Tips on using the ChatRoom.

To enter the Enter ChatRoom site page you do not need to disclose any confidential details at all, only a made up nickname, no E-mail address or other personal details.

After entering the site the flashing cursor will appear at the bottom left of the screen ready for you to type your message. After typing, press the Enter/Return Key and the message will be live at the top left of the screen for others to see.

You probably won’t want to sit there waiting for hours ‘till somebody replies, so click on the little MINUS symbol/box at the top right of your screen. This reduces the page down to a little tiny box at the very bottom of the screen, but leaves it active. With your sound turned on you will hear an announcement knock of a message being left on the page and then you can click on the symbol at the bottom of the page to enlarge it and chat. If you click on the CROSS at the top right, it will of course close the page and you will have to re-enter with your name, etc.

With the page in the reduced option you can click on the start/programs button to open EXPLORER again in a new window and continue surfing the NET whilst waiting for the knocker/announcement of a message in the ChatRoom. This means you can examine the League Tables, read the Jokes, catch up on the daily news from Google News and generally surf the NET rather than sitting looking at a blank screen on the ChatRoom page waiting for someone else to enter the ChatRoom.

When, if, it becomes popular you could have regular chats with players from other teams, all the players in the league at once if you want to, after matches to discuss the night’s performances etc, or the latest football on TV. You could even arrange regular live chats with distant friends/relatives and set the chat to be private and show to only them instead of going through the lengthy rigmarole of sending E-mails backwards and forwards all night and day, and again it could be connecting several relatives at once in different countries for a family conferrence.

At the top right of the screen the middle box with the square in enlarges the display to full screen size. (Sometimes pages on the NET open up at quarter size.)

On the toolbar at the top left of the screen the Options control enables you to change the font size of your message and disable entrance notification etc.

Free stuff for your own web-site is available from Bravenet on another button, but there is a lot more free stuff on their actual site for web builders.

The Help button obviously does what it says and explains more fully how to use the ChatRoom.

It may well be a few weeks before players really start to use this new, (to us, or at least me,) facility and if nobody wants it then it will probably be deleted at no cost and with nothing lost to the league.

Hopefully the ChatRoom will catch the imagination of some players and lighten the load on the Monday Darts GuestBook which is not really being used as UltraGuest intended, although I am not complaining as long as it does not get too personal or abusive and then I will take action.