I asked my evil friend =evile33 to help me write a nifty guide to using the Chat Rooms on DeviantART. I did all the work and she poked me repeatedly in the left arm (which is now bruised) and came up with witty one liners that make me look foolish.

Anyway, as for being helpful, we failed, but this is what happened anyway...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH Where am I?!?!?!

`Flutterings says: Hello there, welcome to dAmn. dAmn stands for deviantART Messaging Network and includes the forums and the chat rooms.

This guide is for the chat rooms, using them, and becoming accustom to them.

=evile33 says: The first rule about dAmn club is we don't talk about dAmn club.

`Flutterings says: Luckily dAmn is not a club. So lets move on.

dAmn is moderated by MN@ staff. You can tell who these scary people are by looking for the @ symbol by their usernames. (Usernames are listed on the right). All Official chatrooms are moderated by the MN@ Team. Generally speaking, #MNAdmin, #help, and #devart are the only Official chatrooms on the network.

You can ask an MN@ for the following help:

- Requests to lock a forum thread.
- Reporting a chatroom or person that is breaking chat network rules.
- You have a question about the chat network rules or policy.

The #help chatroom can be used for general inquiries about deviantART and the Chat Network. Please note that the helpers do not assist with bot, software, or print related topics.

But lets not get ahead of ourselves. Let's start at the very beginning. (Its a very good place to start.)

=evile33 says: I don't like the beginning, I like the end. I like to end people's lives. Also, if we go back to the beginning then I have to say 'The first rule about dAmn club is we don't talk about dAmn club.' again. That would be repetitive.

`Flutterings says: Yes, let us not repeat the phrase 'The first rule about dAmn club is we don't talk about dAmn club.' I hate repetition.

=evile33 says: If people don't know we are insane, they will after this. Diagnosis.

`Flutterings says: Diagnosis murder.

=evile33 says: Yay! Murder!!

`Flutterings says: No, that comes at the end. Let us begin at the beginning. Okay?

=evile33 says: Okay. The first rule about dAmn club is we don't talk about dAmn club.


`Flutterings says: Okay.. right.. well.. anyway... to enter the DeviantART Chatrooms you click the nifty button that says Chat. This is NOT french for cat. If you can't find it, that's okay. Here is a link. IT'S HERE, CLICK HERE!!!.

=evile33 says: Thoughtful.

`Flutterings says: I thought so. Nods.

=evile33 says: Even though you spoke entirely in capital letters for that sentence. Which is against the dAmn rules. It's the number one rule.

`Flutterings says: I thought the number one rule was, we don't talk about dAmn club?!?

=evile33 says: We don't talk about that rule.

`Flutterings says: That's good. I think people are bored of that rule now.

=evile33 says: We have to repeat things. Its how they learn.

`Flutterings says: What do you know about learning? You burn not learn!

=evile33 says: I WILL DESTROY YOU.

`Flutterings says: You must not use fully capitalised sentences in the dAmn chat rooms.

The Rules of dAmn (club)

Keep it legal. DeviantART servers are placed in America so they follow mostly US laws, if you're not sure, keep your mouth shut. Not to be rude, but that will be your best bet to not breaking any rules. If you want a more helpful answer, ask an @.

This includes but is not limited to, discussions about pornography, sexuality, obscenity, pirated software and media, illegal materials and texts, drugs and drug related paraphernalia, self harm and suicide.

=evile33 says: and no rickrolling.

`Flutterings says: wtf is a rickroll?

=evile33 says: it's where you post a link but you've renamed the link so they think its something they wanna click but really its Rick Astley!!!

`Flutterings says: I don't think we've got to that bit yet.

=evile33 says: I'm sorry.

`Flutterings says: It's okay. I'm never gonna give you up. I'm never gonna let you down.

=evile33 says: You already did. You broke rule number 1!!

`Flutterings says: err.... back to the rules.


The dAmn network is not to be used to sell stuff! That's not what its for.

At the end of the day DeviantART expects you to take responsibility for your actions and your words. But for those of you who don't understand what behaviour is acceptable, here is the official break down.

=evile33 says: break it down now. (bom boma bom)


Avoid shouting. AKA USING ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.

Avoid gibberish (aka stay out of #APNChat because its just full of nonsense). Aka dfihglhfdg;ldfmjfdgdfjgdf

Avoid streeeeeeeetching. (Except for before excersise. That's very important).

Avoid flooding. (Or flooded areas without the use of a boat).
Avoid flooding. (Or flooded areas without the use of a boat).
Avoid flooding. (Or flooded areas without the use of a boat).

