Archived Chat: FAQ (READ THIS BEFORE YOU ASK)

IF YOUR QUESTION ABOUT THE NEW CHAT ISN'T ANSWERED HERE, THEN ASK IT HERE.

SHOW OTHER PEOPLE THIS THREAD. PARTICIPATION HELPS EVERYONE.

ALSO: READ THE GUIDE -- https://www.freechatnow.com/guide -- BEFORE YOU ASK ANYTHING! If you ask a question that has been answered already in this thread, or in the guide I just linked, you will be publicly flogged.

Questions in the thread will be deleted after they are answered in the first post.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:

Q. IS REGISTRATION REQUIRED?
A. No. You can chat as a guest. People who are chatting as guests currently have a "G|" before their name, so you can always tell. This prevents anyone from convincingly duplicating any registered user's identity.

Q. WHERE IS MY REGISTRATION CONFIRMATION EMAIL?
A. We send it to the address you specify. Our mailserver is in working order and we get any notifications if anything goes wrong with it. It doesn't go down without our knowledge. We can say with 99% certainty that it's not a technical glitch on our end. MOST LIKELY CAUSE: 1) You have typoed your email address. Edit your settings here and triple check what you have entered as your email address. 2) It is waiting in your spam folder. 3) Your mail provider rejected the message without notifying you.

Q. I REGISTERED AND CONFIRMED, BUT THE CHAT SAYS SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH MY USERNAME AND DOESN'T LET ME IN.
A. This is probably because your username starts with a number or non-alphabetical character. There was a brief period when the forum first went up that these types of usernames could be registered. We made announcements telling people how to fix their usernames, but few complied. Look in the thread related to the topic of bad usernames and post there if this is you.

Q. WHY AM I BANNED FROM THE LESBIAN ROOM?
A. Unregistered guests and men cannot join the lesbian room.

Q. HOW DO I GET BACK TO ROOM FROM A PM?
A. The X button at the top right of the chat, or the X button on the tab for any PM you are in, or the envelope or room list buttons on the menu bar, or the "hide" option in the messages list next to a given username, are all ways you can get back to whatever you were doing before your PM or go somewhere else.

Q. WHY ISN'T MY AVATAR SHOWING?
A. You just uploaded it. Give it time to populate. You may need to reload chat before it shows.

Q. HOW DO I SEARCH THE USER LIST? HOW DO I FIND PEOPLE?
A1. If you can see something someone has typed in the room, click their username and you will get a context menu with a lot of options. Click "jump to" to have the userlist scroll to where their username is.
A2. Above the user list and friends list, there is a box with an X next to it. Type into the box to have usernames that match with what you typed brought to the top of the list. Click the X to clear the box and reset the list to normal.
A3. Above the user and friends lists, there are buttons to sort by gender or username in ascending or descending order.

Q. HOW DO I CHANGE MY NAME?
A1. You can't just arbitrarily change your name anymore. Too bad, so sad. No, we aren't changing this behavior. The ability to do this in the old software was connected with many bugs, and it would cause lots of problems here, too.
A2. If you are trying to change your name so it doesn't say "guest" anymore, log in using the account you created for the forums. This was the whole purpose behind us telling you MONTHS ago to set up a forum account, so you could reserve your username.

Q. WHERE ARE MY CHAT COINS/CREDITS?
A. Credits have now been mass imported from the old chat. Type !credits in a room, or in a PM to the username "FreeChatNow", or visit any forum page and look to the top right, to see your balance. You can !tip them to other users as well. Other functions for credits are not yet implemented (such as purchasing things with them).

Q. WHERE ARE GIFTS?
A. Gifts are not yet implemented.

Q. I AM A MOD.
A1. Your mother is SO proud!
A2. Talk to me or Samantha in a forum PM or in the chat.

Q. HOW DO I LOG OUT?
A. Close chat. Go to the forum. Click your username near the top-right and a drop-down will show up. "Log out" is in that box.

Q. WHY AM I LOGGED IN WITH THE WRONG USERNAME?
A. Your chat session is tied to your forum session. Whatever your forum username is will be your chat username. This isn't the "wrong" username at all. You can't arbitrarily change your username, and there is no separate "display name" from your username.

