UglyMUG - Communications Tutorial
by Lursa
The purpose of this tutorial is to set out the numerous different ways of communicating on Ugly. It is aimed at all Ugly users of whatever level of experience either as a refresher course or alternatively to allow you to explore types of communication that you may not yet be using.
It is suggested that any new users should read the Newbie Tutorial first. This also contains a section on basic communication.
In the interests of clarity the following applies when examples are used:
So have a read, switch your computer on and see what new forms of communication you can use to amaze your friends!
This section covers the types of communication that even the newest users of Ugly should know. There are one or two potential surprises though.
To speak to someone in the same room as you type either:
'<message>
or
"<message>
or
say <message>
Everyone who is in the same room as you will be able to see what you are saying. Anyone outside the room will not see this.
This allows you to send a message to someone in the same room without everyone else hearing. If you type:
whisper <user> = <message>
Although technically thinking is a private action when you think on Ugly everyone in the room can see it. This can therefore be used as a form of communication in conversations.
To use 'think' type either:
+ <message>
or
= <message>
In order to make a comment or perform an action, which is not spoken, you need to type:
:<action>
or
emote <action>
the colon at the beginning (or the word emote) alerts Ugly that you are emoting. Everyone in the room will see the text; nobody outside the room will be able to see it.
Typing:
page <User> = <message>
will send a message to the person you are speaking to that only they will see. This is useful when talking to someone who is not in the same location but can also be used when you are both in the same room. In the latter situation no one else in the room can see the message.
See the entry on superpager below for information on how to soup up your own pager.
This has a similar effect to paging. By typing:
tell <User> = <message>
you will send a message to the person you are speaking to that only they will see. This can again be used for talking to someone who is not in the same location but can also be used to send a message to another person in a room. Nobody else can see that message.
If you are having a conversation with someone using tell you can type:
rt = <message>
this will send the message to the last person you used the tell command on but only if you set out that tell exactly as the example above. If the equals symbol is missing then rt will not work.
A further way to use the tell command is to type:
> <User> <message>
If you use this method then rt will not work.
Ugly has its own mail system allowing you to leave messages for people who are not logged on. These mails can only be seen by you.
The basic command to send a message to someone is:
mail <user> = <message>
Once you have sent the message there is no way to get it back.
There are various ways to monitor and edit your own mail box and these are set out below:
i. Monitoring your own messages
Every time you log onto Ugly you will receive a message if you have mail in your mailbox. An example of this message is:
MAIL: You have 11 items of mail (One unread).
You can also see this message if you type:
To see a list of your items of mail you need to type either:
mail header
or
mail list
The mail list command can also be divided into subcategories so that when listing your mail you only need to list certain items you wish to look at on that occasion. You are therefore able to type:
mail list = <specified items>
and then one of the following phrases:
ii. Reading your messages
To read your mail you need to type either:
mail read = <mail number>
or
mail next
or
mail prev
The latter two take you backwards or forwards through your mudmail messages respectively.
To delete any mail which you have read and no longer require either type:
mail delete = <mail number>
or
mail purge = <mail number>
or
mail trash = <mail number>
There is a limit as to how many mails you can store in your mailbox. When it is full anyone who tries to mail you will receive a message telling them that the box is full.
iii.Customising your mail
When reading your mail you are able to customise your list making it quicker to read and easier to locate certain items.
By typing:
mail keep = <number of mail>
you can permanently store an individual item of mail. This prevents you deleting it by accident.
If you do delete an item by accident you can type:
mail recover
and this recovers the last deleted item of mail.
The ansafone saves messages when you are logged on but idle, this ensures that you do not miss any pages or tells which are sent to you. The default idle time is 3 minutes although this can be varied. When you return to your keyboard if anything is stored in the ansafone you will receive the message that there are ansafone messages.
To read the messages type:
ansafone
To clear the messages type:
ansafone clear
To switch the ansafone off type:
ansafone off
and to switch it back on type:
ansafone on
If you page or tell another user and receive the message that their ansafone is off this simply means that the message has not been stored in the ansafone. If that user returns to the screen or even scrolls back they will see your message.