=evile33 says: If you find yourself up a creek sans paddle, please contact an @.

These things ''disrupt the flow of chat for other users''. AKA, piss people off.

Other things that tend to annoy are unsolicited links, this could be asking people to look at your work, your gallery, your page, try starting a conversation with someone first so you don't look like a meanie-head.

Large amounts of text being put into chat all at once is disruptive also.


Do not ask users for their personal information - even 'asl' could get you kicked or burnt by =evile33's flame thrower of doooom. DOOOOOOOMM. (That was both capitalisation and stretching. I have broken sooo many rules. Including rule number one. The first rule about dAmn club is we don't talk about dAmn club.) Personal information, if a user wishes to share it, can be found on their Deviant ART profile page under 'Devious Information'.


DeviantART discourages foul language, racism, sexual references or offensive remarks. Basically, it disapproves of =evile33.


DeviantART will remove anyone who advocates (encourages) expressions of violance, bigotry, racism or hatred or any actions that encourage others to break any of the dAmn rules (except rule number one, that is not policed).

Most of the dAmn rooms are English-Speaking but there are many multi-lingual user created rooms to play in.


Bans are set at the discretion of the MN@ admin setting the ban. The minimum period for any ban is 1 day (24 hours) and can be anything up to indefinite. If you have a query about a ban in an official room then you can inquire about it through the Help Desk. You cannot be banned for talking about dAmn club.

Basically, use your common sense and be polite.

The last rule about dAmn club is we don't talk about dAmn club. (Bet you thought we'd left that out.)


`Flutterings says: So, now you know what you're allowed to talk about, how do you talk?

=evile33 says: I use my mouth words.

`Flutterings says: Mouth words. Interesting.

=evile33 says: Better than my as...

`Flutterings says: Enough of that!! That's profanity. Against the rulesss...

=evile33 says: That's more of a guideline.

`Flutterings says: You're a guideline.

=evile33 says: Sticks and stones may break my bones

`Flutterings says: But chains and whips excite you?

=evile33 says: You are so childish. Try to focus would you?

`Flutterings says: mutter mutter grrr mutter....


Things You Need

Windows:
Internet Explorer 5.5 or above.
Mozilla Firefox 0.8 or above.
or Mozilla 1.7 or above.
AND
Flash 5.0
or Java

Linux/FreeBSD:
You will need a recent Firefox or Mozilla with the Sun Java plugin version 1.4.2 or 5.0. Blackdown Java does NOT work.

Mac/OSX:
Firefox users with Java 1.4.2 or higher will need the Java Embedding Plugin found here.

Safari users may use the dAmn Fix that can be downloaded from here.


If you have trouble getting into the chat rooms check:

Your computer can connect to porn 3900 (Firewall / router settings)

Zonealarm is not interfereing with DeviantART.

You do not have too many tabs open.

DeviantART is not in read-only mode. (When in read-only mode DeviantART will not disconnect you but it will not allow people to open a new connection).


If you would rather connect via IRC the server is [link] and the main room is #devart.

Things You "Need"
Most hardcore dAmn users use Firefox (sorry Chrome fans but it's true). There are many Firefox plugins to make your dAmn experience even jazzier.

These are the most common (and important) stuffs.

Greasemonkey this makes all your user scripts work... User scripts such as....

dAx (by `siebenzehn). The must have. This will give you the all important away message! Simply type /setaway Your reason for being away and then hit enter. Every time someone speaks to you (using your username) it will set off an automated response to tell them why you aren't replying. Groovy.

=evile33 says: If you don't have dAx you are nobody.

`Flutterings says: That's what you said about chlamydia.

=evile33 says: The rules do not cover lying.

dAmn Goodies (by =sumopiggy). This gives you the nickname tool, (much fun). Tabbing (or typing someones username) alerts someone that you are speaking to them by highlighting what you have said. The nickname tool allows you to rename this person to anything you like and it still alerts them that you are talking to them.

To make this work use...

/nick on (this turns the system on after you have installed it).

then

/nick set evile33 to HeinousBitch


Then when you type evile33 at the start of a sentence (it doesnt work mid sentence and no, I dont know why) it will automatically change when you hit enter, to HeinousBitch. Please note that typing the nickname won't alert the person. Type their username like normal and it will change to your set nickname.

/nick off to turn this feature off.


