If you have Netscape 1.1 or another browser that supports "client pull" then you can have your browser automatically refresh your screen to see new messages. You must have one of these browsers for this feature to work.
To do this, enter a number into the "Refresh" box. The number regulates how fast refresh happens. 1 is that fastest refresh, 99 the slowest, and 0 is off. We suggest you try 10 to start, try it for a while, and then adjust it as you see fit. (to avoid overloading the server, the browser won't try to refresh more than once every ten seconds)
Refresh is adaptive to how much text has been received, so if there is a lot of text, the browser will wait longer so you have more time to read.
After entering a number, press "Chat". Now the browser will automatically start refreshing your screen. If you want to temporarily stop refreshing, press the "Pause" button. You should do this if you need more time to read, are going to go away from the keyboard for a while, or are going to type a message in. If you forget to press Pause before typing a message the browser may refresh your screen before you are done and your message will be lost. Refresh starts again when you press "Chat". You can cancel refresh by putting 0 into the "Refresh" box.
How do I receive messages?
Once you are on a WebChat page it's very simple. Whenever you want to receive the latest in the conversation, click on the Chat button. Any new conversation will be sent to you, along with a few of the paragraphs you've already seen (for context). The new stuff will be near the top of your screen, with a red arrow pointing at it. If there is nothing new the server will tell your browser that, and won't send anything. Some browsers handle this by just leaving up the page you already had; others may redraw the screen anyway.
If you want to scroll back in the conversation, enter the number of messages to scroll back in the scroll back box and then click on the Chat button.
If the person sending something gave a URL for a picture of themselves
that will be displayed to the left of their name. And if they included
references to inline gifs in their message text these will be displayed
too. Any hyperlinks they put in will be made live and indicated by a
How do I Send a Message?
All you need to do to send a message is type it into the big text entry
area on the screen and then click on CHAT.
Of course, if you want to be known by something other than the name
"Anonymous", it would be good to fill in the HANDLE box before you send
something. You can call yourself anything you want, and there's
currently no checking for the name being taken (although that will be
added later).
If you want some image to show up next to your name (your picture, a
photograph of your dog, etc.), then fill in the PICTURE box with an
http:// address that points to the .gif you want to use. It can be on any
machine in the world that is a web server. It's polite to not use too
big an image and also to think of the sensibilities of others.
If you have a home page or email address you can put that in the HOME PAGE box. Then when you send a message, your name at the top of the message will be a hotlink to your homepage or a mailto that will allow people to mail to you right from their browser.
Your message can also contain inline .gifs sprinkled amongst the message
itself. To do that, just type the address of the .gif just like above,
but put it somewhere in your input text instead of the PICTURE box.
To send a live hyptertext link in your text, type in the full address of
the page you want to point to.