These commands are for general use to add spice to conversations. The more you use them the more you get used to which ones are most applicable to which situation.
To see the feelings list type:
feelings
At the time of writing this tutorial there are currently 99 different feelings commands available. They are as follows:
| grin | sob | snog | hug | kiss | wave | kick | punch |
| smile | wibble | lol | sigh | chuckle | bop | finger | rotfl |
| sheep | choc | shake | nod | sulk | frown | moan | burp |
| fart | icecube | jelly | coffee | whip | chop | drill | chew |
| yawn | compile | bite | slap | spank | lemming | tickle | wink |
| pan | bonk | towel | spoon | giggle | shiver | yoyo | elite |
| submit | bat | bodyform | mallet | phen | kebab | pout | typo |
| handf | panic | totty | mexhug | fdl | pmt | ewok | mnem |
| wiggle | goove | mmmbop | pitchfork | egg | budum | greet | wah |
| pie | bs | chiz | scary | bored | expect | rot13 | pedant |
| fish | retro | blush | tumble | pat | fifi | bday | lick |
| beam | ep2 | food | withnail | yoda | darius | aol | subwoof |
| icecream | faint | topcat |
i. Using feelings on the channels
Feelings can be used on tell, fchat, @nat, and in the silly room. To use a feeling type:
.<name of the feeling you want to use> <and If you wish the name of your intended victim>
The command will not work if the full stop is not used at the beginning. Each feeling has a different result depending on whether you choose a victim or not.
ii. Using feelings in other situations
Each time that you want to use the feelings commands outside of the chat channels or the silly room you need to type the following:
df <feeling> <user>
Again the result of the feeling depends on whether you choose a victim or not.
Ugly also allows you to use random euphemisms in your conversations. By typing:
euph <user>
A euphemism is generated and aimed at your chosen recipient.
To use this on the chat channel type:
ceuph <user>
To use this on the friends channel type:
feuph <user>
This command allows you to have a snowball fight with another user. Neither of you need to be in the same room. If you wish to fight choose a victim and then type:
snowball <user>
You will see a message telling you who you snowballed and what the result of your shot was.
Your victim will see who has snowballed them, the results of your throw and will be told how to retaliate. In order to retaliate you type exactly the same as above.
There are loads of different results so have a play and see what happens.
Exactly the same as snowball except this is a custard pie fight. Again choose your victim and type either:
sweet <user>
or
pie <user>
or
dessert <user>
There may be times when you wish to be logged onto Ugly but not involved in the general chatter. There are several ways of doing this depending on your reason for wanting peace and quiet.
By setting yourself Haven you prevent people from paging or telling to you. Anyone who tries gets a message that you do not wish to be disturbed. Any messages that are sent to you will not be stored in your ansafone unless you have remained idle for 3 minutes. If you have the superpager (see section below on superpagers) you will be able to see the last 5 people who paged you when you check it. The only other way for people to communicate with you is to send MudMail. When you receive a mail you are still informed who has sent it and you can choose whether to read it now or later.
Although people in the same room as you can talk to you whilst you are set haven there is no excuse for them to turn up at your location to do so when you are set haven. When you set yourself haven your entry in the who list is marked with the "H-flag" so everyone is aware that you are haven.
To set yourself Haven type:
@set me = haven
To unset yourself type:
@set me = !haven
The only other way to unset haven is to page or tell someone else. This automatically removes the flag because you have started the conversation.
If you want to stop an individual player telling or paging you then you can set the 'ignore flag'. When they try to contact you they will receive a message that you are ignoring them. See the section on channels for more information on this. To set the flag type:
lset <user you want to ignore> = ignore
If you wish to unset the flag type:
lset <user you want to unignore> = !ignore
This stops you seeing any message sent by people over fchat whom you have blocked. See the section on channels for more information on this.
UglyMUG provides a way for you to control the displaying of bad language on your screen, by blocking out rude words and replacing them with '*'s.