Zikes! as brought to you by God. (aka `Zikes) this sexy little system adds millions of new emotes to your inventory. You can :huggle: :tighthug: or :superpoke: people to death. Yay. You can even add your own emotes.

dAmn Autojoin. This nifty little script makes it so that whenever you enter a chatroom you automatically enter all the other chatrooms you tell it that you love. Don't do this with too many chatrooms though or you will lag yourself out and die. To edit your room list right click anywhere in the dAmn window and select dAmnAutoJoin Options.


Things You REALLY Need
A respiratory system (lungs)

=evile33 says: a brain. Oh, we can't say that it might offend somebody.

`Flutterings says: It's okay. People without brains almost never file a complaint.


Commands Glorious Commands

The following are the basic commands that anyone can use in a chatroom, as stolen from the FAQs. I am naughty, shhh....

/me action
Action. Type /me runs about will produce *`Flutterings runs about in the chat room. instead of <`Flutterings> *runs about in the chatroom*

/whois username
Will show you which rooms the username is currently chatting in. If you see the following: get error: flutterings (bad namespace) This means that the user you are searching for is not currently on the Chat Network.


Highlighting / Nick Complete
To quickly type a username, or to make sure you type it correctly, type the first one or two letters then hit "TAB" on your keyboard to have the username automatically filled in

/clear
Type /clear to remove all of the current text from the chat window.

/help
Type /help at any time to get to the FAQ.

/join roomname
Type /join roomname to quickly join another room. You can also simply click the +more button beside the chatroom tab to see a list of chatrooms, and then click on the name of the chatroom.

/note username
Typing /note JoeBloggs will open the notes page, so that you can send a note to the username you have specified.

/admin show users [GroupName]
Type /admin show users to show all the users who are members of all the different Groups in the chatroom. You can also type /admin show users Moderators to just show the users in the Moderator group (for example).

/admin show privclass
Type /admin show privclass to display all the different Groups in the chatroom and how they are currently setup and privileged to do things.

<iframe src="url" width=.. height=.. />
This allows you to display a webpage in the chat. For example, if you wanted to show google.com, you'd write <iframe src="http://www.google.com" width=100 height=100 /> and it would display the webpage in a window sized 100 x 100 pixels. To view the embedded object, you must hover your cursor over the link and click the Maximize icon next to the url.


Links
As an alternative to (a href="http://www.deviantart.com")deviantart.com(/a) or simply pasting the URL.

=evile33 says: Here, replacing bits of the code with *asterisks* didn't work, it still wouldn't show up! So we replaced the < with a ( and a > with a ).

You can also use this special link code. Type: htt*p://ww*w.deviantart.co*m (deviantART) to display a clickable link, that says deviantART.

=evile33 says: We had to add *asterisks* here to show you the code, so remove them!!

`Flutterings says: This time the brackets are supposed to be brackets!

<img src="URL" />
To display an image in dAmn, use the normal HTML code <img src="URL" />. Note, again to view the embedded object, you must hover your cursor over the link and click the Maximize icon next to the url.


Type :ico*nUsername: to display a clickable link with the username's avatar.

=evile33 says: We had to add *asterisks* here to show you the code, so remove them!!

*username
Type :de*vUsername: to display a clickable link with the usernames's name.

=evile33 says: We had to add *asterisks* here to show you the code, so remove them!!

Because DeviantART automatically accepts your coding, if you are trying to show someone coding it can be difficult. So to show the code hold shift when you press enter (to send). Simple!

To post a thumbnail of a deviation:

Open a deviation from your gallery. On the right hand side under the deviation, you will notice a box with 'Thumb' above it. Copy the code which is in the box and paste that into your forum post.

You can also simply drag-and-drop a deviation into the forum post which is in your Collection(s) by using the Collection dropdown button.

To post a thumbnail of a print:

You need to use the :shop#: notation, where # is the number of the print in which you wish to display.

For instance, if you view a print you will notice a number at the end of the URL, for example [link] To display this print in thumb form you would simply type

:shop104*506:

=evile33 says: We had to add *asterisks* here to show you the code, so remove them!!

Creating and Customising Your Own Room

A very helpful step by step tutorial has already been provided on this subject by the lovely $Tachy-on so click here for part one and then here for part two. Aww, ain't that lovely?

The only thing I can tell isn't covered by that yummy tutorial is bot registration. If you have a bot then click FAQ #795: How do I register my bot on the chat network? to find out how to register it with DeviantART. If you don't but you want one, I suggest you go to DeviantART chat room #botdom.


Some information from this article was paraphrased from the DeviantART FAQs.





Rule number one... _{You don't talk about dAmn Club}


Love,
Kate & Kathy x