Brand New Chat Room...

[GreyGoose]

Dear Anxiety Zone Members:

We now have a brand new, state-of-the-art, Flash chat room. This new chat room is the result of your generous donations at work. Many more really cool and unique features will soon be added in the coming days and weeks ahead so stay tuned!.

First of all, in order to use the new chat room, you must have Flash installed. Your browser may automatically prompt you to download it once you click on the "Chat Now" link or you may want to download it manually from Adobe if your sure that you don't already have it installed...

http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/

This new chat room contains practically all of the features that the old one had plus many more. Here are a few quick pointers to help you use the new chat room...

* Private Messages: To engage in a private conversation with another person, simply left-click (once) on their name in the right-hand pane and from the menu, select "Private Message". A small window will pop up allowing you to have a private conversation with that person.

* Private Chat Rooms: To create your own private chat room, just click on the "Add" button at the top of the chat window (to the right of the "Room" drop-down menu). A small window will pop up allowing you to type in the name of your private room, choose whether it will be a public or private room and even password protect it. All private rooms automatically expire 30 seconds after being unoccupied.

* Ignoring Another User: To ignore someone who is bothering you or using offensive language, simply left-click (once) on their name in the right-hand pane and from the menu, select "Ignore".

* Invites: If you are in a particular room and wish to invite another user into that room, simply left-click (once) on their name in the right-hand pane and from the menu, select "Invite". A small window will pop up allowing you to select the room you wish to invite the other member to as well as include a message for that user.

* Who is "Alice"?: "Alice" is our resident nanobot. Alice runs on AI (artificial intelligence) and is quite capable of carrying on a detailed conversation and even learning from what you teach her. She can be happy, sad, angry, hurt, etc and comes with a full range of moods and emotions just like a real person. Try talking to Alice. Ask her anything you like. She's always ready to help answer any question you may have and even ask a few of her own!. Alice is in the "Talk To Alice the Nanobot" chat room.

* "Options" Button: The "Options" button located in the lower-left portion of the main chat window opens up a window containing a whole range of features allowing you to upload your own picture, change your theme, pick an avatar, font, room effects, sounds, etc and make many other customizations.

This new chat room is being hosted on our own shared server rather than being remotely hosted like the old one was. There are also optional plugins that we can install that permit voice-talk, web cam support, web radio and a whole slew of other extra features but let's see how this goes and how everyone likes it first and if everything goes well, we'll go ahead and leave it up permanently.

This Announcement is open for member feedback so please let your opinions be heard!

- Regards, GreyGoose

[ladyK]

Wow there are some really cool features on the new chat room.  A little confusing at first.  Alice caught me off guard but I figured that out pretty quick!  The private chat rooms seem easier to use. I like the options too!  Great work, GreyGoose!  Thanks for all the hard work!

sincerely, ladyK

[GreyGoose]

Hi LayK

Thanks. I'm very pleased that you are happy with the new chat rooms . However, there are still a few minor issues that need to be worked out and a few other features that would be nice to add as time goes on (and as member feedback comes in from this thread).

Which new features would you people like to see added in the coming days?...

* A really cool Flash greeting card creator that allows you to draw, paint, select from various images and backgrounds and then send your personal greeting card to another member (or anyone).

* A voice chat/webcam plugin for the new chat room.

* A built-in MP3 player, a web radio player, an audio/video module and a whiteboard module (for collaborating and sharing notes).

Please let us know!.

- Regards, GreyGoose