If you wish to have ALL bad language censored out by the game and replaced with '*'s, then set the 'censorall' flag on yourself, by typing:
@set me = censorall
If you are quite happy with seeing rude words in your private conversations, pages, tells and so on, but get do not wish to see bad language in public rooms such as the silly room, you can set the 'censorpublic' flag on yourself, by typing:
@set me=censorpublic
If you use the 'censorpublic' flag but still find yourself seeing bad language in places that you consider it should not occur, then please let a member of the admin know, or use the 'gripe' command to report it, and we will do our best to sort it out.
It is also possible for Wizards and Apprentices to set the 'censored' flag on specific players if they are continually abusive towards others. This will cause any output generated by that individual to be censored.
The Superpager is designed to allow you to keep track of your paging to any number of people, in a short amount of time, with the least effort possible. Its benefits include the abilities to:
An example of a page when you have a superpager is:
PAGING from The Stairs, Milady laughs, hey you.
Paging from Milady at Mon Jun 24 17:07:19 2002
(F1 omally) (F2 Jim) (F3 Milady) (F4 Frijj) (F5 Dyason)
(P1 Orphan Annie) (P2 Jim Hacker) (P3 Frijj Magnutt) (P4 Tarka) (P5 Milady)
This starts off with the normal page but then sets out the people who have most frequently paged you and those you have included on your friends list. You can edit the pager so it shows you the information you require therefore you may prefer a different layout to the one above.
Superpagers need to be bought from the Utilities Room in the Building Zone. You will need 20 drogna in order to build the pager. For more information on drogna and general locations on Ugly see the General Information Tutorial.
The pager is capable of showing two sets of lists, as shown in the example above. It is up to you whether you want to see one or both or neither.
The bottom of the 2 lists shows the names of the 5 people who have paged you most recently. To show this list on the pager type:
showlist yes
To remove this list from the pager type:
showlist
The first of the two lists (or arrays) shows those people that you have entered as permanent friends. Again to show this list type:
showfriends yes
To hide that list type:
showfriends
The last part of the pager that can be customised is the time and date. Each page can be set up to show the time and date it was received. To show the time and date type:
showtime yes
To hide it type
showtime
Once you have chosen your options the pager is customised.
A quick way to check the settings on your pager is to type:
pageset
This automatically provides a list of which settings you have on and which are off.
If you have your pager array on view you will see the 5 people who have most recently paged you. If you do not have this array on view then by typing:
VIEW
You will see the last 5 people who paged you. Doing this will show you an array in the following format:
(P1 Orphan Annie) (P2 Jim Hacker) (P3 Frijj Magnutt) (P4 Tarka) (P5 Milady)
To return a page to any of these individuals you need only type their number in the array and your message. For example to send a page to Tarka type:
p4 <message>
To page anyone else in the list just type their entry number and the message.
To see the last person whom you paged type:
lp
This is particularly useful if you do not have the pager array automatically on display.
To send another page to the last person you paged type:
pp <Message>
Finally if you want to clear all of the entries in the list for the last 5 people who paged you type:
reset
The most important thing to note is that the friends array is different to your friends list (see the section on lists for more details). The commands for each are different and the lists themselves can be different.
The friends array is different to the page array in that the information isn't automatically entered when anyone pages you. Instead the first step if you choose to use this array is to enter the names of your 5 friends. Possibly these should be the people whom you are likely to page the most. Once these names are entered the only people who can change them apart from you are the Wizards.
To add a friend to your list type:
pfadd <playername>
This command does not check to see whether the players actually exist so it is up to you to make sure that you've got the name right. Once you have your 5 names you cannot enter anymore instead you need to use the other commands either to replace names or empty the list.
To replace a name on the friends list type:
pfrep <number of the array you are changing> = <name you want to be put in there>
So as an example:
In the original list I want to replace Omally with Reaperman. I need to type:
pfrep 1 = Reaperman
This has now changed the entry for F1.
There are limitations for pfrep it will not allow you to replace a blank entry. Also it does not check to make sure that the new name you are entering does exist.
