About Our Chat Room Culture
Our chat rooms are unlike those you'll
find most places on the Internet, and behavior that is
considered acceptable elsewhere will quickly mark you as an
outsider here. The following guidelines will help you fit in
faster.
Do not ask....
Don't ask chatters for either their
location, age or anything else that might be considered
personal. Since the site welcomes younger members, we
are very careful not to make them targets from predators.
Never volunteer this information to strangers on the
Internet.
Chat-speak
Members in our chat rooms hold actual
conversations -- our live rooms are some of the few on the
Internet where people are expected to have something to talk
about and to take the time to say it well. Typos and errors
are as inescapable, but our members don't use much of the
abbreviation-laden chat-speak you'll find elsewhere. We're
writers and our objective is to make sure we express
ourselves clearly.
Snippets
When someone is snippeting from their work into chat, there
are a few things to remember:
1) If you want to snippet, please ask for permission first.
You will most likely get an unequivocal yes, but it's polite
to ask nonetheless.
2) Once you've finished, indicate so with an extra line that
says "end" or something similar.
3) Please do not snippet more than a
few lines of text.
4) Please don't interrupt a snippet in progress. Wait for
the "end" sign to say something. (However, people do drop
in during a snippet and don't realize, and that's
inescapable, but please don't welcome the person until after
the snippet.)
5) Please ask the poster if comments are welcome. Some
people just want to share what they enjoyed writing and
don't want a critique and you would do more damage than good
just barging in with one.
