Help:Chat

This extension can be enabled or disabled using Special:WikiFeatures .

Chat is a feature that allows near-instantaneous communication between users on a wikia. Anybody with a Wikia account can join chat by clicking the "Join the Chat" or "Start a Chat" button in the right navigation rail.

You can also access chat by visiting Special:Chat on the wikia, clicking the "Chat" option on the Wiki Navigation as well as add an entry point to chat on any page you would like to see it by using the wikitext tag.

Once connected, type text and hit your keyboard's return key to send the message to the room.

User options

Clicking on a name in the user list will open a menu. You can see the user's name, edit count, join date as well as access their talk page / message wall, contributions and send them a private message. Private message opens a new private message room.

Administrators and chat moderators have additional options:

• Give ChatMod status (admins only) gives that user the ability to kick or ban people from the chat.
• Kick will kick that user out of the chat
  • Chat moderators can't kick other chat moderators
  • Chat moderators can't kick Administrators
  • Chat moderators can't kick Staff
  • Chat moderators can't kick Helpers
  • Chat moderators can't kick VSTF
  • Administrators can kick chat moderators
  • Administrators can't kick other administrators
• Ban will allow you to ban the user for a specific set of time (chosen from a dropdown menu) as well as allow you to state a reason why. Bans can also be set from the User contribs page.
  • Chat moderators can't ban other chat moderators or Administrators
  • Chat moderators can't ban Wikia Staff
  • Chat moderators can't ban Helpers
  • Chat moderators can't ban VSTF
  • Administrators can ban Chat moderators and other administrators
  • Administrators can't ban Wikia Staff
  • Administrators can ban Helpers
  • Administrators can ban VSTF

Private messaging

Private messages are conversations between you and one other user. If you are in a private message room with someone, you have the ability to stop receiving their private messages by selecting " block private messages " in their username menu. This setting is permanent and Wikia-wide until you select " Allow private messages " from their menu in the general chat room.

Chat Moderators

Chat moderators have the ability to kick and ban other users from the chat. To identify a chat moderator, a star will be next to the name in the rail. The chat moderator right can only be given by admins, bureaucrats, helpers or by Wikia staff.

Unbanning

If a user is banned from chat, an administrator or chatmod can unban directly from the chat, or by going to the user's contribs page and clicking on unban. They will be instantly unbanned and allowed to participate in the chat.

Emoticons

You can use emoticons for chat by entering keyboard shortcuts like :) or (heart) in the chat window. For a complete list of shortcuts available, visit the MediaWiki:Emoticons page on your wikia.

Admins can customize the chat emoticons on their wikias by editing that page. Emoticons can be any standard image file type, should be hosted on Wikia, and must be 19 x 19px in size. If they aren't that size, they will be scaled to it.

Note: quote marks (") cannot be used in emoticon shortcuts.

"Me" action

A feature in chat, borrowed from IRC, is the "/me" action. If a user (for example: YourName) preceded an entry in chat with "/me", it would render specially:

/me is going to the movies.

would appear as:

* YourName is going to the movies.

Links

Links work exactly the same in Chat as they do in the editor. For example, typing [[Special:Forum]] in Community Central Chat results in Special:Forum - the main forum page of Community Central.

You can make shorter links to other wikias by using an interwiki link . For example, typing [[w:c:starwars]] in Chat results in w:c:starwars - an easy way to link to Wookieepedia ( http://starwars.wikia.com ).

You can also link to specific pages using this method. Typing [[w:c:avatar:Aang]] in Chat results in a link to the Aang page on Avatar Wiki ( http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Aang ).

Other tips

• If you want to add a quick guidelines link to the right rail Chat module, simply edit MediaWiki:Chat-entry-point-guidelines . This message is empty by default, accepts wikitext input, and appears at the bottom right of the module.
• You can add an entry point to Chat, similar to the right rail module, by adding the wikitext tag in an article.
• Chat bans are listed on Special:ChatBanList .
• Bored on chat? Check out some awesome tips from DangerousDangerously on what to do when chat is "dead" .
• The feature is not available in the Monobook skin, but Monobook users can join by visiting Special:Chat?useskin=wikia .

See also

• Help:WikiFeatures
• Help:Custom chat CSS and JS

Further help and feedback

• Browse and search other help pages at Help:Contents
• Check Help:Wikia Community Central for sources of further help and support
• Check Help:Contacting Wikia for how to report any errors or unclear steps in this article
• Learn how to use Wikia in Wikia University : short how-to videos for all levels of experience