To remove an individual from the list without replacing them you need to type:
pfrem <number of the array which you wish to delete>
If the entry you are removing is in the middle of the list the other entries will move down to replace it. So if you remove F3 then entries F4 and F5 will move down the list leaving F5 blank. Once again you cannot remove a blank entry.
If you do not have the friends array on view then you can see the list by typing:
fv
This is particularly useful if you want to page one of them.
Paging your friends using the friends array is fairly simple to send a message type the array number followed by the message.
As an example, to page Milady in the original list I would type:
f3 <message>
The same would happen for any of the names in the list just by using their array number.
You can page everyone in the friends array with one message by typing:
pagefriends <message>
This command will try to page everyone and let you know whether they are on or not. If one person is not on the message will still go to the others.
Once again if you want to clear your entire list and start again type:
pfreset
This does not ask for confirmation before it wipes the array.
The SuperPager depends on it's own PAGE and .PAGE commands to work. If you decide that you wish to change either of these then you need to be careful to ensure that you do not stop the whole thing working.
Also if you are carrying things, which have the same name as any of the SuperPager commands, it may cause it to function in an unpredictable fashion. Therefore if you intend to write your own page commands you need to use one of the following methods to ensure it works properly.
The first solution is to link the page command of the superpager and your own page command so that the two work together. However this will not work if your page command is in a container.
The second solution is to use SPage. This is just an explicit name for the page command that the SuperPager uses to keep track of certain things. It does the
same as when you type 'page' - providing you haven't created a page command of your own. Its only real use is if you wish to add to the functionality of your page command. (e.g. remote paging).
To use the Spage command all you need to do is type:
Spage
in front of each page you make.
If you want to change your .page command, please add to the existing .page command which comes with the Superpager.
In short, any page commands of your own may interfere with the superpager commands. If that happens, or if you want to avoid it in the first place you may need the help of a wizard. If you are a wizard, tough, you're on your own.
If you find a problem with the SuperPager, the best way to notify someone of the problem is to use the gripe command, which will, get your message to the right person. (See the section on assistance for more details about gripe).
To remove your pager altogether type:
pagerRemove
This command will remove your SuperPager the proper way by removing your pager, your .page, and your name from the pager mailing list.
Channels are the main way in which groups of people can communicate without having to be in the same room and without having to use the other methods of communication. It is useful in situations where a few people wish to discuss something which would bore the other people in the room and which would become complicated if you used page or tell.
Anyone can open a channel on any topic. There are also two main channels available for anyone who wants to join these are the Chat Channel and the Friends Chat. Both of these are considered below.
To create your own channel you need to type the following:
chat #<your chosen channel name>
As long as that channel doesn't already exist you will have created a channel by that name. If a channel already exists by that name you will automatically join that channel.
To check for existing channels type:
@channel list
Once you have created the channel you become the channel operator with ultimate responsibility for running it. As the operator you can use any of the @channel commands to run the channel.
The list of the various potential commands and their meanings is set out below most of them are very straightforward. Those that do require further explanation are discussed in more detail.
As a word of warning when using an @channel command you do not need to put in the name of the channel you are referring to. The command will automatically apply to the last channel that you joined or you chatted to.
You can use this to make and remove operators. If you select to remove yourself then the channel will assume that you have resigned as operator. If everyone resigns so there are no operators then nobody will be able to use the @channel commands and therefore nobody can be made operator again.
@channel mode = private (players can join by invitation only)
@channel mode = public (anyone who isn't banned can join)
When a player is invited, they may join a private channel. A message is sent to the player, telling them that they have been invited. When a player is uninvited, they can no longer join the private channel and a message to this effect is sent to them.
These commands are used with a public channel to prevent certain people from logging on. If you ban someone and they were already on the channel then they are booted off the channel. If they are not then a message is sent to them telling them that they are banned. If they try to join the channel they will be unable to do so.
Again, by typing:
@channel list
you can obtain a list of the existing channels to decide which, if any, you wish to join. The chat channel and the friends channel are open for everyone (unless a user is banned). For other channels as a matter of courtesy page the operator to check that you are welcome before you join. The operator can be recognised by the @ symbol in front of their name in the channel list.