Q. HOW DO I BLOCK PEOPLE?
A1. Find their name in the room, click it, then click "block" in the dropdown box.
A2. If this is about not wanting to be flooded with PMs from pervs, you can go to options and disable private messages. This will block all incoming private messages. HOWEVER, if you and someone else then wish to PM, mutually, simply talk about it in the room or in a whisper, then both of you open a PM session and send a message. Once you have both sent a PM to each other, you will both automatically whitelist each other and be able to PM back and forth even though you have private messages turned off.
A3. Under options, you can block specific genders or just guests from being able to PM you. This may be sufficient for you without blocking all private messages.
A4. AND FINALLY: Now, with PMs disabled, you can set, under options, so that only people on your friends list can PM you! (This does NOT go both ways! You can't harass someone who has PMs turned off just because you have friended them. They have to friend you back.)

Q. HOW DO I UN-BLOCK PEOPLE?
A1. Type /block (equivalent to /ignore) or /unblock (equivalent to /unignore). Commands will list who is ignored and tell you how to unignore them. For example, you can type "/block somerandomguy123" to block and then "/unblock somerandomguy123" to un-block.

Q. I BLOCKED SOMEONE BEFORE, WHY ARE THEY NOT STILL BLOCKED?
A1. The block settings are stored on the device and browser you did the block from. You have logged in on a different device or browser than the one you did the block from.
A2. Safari does not implement the standards required to store a block list between sessions. If you are using Safari, your block list will not be persistent.

Q. CAN PEOPLE I BLOCK SEE WHAT I SAY?
A. Yes they can, and no, we will NOT implement any kind of two-way blocking, ever. Block/ignore is specifically about YOUR experience. It doesn't affect anyone else. It is NOT a way for you to shit-talk about other users without them being able to see you, and it is NOT a security measure! REMEMBER: This is a PUBLIC chat! If you are chatting in a PUBLIC room, OF COURSE people can see what you type! Only share personal information in private with people you trust, and even then, be wary, because they might share it with others!

Q. HOW DO I PRIVATE CHAT ONLY WITH PEOPLE I WANT TO BUT BLOCK EVERYONE ELSE?
A. See "how do I block people" for a full explanation.

Q. WHY CAN'T I UPLOAD PHOTOS?
A1. You have to be a registered user to upload photos into chat.
A2. Close chat. Go to the forums. Log out. Go to log back in to the forums, and click the "Stay Logged In" checkbox. Then finish logging in and rejoin chat. You should no longer have the photo upload problem after that, unless you clear your browser data or move to a new device, after which you will need to log in and check the "Stay Logged In" checkbox again. The problem is happening because your forum login is expiring, and that login is what is used to permit the chat client to upload photos.

Q. WHY ARE THERE PICTURES OF FISH OR CAKE ON SOME OF THE BUTTONS?
A. This is a bug in iOS with fonts. We are aware of the cause and are working on a fix.

Q. I'M LOGGED IN, WHY DOES IT KEEP PUTTING ME IN CHAT AS A GUEST?
A. Look carefully at the login form in the chat itself. Uncheck the "guest" checkbox.

Q. WHY CAN'T ANYONE HEAR MY MIC? WHY CAN'T I HEAR OTHERS' MICROPHONES?
A. TAKE HOPE: This is not happening to everyone. It affects people who are listening and people who publish differently. It only affects listeners, and only on Google Chrome. The root of the problem is that Firefox uses a codec that is not available on Google Chrome. We are aware of the problem and working on a fix.

Q. THE TEXT IS TOO SMALL (OR TOO BIG)
A. Go to the gear icon, then options, then the appearance tab. At the bottom is a slider called "message font scale." Drag it left to make text smaller, or right to make text bigger. Default is 10.

Q. HOW DO I CHANGE THE COLOR OF MY NICKNAME?
A. You don't. It isn't actually yellow or green or whatever color you see on your end. The chat client shows *your* nickname, only to you, as a different color than all the others. Everyone else sees blue for men, pink for women, or purple for other/unspecified.


