BigBlueBall Chat Tutorial -- Built-in Java Client

[Spike]

Connecting to the BigBlueBall chatroom with our Java-based Client

When you first load the BBB Chat client, you will see this:



This may seem confusing at first, but it's really not once you understand where everything is.



This is the area where you type your message in that you want to send to the channel (A channel is basically a chat room, but you can have many, many channels on just one server). After you're done typing your message, just press [Enter]. Everyone in the room will be able to see what you typed and hopefully someone will respond.

Some tips for talking in our chatroom:

• We use what's known as "IRC" or Internet Relay Chat. It's one of the oldest chat types around!
• IRC doesn't have pretty formatting or fonts. There's bold, underline, and a little bit of color, but that's it.
• This isn't like an AIM or Yahoo chat room. Here, it's okay to type normally, in fact, we encourage it! It makes you sound more human, and someone is more likely to help you with your problem if you type normally.
• There aren't any spambots or kickers on IRC. It's safe. You don't need to worry about spam or getting booted off.

You may be wondering now how to change your nickname (or "Nick" for short) in the channel. When you join, you're given a random nickname, "BBBer_" followed by three random numbers. If you don't like that, or want to change your name, that's fine. In fact, it's probably better that way, because then you're whoever you want to be, instead of some random number. Plus, it's easier for other people in the room to remember who you are.

To change your IRC nickname, go to the little box in the corner of the chat window (see the image above), type your new desired nickname into the box, and hit [Enter]. If you see "BBBer_*** is now known as <YOUR nick new>" then you've changed it successfully.

A few tips on IRC nicknames:

• IRC nicknames should be relatively short, the longer a nickname is, the harder it makes the conversation to read for everyone else.
• IRC nicknames can only contain letters, numbers, and a few other special characters. ( []-_`| ) are most, if not all of the allowed characters.

Lastly, this is the list of people who are also in the chat room. Don't let the list fool you, though, some are bots (Good bots, they help with the chatroom, they don't spam.), some are idle users (people who never talk), and some could just be away from their computers. Depending on when you come in, there could be a raging discussion going, or the room could be dead silent. Either way, you should speak up, don't be afraid, say something. If someone is there to help you, they'll respond. If not, wait a few minutes, and if nobody says anything, then there probably isn't anyone there. You can always try back a little later if you'd like.

Now that you know more about the chat and how it works...

Come chat with us!

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to make a new thread in our IRC forums or post in this general thread.