As many of you have noticed there is a new toolbar at the bottom of your browser window. This toolbar is the new site chat interface.

The buttons from left to right:
Chatrooms - This is a public (SilentCountry.com members only) chatroom. Anyone logged in can join and chat with whoever else is in the room. You can invite online members into the room and even create your own room (though you should probably just stick to the main room for now).

I highly recommend you use the popout tab as this puts the chat in a new window/tab and you can continue to navigate the site.


Announcements - These are announcements that I may send into chats about changes being made or something you should take note of.

Themes - These are chat themes. Default and Dark. I would stick to default for now. I will be trying to teak the dark theme and add others later. These are independent of the site themes.



Over on the right hand side of the tool bar you have other options.

Who's Online - This shows you members on the site that are online. If they are available for chat, you can send a direct message to them. This is private chat window and is not an open room.

Chat Options - here you can take yourself offline and unavailable for chat if you like. You can disable popup notifications and sounds as well. This should remember your settings from each visit but this may default back - will be checking into that.

Close Toolbar - this just hides the toolbar at the bottom. Not sure why you would want to though.



This chat looks and feels a lot like Facebook but it is NOT connected to facebook nor has any connection with Facebook. Some are concerned about their privacy in regards to Facebook so rest assured this is internal to this site only.



I have always been hesitant about including chats on forums as it can take away from the forum. If useful information is being shared in chats and left off the forum then its lost. But I am going to keep an open mind here and see how this goes.


Lastly, the same rules of conduct apply to the chat. For now, if behavior that would get you banned from the site shows up in the chat then it will still get you banned from the site :-) No other way to put it. I have been very very happy with how exceptional everyone has been on the site so far. I would hope that this is no different in the chat room.


So with all that... Enjoy everyone. I hope this new addition makes it easier and more productive for everyone on the site sharing information.

thanks
Alex