To join your chosen channel type:
chat #<channelname>
Everyone who is on the channel at the time will see a message confirming that you have joined the channel.
Once on the channel again the commands for using it are pretty simple.
This will allow you to chat on the last channel you joined or the last channel you spoke on. If you are on several channels and wish to speak on a different one type:
chat <#channel you want to speak on> = <message>
You will continue to talk on that channel until you change the default again.
This shows you the commands that are available to be used on your current channel.
Tells you who is on your current channel.
This shows certain status information about the channel:
This is the main public channel, which anyone can join (providing they have not been banned). Because people have more of a choice whether to be on the channel or not the conversation style can be more risqué than in public rooms but the main Ugly rules still apply as to abusive or insulting language (see the section on etiquette for more information).
The chat channel works in exactly the same way as all the other channels except there is no operator. The Wizards are the ones who keep control of it.
The chat channel also has several other extra commands which relate only to that channel.
To talk on the chat channel you can type:
cc <message>
To get a list of who's on the channel, type:
cc who
To leave the channel type:
cc off
Once you have left the channel you will not automatically rejoin it when you next log in - or indeed ever.
To rejoin the channel just type
cc on
you will rejoin the channel and henceforth you will join it automatically on login.
The various feelings commands can be used on the chat channel as can the euph, ceuph and feuph commands. Also, you have the ability to attack a named individual on the channel by typing:
ca <victim>
Once you have your fchat flag set you will automatically be on this channel. And once you start to add people to your friends lists or your Main Player List (see the section on lists below) you will begin to take part in the channel conversations. If someone whom you have listed as a friend speaks on the channel you will see the message as will everyone else who has listed that person. When you speak on the channel everyone who has you on his or her lists will see what you say. Anyone who has you on their list, even if you do not have them on your list will see your messages in fchat.
To set your fchat flag type:
@set me = fchat
To remove the flag type:
@set me = !fchat
This does sometimes cause confusion as one individual may be having a conversation with someone else on Fchat and you can only see one side of the conversation. If that is the case you need to add the other person to your friends list to see the whole conversation and hopefully to join in.
Players who have set the fblock flag or the ignore flag on you are not sent the message, even if they are one of your friends. People who do not have their fchat flag set are also excluded.
To speak on fchat just type either:
fchat <message>
or
fc <message>
If you wish to set your block flag type:
fblock <player you wish to ignore>
To remove this type:
funblock <players name>
To see your list of friends on fchat (i.e. those you have on your list and those who have you on their lists) type:
fwho
People who have set either the fblock or ignore flag on you are shown with a # or a ! respectively in front of their name. People who have you as a friend, but whom you do not have as a friend are shown in [square brackets]. People who do not have their fchat flag set are shown in angle brackets.
An example. On typing fwho you see the following:
The following friends are connected:
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
[Billy] Raine #jim
<Deus>
+++=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
4 listed (2 listening, 1 #blocking, 0 !ignoring, 1 [billy-no-mates])
UglyMUG allows you to set up lists of other players and to group them on your Main Player List and/or on a Custom List. This can make it easier to communicate with a set group of people chosen by you.
Once a player is on your Main Player List, there are various flags that you can set on them, such as the 'friend' flag, or the 'ignore' flag. Flags relating to communication are discussed below.
The first thing to do is to check what lists you currently have. It is possible that if you have been using Ugly for a while without paying attention to lists you already have a list with names on. Type:
llist
This will show you what lists (if any) you already have.
To add names to your Main Player List type:
ladd <name>
To remove names type:
lremove <name>
By setting flags onto the names in your Main Player List you can include individuals in certain groups.
To set a flag on an individual type:
lset <user> = <name of flag>
This person will be stored in your Main Players List with the flag noted against their name. The three flags that can be used are friend, fblock or ignore:
These can be lists of people in your locality, people at your University or place of work, people with similar hobbies or tastes in music to you. The list is really endless. Once the list is set up you can use the name of it to include all the players on it, when using tell, @notify (Wizard only), ladd, remove and lset.
So if you had a custom list called Spodders you could type the following to tell all of them your message in one go:
tell Spodders = <message>
The same would work for the other commands.
