Chat

*This extension can be enabled or disabled using WikiFeatures. (**Special:WikiFeatures**)*[1]The Chat entry point can be found in the right rail.

## Contents

[show]**Chat** is a feature that allows near-instantaneous communication between users on a community. Anybody with a FANDOM account can join chat by clicking the "Join the Chat" or "Start a Chat" button in the right navigation rail.

You can also access chat by visiting **Special:Chat** on the community, or you can add an entry point to chat on your wiki's navigation or on any page you would like to see it by using the

<chat />
wikitext tag.

Once connected, type text and hit your keyboard's Return or Enter key to send the message to the chat room.

## User options

[2]Chat moderators and administrators have a few additional options.
Clicking on a name in the user list will open a menu. You can see the user's name, edit count, join date as well as access their talk page / message wall, contributions, and send them a private message. The "Private message" option opens a new private message room.

Administrators, chat moderators, and Discussions Moderators have additional options:

* **Kick** will kick that user out of the chat.
	+ Administrators, Chat moderators, and Discussions Moderators can kick Helpersand VSTF members, and other administrators, chat moderators and Discussions Moderators.
	+ Administrators, Chat moderators, and Discussion Moderators cannot kick Staff.
* **Ban** will allow you to ban the user for a specific set of time (chosen from a dropdown menu) as well as allow you to state a reason why. Bans can also be set from the user's contributions page.
	+ Chat moderators and Discussions Moderators can ban Helpers, VSTF, and other chat moderators and Discussions Moderators.
	+ Chat moderators and Discussions Moderators can't ban administrators or Staff.
	+ Administrators can ban Chat moderators, Discussions Moderators, Staff, Helpers, VSTF, and other administrators.

## Private messaging Edit

Private messages are conversations between you and one other user. If you are in a private message room with someone, you have the ability to stop receiving their private messages by selecting "**block private messages**" in their username menu. This setting is permanent and FANDOM-wide until you select "**Allow private messages**" from their menu in the general chat room.

## Chat moderators

[3]An example of a chat moderator in chat
Chat moderators have the ability to kick and ban other users from the chat. To identify a chat moderator, a badge will be next to the name in the rail. The chat moderator right can only be given by administrators, helpers, or by FANDOM Staff. A user who is already blocked is automatically banned from chat.

## Unbanning

If a user is banned from chat, an administrator or chat moderator can unban directly from the chat, or by going to the user's contributions page and clicking on the "unban from chat" option. They will be instantly unbanned and allowed to participate in the chat.

## Emoticons

[4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]

You can use emoticons for chat by entering keyboard shortcuts like **:)** or **(heart)** in the chat window. For a complete list of shortcuts available, visit the MediaWiki:Emoticons page on your community.

Administrators can customize the chat emoticons on their communities by editing that page. Emoticons can be any standard image file type, should be hosted on FANDOM, and must be 19 x 19 px in size. If they aren't that size, they will be scaled to it.

Note: quote marks (") cannot be used in emoticon shortcuts.

## "Me" action

A feature in chat, borrowed from IRC, is the "/me" action. If a user (for example: YourName) preceded an entry in chat with "/me", it would render specially:

/me is going to the movies.
would appear as:

* YourName is going to the movies.

## Links

Links work exactly the same in chat as they do in the editor. For example, typing Special:Forum in Community Central Chat results in Special:Forum - the main forum page of Community Central.

You can make shorter links to other communities by using an interwiki link. For example, typing w:c:starwars in chat results in w:c:starwars - an easy way to link to Wookieepedia (http://starwars.wikia.com).

You can also link to specific pages using this method. Typing w:c:avatar:Aang in chat results in a link to the Aangpage on Avatar Wiki (http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Aang).

*Note:* Linking to external wikis doesn't work, so links like mw:API or wikipedia:JPEG would give you a title error when accessed.
## Other tips

* If you want to add a quick guidelines link to the right rail Chat module, simply edit MediaWiki:Chat-entry-point-guidelines system message. This message is empty by default, accepts wikitext input, and appears at the bottom right of the module.
* Chat bans are listed on Special:ChatBanList.
* Bored on chat? Check out some awesome tips from DangerousDangerously on what to do when chat is "dead"