Be sure to check the chat change log to learn about any new features, changes, or bug fixes. Change log is here: https://www.freechatnow.com/forum/threads/chat-changelog.353/

 

Q. IF I BLOCK SOMEONE, WHAT DO THEY SEE?
A. Blocked users see no notifications. If they try to send you a PM or a whisper that doesn't get through, they get no indication that anything is up. Blocking is about YOUR user experience, not anyone else's. Nothing you can do is designed to affect anyone else's chat experience.

Q. HELP HELP MY ACCOUNT IS UNVERIFIED AND I HAVE THE WRONG EMAIL ADDRESS SO I CAN'T GET THE EMAIL
A. You can still log in at the forums. From there, click your username at the top right, and then "contact details" in the dropdown menu. From there, you can change your email address, and a new activation email will be sent. Don't cycle through several email addresses in rapid succession! Make sure you typed correctly and have access to the account before you use a new email address, and then, once the confirmation/activation email is sent, WAIT a while. Check your spam/junk mail.

Q. HOW DO I DELETE MY ACCOUNT?
A. You can't, and I won't be servicing deletion requests. We are a small staff working on many projects, and servicing the arbitrary whims of users to delete/recreate/rename their accounts at all times is a bigger task than you might think. Things you should know:

• At this point, what you have registered here is your permanent chat username, unless you log in as a guest.
• We do not have time to assist you in a trial-and-error process of getting a username that you like. What you pick is what you get.
  
• This does not preclude the possibility that self-deletion will be implemented, but we do not have any plans to implement that function at this time.
• Account deletion does not typically delete anything you have posted anyway.
• We do not send any unsolicited emails, if that is the reason you want to delete.
• The only emails this forum will send are forum activity notices, which you opt into through signing up and keeping default settings.
  
• You can opt out of the aforementioned mailings here: https://www.freechatnow.com/forum/account/contact-details

Be sure to check the chat change log to learn about any new features, changes, or bug fixes. Change log is here: https://www.freechatnow.com/forum/threads/chat-changelog.353/

 

We're investigating.

 

FAQ updated and cleaned up some. Chat has also seen some updates in this time, so remember to check out the changelog at https://www.freechatnow.com/forum/threads/chat-changelog.353

Please let me know if your issue with this has been resolved, as some things that may affect this problem were changed.

 

NOTE: While "is chat down" may be a frequently asked question, it does not belong on the FAQ. This is a thread for helping people figure out how to use chat, or helping to determine whether certain behavior is intended or is as a result of a bug. Chat being up or down is a transitory thing that does not need any permanent representation in this thread, and "is chat down" posts will only clutter it and weaken its ability to fulfill its purpose.

 

Just a heads up for members on Windows Phone 8.1. If you can't log in using the chat interface log in pop up, go to the forums and log in there, than select your preferred room on the chat page. I haven't found a work around for guests but, it works

 

FAQ updated, on topic of changing an incorrect email address to a correct one.

Latest addition to FAQ is in *second* post now, since post limit has been reached in the first post.

 

FAQ updated, on topic of deleting accounts.

 

Thanks for the reply, it's what I expected to hear but I just "wanted" to get to know the type of "club" I've just walked into as I'm new to this. Good luck with your business plans and I'll stop the silly games I've been playing *blushes* sorry.

 

Hi, I just stumbled upon this FAQ section which I had trouble finding previously. Today I sent an email asking how I change my username, after reading this, I see that is not possible. I'm so sorry to be a nuisance. Several people have suggested I change my account name because it misrepresents me.

My question now is this: Is it alright to abandon this account and create another one under the username I wish to use, using a different email address?

 

I guess?

 

How can you reset your password please? It's logging me in here fine, but asking for password on chat entry and I can't remember it (it used to just log me in automatically?)

 

There's a link to reset password in the login form here on the forum.

 

Would someone tell me why I cant start a conversation thread from inbox? Does the recipient in the mailing list have to be online at the moment?

 

No, but you have to get their username right.

 

You cant close your account ? not delete it but close it like it stays in the system but you cant access it ?

 

Disable all communication and don't return. Same as closing/disabling.

 

How can I see a list of people I blocked?

Edit:Nevermind

 

How to unban myself if I am banned?

 

https://www.freechatnow.com/forum/forums/ban-appeal/

Ls x