To create a custom list type:
ladd <listname> = <user>
This will create the new list and put the first name in it. Use the same command for each subsequent name you put in there.
To remove players from your custom list type:
lremove <listname> = <user>
To remove all players from a list type:
lremove <listname> = <the names of all the players separated by commas>
When the list is empty of names then it will be destroyed.
The following types of communication are used when you need assistance from someone.
Used by Newbies to call a Welcomer. This is described in more detail in the Newbies Tutorial.
Used to make a complaint about anything in Ugly. If a command does not work or there is a problem with someone or something. To use this command type:
gripe <message>
As soon as you type this all of the admin who are on at the time will see your gripe. It will also be emailed to all of the admin that night. Any complaints about things not working should be griped. Gripes do get looked at and sorted out. It also helps the Wizards to know what you want. Tell them what you want, what you really really want.
UglyMUG has a full bulletin board with many different topics and headings where people can post messages on topics that interest them.
To reach the help menu that tells you the various commands type:
ums help
a snapshot of the screen at the time of writing this tutorial is:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The UglyMUG Message System. Available commands:
ums topics Lists the available topics.
ums topic = <name> Changes the current topic to <name>.
ums list Lists the messages in the current topic.
ums read = <nr> Read message <nr> in the current topic.
ums add = subject = message Adds a message to the current topic.
ums delete =<number> Deletes message <nr> from the current topic.
The 'ums topics' command shows you the restrictions on each topic, which are:
[*] Wizard only
[~] Wizard and Apprentice only
[B] Builders and above only
[O] Officers and above only
[ ] No restrictions
The figures in brackets show whether there are any new messages in
the topic (N) or not (-), and the total number of messages in the topic.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commands themselves are fairly self explanatory.
There can be restrictions on who can access the topics. These restrictions are in the help screen.
A snapshot of the topic screen at the time of writing this tutorial is:
Welcome to the UglyMUG Message System.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[~] Admin (N,19) [B] Building (N,14) [ ] Code Info (N,46)
[ ] General (N,75) [ ] Gripes (-, 7) [ ] Minor Fixes (N, 5)
[ ] Quotes (N,67) [ ] Ugly Meets (N,57) [ ] UM Version (N,34)
[ ] UMS Changes (N, 8) [ ] News (-,15) [ ] Next Release (N,15)
[ ] TCZ (N,105)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Type 'ums topic = ' followed by the name of one of these topics to see the messages in it.
Type ums help for help on how to use UM.
The figures in brackets show whether there are any new messages in the topic (N) or not (-), and the total number of messages in the topic.
Possibly the main topic item of interest is the news section. To get straight to the news without going through the UMS help system type:
news
You will be informed if there is new news every time you log on.
When you first log onto Ugly you will see the message of the day that tells you about why UglyMUG last crashed, and other amazingly relevant information. After logging on you can also see this message at any time by typing:
@motd
As Ugly is a growing and thriving world there are several email lists maintained by Reaperman where Users can discuss Ugly, its future and the plans for its development.
The lists are as follows:
The admin also receive nightly emails from Ugly with gripes and other such information.
Finally, if you are registered as a builder you will receive an email known as a Huh Log. This is generated by Ugly and sets out all the things that people typed in the areas you have built which resulted in a Huh! Message. You can use this to repair and amend areas where people are making mistakes.
If you wish to make a note to yourself for later reference then by typing:
@note <message>
your message will be emailed to yourself during the night along with the other logs. This only happens if your email address is set.
To have your email address set on Ugly you need to ask a member of the admin team to do this. They will use the @email command to set your private email. This will be visible only to admin and will allow Ugly to send out any messages to you.
To set your own public email address which will be seen by anybody type:
@setemail <address>
This command can only be used by builders.
In all forms of communication there are rules, which need to be followed, in order to ensure that other users are not intimidated, offended or forced to leave Ugly. The basic terms and conditions of use are set out as follows:
Your access to UglyMUG is conditional on you abiding by the following rules:
If you do not understand these rules, or if you have any questions, ask a wizard. If you refuse to abide by the above rules your access to UglyMUG may be withdrawn.
