Gameslate Chat FAQ (updated Dec 13/03)

What is Gameslate Chat?
A chat application for chatting in realtime with other Gameslate users. The chat app is also the platform for a few additional toys, such as the Gameslate events ticker and network drawing.

How do I connect to the chat?
Just load the chat flash window via the chat launch page and it should connect automatically to the chat server.

I can't connect, what gives?
There is a separate help page for connectivity issues here: Gameslate Chat connection help.

I don't see anyone else in the chat, where is everyone?
The chat system is pretty new, there isn't always someone there. Try the /who command to see who is currently connected to the chat. If no one is there, maybe invite someone or try checking the forums for scheduled chats.

What are the commands in chat?
The commands are listed in the chat via the /help command, plus they are mentioned in more detail on the chat launch page.

What does the /ping command do?
/ping will tell you the speed (latency, not throughput) to the chat server and via the chat server to other users. It makes a full roundtrip connection through the server to the user (yourself if none specified) and back to yourself then tells you how long that took. A good ping is usually less than a second and pings will vary significantly.

A Flash app? But I don't like Flash.
Too bad.

No seriously, why didn't you make it with Java or just an HTML-based chat?
We might make a Java version eventually, but for now we just made it with Flash. Gameslate has had HTML-based chats in the past and we deemed that method too resource intensive and difficult to maintain.

Which version of the Flash player/plugin should I have?
Flash 5 or better (6, 7, MX, etc.). If you have the Flash 7 player you'll get nifty mousewheel support and better performance.

It works kind of like IRC, can I connect with an IRC client?
It's not an IRC server, sorry.

Why isn't it an IRC server?
Gameslate Chat does more than chat, it integrates with Gameslate's login system, displays information about events on Gameslate and in the future it will contain games to play as well. While we could have modified an IRC server for those things, it was much easier to create our own server. Plus our current hosting provider does not allow IRC servers.

This Drawing thing is cool, but it's slow and crude.
The drawing functions currently use a very brute force method to draw on their screen. Sorry about that, we wanted to test something that would push the limits and that's why we created the drawing functions in the first place. We'll eventually get around to tweaking it so it works better.

Can I play a Pictionary style game with the drawing functions?
Sure, if you like, but there are no builtin rules for that in Gameslate chat. Maybe eventually we'll make some.

Does Rog really give spoilers when he's chatting?
Sometimes, yes.