If you have any questions, check the resources section or me at All comments should be directed to

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1 Welcome to Chatroll! Contents Chatroll Introduction... 2 Chat on our website... 3 Chat and your Profile... 3 Moderating the Chat... 5 Basic Moderation: the chat window, managing chatters... 5 Advanced Moderation: The Settings/Management panel... 7 Administrating the Chat Resources If you have any questions, check the resources section or me at ries93@gmail.com. All comments should be directed to ries93@gmail.com. Feel more than welcome to learn by playing! Once you have moderator permissions, please visit the chat, post, and check out pm, deletion, blocking one another, and the moderator console! Moderators can make mistakes, but you can t delete the chat or create any havoc that we can t recover from. Just let me know if something goes wrong or you run into any problems so I can fix them if you can t. 1

2 Chatroll Introduction Chatroll is an IRC-based live chat client. It allows private messaging, message deletion, mass message deletion, blocking and unblocking of chatters, pop-out chat, speed control, and message pinning. We presently have chatroll configured for 500 simultaneous users, although I can add more if needed. In general: Administrators can change the chat appearance, set sign-in methods, assign moderator and admin permissions, assign chat and history permissions, and review pm history. They also have all the rights assigned to moderators. Moderators can post text and links, pm, delete anyone s posts, and ban via that chat windows. They can also access the moderation console by clicking the gear icon below the chat box. The moderation console allows moderators to turn chat off and on, set chat speed, add moderation filters to prevent offensive posts, set cross-posting (don t worry about this), set pinned and welcome messages, and see blocked chatters. They also have all the rights assigned to chatters. Chatters logged in through Chatroll, Facebook, Twitter, or our website can post text (but not links), pm, delete their own posts, and view their own profiles and personal chat histories by clicking the gear icon below the chat box. Guests are able to see chat, but don t have any rights to chat. They do not count against our 500-user limit. You can sign into chat in multiple ways. I ve enabled sign in through Chatroll, Facebook, Twitter, and our website. The Chatroll, Facebook, and Twitter options will appear at the bottom of the chat when you aren t signed in. You will need a chatroll account if you want to chat via chatroll. You can create one at Signing in via our website isn t quite as easy, but it will give you access to Ed Chat and to the new ModAerie. To sign into our website, click the Classroom link in the menu at top right or follow this link ( If you are logged in already, you will see a drop-down menu with a link to your profile and the Modaerie room. Only logged in mods can see the ModAerie link. If you aren t logged in, you will be taken to a login screen. If you don t have a user account, me. We are able to login to chat through our website because we have single sign on (SSO) enabled. This is super convenient, but comes with a few consequences. Consequence one: You can t sign out of chat by clicking the logout icon below chat. You need to sign out of our website to sign out of chat. Consequence two: Any changes you make to your avatar will not appear until you log out and log back in again. Consequence three: You are going to need to learn the basics of managing your profile. I want to stress that you can t permanently break anything, so please feel welcome to explore and play! If you so 2

3 Chat on our website We currently have chat in three locations on our website. Main Decorah Eagles chat: Ed chat: Modaerie: You can access and talk in Main chat via Chatroll, your social media accounts, or your website login. You need to login to the website to access and talk in Ed Chat and Modaerie. Again, only logged in mods can see the Modaerie link. The three chats are all different colors to help us keep them separated while we have them popped out and are chatting. Main is blue, Ed is green, and Modaerie is brownish. The name of each chat also appears at the top of the chat. Chat and your Profile When you log into our website and go to chat, the chat instance sends the following information to chatroll: Your user name Your moderator status Your user ID Your avatar. If you don t have an avatar, it sends a default avatar. If your moderator status is true, chatroll basically says That person has moderator credentials at website xyz, so we'll assign them moderator status on our platform, too." But you never actually log in to chatroll and your profile exists on our website, not chatroll. A link to your profile can be found on the right-hand side of the page in the Classroom and in Modaerie. There is also a profile link in the dropdown and you can click your name once you ve logged into chat as well. A look at the default profile. You can add a banner (the big grey area), an avatar (the little circle), and some text about yourself that will appear by your user name. 3

4 To change your profile, click the gear icon. This will pop up your user options menu. You can edit your profile, access your account settings, and logout. You can decide whether you want an avatar, cover photo, and text. The avatar will appear in chat, but your description and cover photo will not. I just clicked the button. Notice how the avatar shows a camera. Click the camera to upload an avatar. Click the + in the grey field to upload a cover photo. Add some text in the tell me about yourself text field. Once you are done, click Update settings below the profile. A completed profile. It looks so much better! Profiles can be changed at any time. Feel welcome to check out the account settings as well. Note that your account default is set to appear in the public profile. You can chance that if you like. 4