Minors can and do have access to Ugly and it is expected that all forms of communication will take this into account.
There are times when other users may not wish to become embroiled in conversations either face-to-face, on channels or via page and tell. The methods to do this are described in the sections on avoiding communication.
A rule of thumb in every situation is to ask someone before you go into their area especially if they are set haven.
If you are having a conversation in a room where other users are really not interested in it move it onto a channel and invite on those who would wish to join in with you.
Basically use your common sense and behave how you would expect others to behave towards you.
This command allows you to emote to someone who is not in the same room as you. However, that person must be in a room or area owned by you.
To use this command you need to type:
pemote <user> = <message>
This displays your message to everyone in the room. Similar to emote, except it can only be used in rooms that you control (Wizards and Apprentices can emit in any room, as you may have noticed) and your name is not inserted before the message.
To use emit type:
;<message>
This command will display a message in a specified location which you own. The message that appears in the room will not have your name or details in front of it. It simply appears as a message in the room. To use @areanotify type:
@areanotify <area #number> = <message>
everyone in the room will see the message.
As an example, assuming I own a area numbered #666 if I type:
@areanotify #666 = Boo!
The people in the room will see the text:
Boo!
@remote invisibly teleports you to a location (which must be a Room or Thing
that you control), causes you to execute a chosen command which applies to that area and invisibly teleports you back. Useful for communicators, secret doors or anything where remote activation would help.
To use this type:
@remote <area #number> = <command name you want to use in that room>
When someone pages or tells to you, if you have a .message dictionary then you are able to customise your own response messages. To do this you need to create a dictionary by using:
@dictionary .message
you then need to set the various elements so that they are activated when required. To set each element you need to type the following:
@describe .message[<element>] = <chosen message>
The various available elements are:
If the silent flag is set on a room then nobody is able to communicate in that room. To set a room silent type:
@set here = silent
to unset the flag type:
@set here = !silent
There are two flags that you can set on your rooms to control censorship. Firstly, you can set the 'censored' flag on rooms by typing:
@set <#room> = censored
This means that anything said or emoted in that room will be censored, regardless of people's individual censorship flags.
Additionally, you should set the 'public' flag on any of your rooms, which are used as general meeting places. You do this by typing:
@set <#room> = censorpublic
Players with the Censorpublic flag set who are in rooms with the Public flag will then see speech censored. The 'Public' flag has no effect on players who are not set Censorpublic.
Ideally if you do choose to censor your rooms the 'public' flag should be used in preference to the 'censored' flag, as it should be up to each individual user to decide if they want to see bad language or not. The Silly Room, for example, is set Public not Censored.
There are some forms of communication which can only be used by the Admin team.
This is the admins own chat channel. It does not appear in the channel list.
This is the Welcomers own chat channel. It does not appear in the channel list.
Used by the admin to display a message on an individual users screen. This command cannot be used by anybody else. To use it type:
@notify <player> = <message>
This shouts a message to everyone on Ugly. To use it type:
@wall <message>
This broadcasts a message to those who people who are set listen. To be set listen simply means that you are notified when events happen in the game such as users logging on and off and the database backing up. To use it type:
@broadcast <message>
Ugly has a list of words that are censored. This list can be amended by Wizards. To add a word to the censored words list type:
@censor <word>
To remove the censorship of a particular word type:
@uncensor <word>
Ugly also has an exclusion list that shows the words which are to be excluded from censorship. Again this list can only be amended by Wizards. To exclude a word from censorship type:
@exclude <word>
To remove a word from the exclude list type:
@unexclude <word>
To see what words are on the censor list type:
@listcensor
If a Wizard sets a player silent then they are unable to communicate with anybody until that flag is removed.
So there you have it. 14 ways of actually communicating, 3 methods to speed up communication and the ability to customise whatever you say and whatever tools you use. Talking couldn't be easier!
Written by Lursa June/July 2002.
Edited by Frijj July 2002.
Converted to XHTML by The Ozzard of Wiz, July 2002.