it is round.
Shortly later the planets were discovered, space and the cyber space.
Finally, the most important discovery was made: the CHAT SPACE!!!

Okay, that's it. Now you are perfectly equipped with all fundamentals and things you need to know, there is of course some more to learn and to try out. Your are already on the way to become a pro chatter... you know that I warned you! CU :)