HOME / BASIC HELP / COMMUNICATING WITH OTHERS

There are two main ways to communicate with other Residents, through text chat and through instant messages. Text chat is akin to talking to those around you in real life, anyone nearby can hear what you say and respond. Instant messages (known as IMs), are more like telephone conversations - they are more private and the person does not have to be anywhere near you.

CHAT

You chat to people around you using the chat bar. You can toggle the chat bar on and off by clicking the blue Chat button at the bottom of your screen. More commonly however, Residents tend to tap the Return or Enter keys to show it - and hit the Escape key to hide it again.

When visible, you can type your chat text into the space provided, and hit Return/Enter to say it out loud or click the Say button. The Residents nearby will see your chat text appear on their screen, preceded by your name. Normal chat has a range of 20m. Residents that are toward the edge of this range will see your chat as a lighter gray.

When you begin typing your chat message, your avatar will begin a typing animation. This lets others know that you are about to speak. They will also hear a typing sound. You can suppress this by starting your line of chat text with a forward slash '/' character. Doing this will not show the animation or play the typing sound.

As with many chat environments you can also emote or act a line of chat, by starting the line of chat with '/me '. Here are some examples to make this clearer..

You type.. Hello returnkey

  • On your screen you will see.. You: Hello
  • Others will see.. Jack Linden: Hello

You type.. /me does a happy dance returnkey

  • On your screen you will see.. Jack Linden does a happy dance
  • Others will also see.. Jack Linden does a happy dance

Along with chatting normally, you can also Shout. Alongside your chat bar you will see the Shout button. If you click that rather than hit return (or click the Say button), then you will shout the message. Shouting has a range of 100m.

If you wish to ignore chat from a specific person, you can choose to add them to your Mute list. You do this through their Profile or by right-clicking their avatar and choosing Mute. Once muted, you will not hear (see) anything they say and they will not be able to send you any Instant Messages.

Chat History

By default chat text will scroll up and fade from view. Thankfully there is a Chat History window that records all chat for the current Second Life session. To show the history, choose Chat History from the View Menu or type Ctrl-H. Chat text is not preserved between sessions so if you log out you will lose your chat history. You can however copy/paste the text into a notecard if you need to.

More uses for /

If you have a Gesture set up to trigger on a key word, you can trigger it by using /keyword in the chat pane.

/wave returnkey

Could trigger your avatar to wave for example.

Some scripted objects are designed to respond only on certain channels. When you are talking you are talking on a channel, the default one - but rather like radio frequencies - you can talk on other channels too. Scripts are usually designed to use other channels than default because trying to parse everything said on the default channel would be slow and resource intensive.

So, giving a channel number after the / will talk on that channel and other people will not hear what you type - but scripted objects can.

So to talk on channel 27 we could type.. /27 Order Pizza returnkey
This would pass the command 'Order Pizza' to any scripts listening on that channel.

INSTANT MESSAGES (IMs)

You can send an instant message to any other Resident, unless that person has specifically muted you. If they are in Busy Mode they may take some time to respond, if they are offline - your message will reach them when they next come inworld. If a Resident has Send IM to Email checked in the IM tab of their preferences - then Instant Messages sent to them whilst they are logged out will be sent to them via email as well.

To send a single person an IM..

  1. If they are close by, you can right-click their avatar and choose Send IM..
  2. Alternatively use the Seach window. Click the Search button then choose the People tab. Find and select them.
  3. Click the Instant Message.. button that sits under their Profile on the right.
  4. An IM window will appear, ready for you to type your message. Hitting return will send it.
  5. You can also send an Instant Message to a friend by clicking on the Friends button and doubleclicking on your friend's name to send a message.

Finally, if the person is on your Friends List or you have exchanged calling cards with them - their name will automatically appear on the New IM tab of your IM window (click the IM button or Ctrl-T to open this). You can then simply doubleclick their name to message them.

GROUP INSTANT MESSAGES

As well as chatting with one person in IM, you can also chat with many people all at once. Along with friends, your IM window (Ctrl-T) will also show any Groups you are a member of at the top of the New IM tab. Opening chat by doubleclicking the group name will message everyone who is online, and in that group - and any/all of them can then respond at once.

In addition you can make a folder in your Inventory and place any selection of Calling Cards into that folder. You can then right-click this folder within your Inventory and choose Instant Message All Users to send them all a message - or choose Instant Message Online Users to send a message only to those who are currently in-world.