5 Moderating the Chat Basic Moderation: the chat window, managing chatters The chat window consists of three parts: the chat list, the viewer list, and the chat window. The chat list shows all of your conversations, and makes it easy to toggle back and forth between them and delete them. Individual conversations can be deleted by rolling over them and clicking X. The chat list can be opened or closed by clicking the grey hamburger menu at top left. It looks like this. The user list shows everyone watching the chat and stream. Logged in users are blue. Guests who aren t signed in are part of the green count the group of users identified as x number of visitors. You can engage with logged in users by clicking their names in the user list or in the chat window. Unlogged users or guests can t pm or chat, although they can see the chat. The user list can be opened or closed by clicking show all or hide all. The chat and its parts. Let s start with the Conversations Pane! It shows that I m in two conversations: main chat and a pm with littlebittykitty. To delete conversations, roll over them and click the X. The User Pane shows us that 25 people are online. Three are mods note the background color on their names. Scroll down to see all of the users. The dot color tells you whether they are online and logged in, although it can be a bit deceptive since users can leave their tabs open on walk away from the computer. Note the four icons below the chat window. Clicking the gear will take you to the moderator settings panel and your profile. Clicking the door will log you out if you are logged in via chatroll or social media. The speaker toggles audio on and off. The arrow in the window pops the chat out. 5

6 All user management can be done from the main chat window. Mods can pm and block chatters, remove all messages by a chatter, or remove individual messages. I initiated a conversation with Ries by clicking her name in the User List. I decided to delete her single message by rolling over it and clicking the red X (look at the bottom). 6

7 Advanced Moderation: The Settings/Management panel Basic chat interaction can be managed from the chat window, but chat management functions must be done from the moderation panel. These include turning the chat on and off, setting chat speed, accessing the blocked list, and viewing your chat history. All moderators are able to access the moderation panel. Click the gear icon ( Settings Icon) below the chat to access the settings panel. A new tab will open at The panel consists of three parts: the menu, the chat window, and controls. At top right, you should see a support link, a sign out link, the avatar associated with your login, and the name associated with your login. Moderation categories include: Message Posting, Status Messages, Manual Approval, and Blocked Users. 7

8 The Message Posting controls allow moderators to turn the chat on and off, change message speed, add words to the no-no filter, and set-up cross-posting targets. Don t worry about the last one. Note that messages posted by administrators and moderators will always appear in real-time. Messages posted by all other users will appear based on the message display speed. The Status Messages controls allow moderators to set pinned messages (think video list) and welcome messages to introduce chat. Messages are limited to 512 characters and can easily be added or removed. 8

9 The Manual Approval controls let moderators pre-approve messages. When I blocked Amy Jirak via the chat window, she showed up in the Blocked Users control panel. Note that it was very easy to unblock her! We can also block users by IP, which allows us to set a time control. However, it won t be easy for us to get IP addresses, so I suspect we won t use this feature unless I can extend the API to provide us with IP addresses. 9

10 Administrating the Chat Admin accounts function just like moderator accounts in the chat window. Admins use the same PM, deletion, mass deletion, and chat tools that moderators do. Like moderators, admins can post links and access the moderation features discussed in the last section. However, administrators have access to a few additional features. When administrators click the gear below the chat window, a new tab will open at The panel consists of three parts: the menu, the chat window, and controls. At top right, you should see a support link, a sign out link, the avatar associated with your login, and the name associated with your login. Settings categories include: General, Appearance, Access, Users, and Permissions. To access the moderation features, click the Moderation Link immediately below the Settings options. While admins have more rights than moderators, they are not able to delete the chat and any mistakes they make can be corrected. 10

11 The General Settings panel allows admins to change the event name, change the event url, upload a new image for the chat, and set a target language for the chat. Although administrators have access to these features, they aren t to be changed unless myself or John give the green light. However, if they are accidentally changed, we can change them back. 11

12 The Appearance panel controls the appearance of the chat. Controls include: Colors: Default colors match the website, but can be changed at any time. Border: The default is show. The border may also be hidden. User List position: Changes the position of the user list. Default is top. Sound: Enables sound notifications when sending and receiving messages. Default is on. Recent messages: Determines the maximum amount of time that messages can stay in the chat window if there are less than 20 of them. Message order: Determines where the newest messages will appear. Default is bottom. White label: Remove chatroll branding and links. Default is Yes. Custom CSS: Allows admins to overrule existing styles and set new ones. Please leave this alone unless Amy has given permission to change it. 12

13 The Access panel allows administrators to bump the capacity of users up and set sign in methods. If the number of users needs to bumped up, please call Amy at so she can coordinate the change with our account rep. Although anyone can see the chat, participation requires sign-in. Guests are essentially anonymous users. AU are not welcome in our chats, especially since chats sometimes include children and vulnerable adults. All participants must be logged and traceable. Chatroll, Facebook, and Twitter are fairly straightforward, easy ways to join chat. Single-Sign On, or SSO, allows people who have RRP website accounts through wordpress ie, moderators and teachers to sign on to chat automatically. This can be confusing for people who have multiple sign-ons. I encourage all of you with more than one sign on for example, I have one through chatroll and one through our website to use different avatars, especially if your user names are the same. 13

14 Resources The following resources provide additional information about chatroll. You are also always welcome to contact me at with questions. Chatroll FAQ: Chatroll Guides: Chatroll Support: 14