Writing.Com 101

Instant Message Console

The Writing.Com Instant Message Console is a great tool for interacting with other Writing.Com members. Open it to see who's online, send instant messages to your friends, read and send public messages using Scrolling Messages, and even play games!1

How To Send Instant Messages
To open the Instant Message console, click on Messenger in the navigation menu on the left. The IM console opens in a separate window. To use the console or receive IMs from others, you might need to configure any popup blockers to allow popups from www.writing.com. How to do this depends on your browser and popup blocker(s). After the IM Console opens, you'll see a window with several different sections:

Writing.Com Time: the official Writing.Com date and time. Refresh the window (see below) to ensure the time is current.

IM Log: Opens a separate window with three tabs: Complete Log, Sent IMs, and Received IMs. The "Complete Log" tab displays your 20 most recent sent and 20 most recent received IM's combined in reverse chronological order. The "Sent IMs" and "Received IMs" tabs display the last 20 sent and 20 received IMs. Fewer IMs may be displayed because these lists include only IMs sent or received within the last 30 days or so. They will be empty if you haven't received or sent IMs recently.

Email: Opens a separate window to your Writing.Com Email.

NotePad: Opens your NotePad, which is a quick and convenient place to store notes, ideas, or drafts (see: "Notepad" ).

Refresh: To update the time, online list and scrolling messages, click this link. The console does refresh itself periodically for you.

Sponsored Item: Click on this randomly rotating link to support Writing.Com and read your fellow authors.

Online/IM List: Arranged by membership level, this list displays who is online with [IM] links for instant messaging. Some members may have IM capability disabled; these will be shown as [N/A].

Scrolling Messages
Often referred to as "Scroll," this area is for posting instant public messages and a great way to take a break from your work. Any member may view this area, but only those with Upgraded and above paid memberships may post messages. This window posts the newest messages at the top. Click on the "x" next to a message's timestamp to ignore a user. If you click this by mistake or change your mind, you can un-ignore the member at the bottom of the scroll window.

The Scrolling Messages title area has several links:

Help: Click on [?] to view Scrolling Messages help and rules. Please read this before using Scroll!

Games: Games are a fun way to take a break from writing and reviewing. G | P | T | # are links related to the Game Bot system, which runs in the Scrolling Messages window. To sponsor a game, click on the appropriate link. You'll need to set the number of Gift Points from your account to be allocated to the Prize Pool for the game.

G: Sponsor a Guessing game, where participants will guess a number you choose between 1 and 1000.
P: Sponsor a Puzzle game, where participants will guess letters that make up the word or phrase of your choosing.
T: Sponsor a Trivia game, where participants try to guess the correct answer from a multiple-choice quiz that you set up.
#: View the Score Board, which displays the top game sponsors and winners. Each winner of a Scroll Game gets Score Points, which are tallied on the Score Board.
R: Refresh the Scrolling Messages (below).
/ /: these controls hide the Online List (above) or the Scrolling Messages (below).

Enter your "ASR" Rated message: Click on this text to read a description of what is permitted under the ASR rating required in scroll. To learn more about content ratings, please see: "Content Rating System (CRS)" .

Message Entry Area Type your post here (Upgraded+ membership required). There's a 450 character limit (and a 3 character minimum). You can set your font and color using the links below the entry area. Some WritingML tags, such as italic, bold, and emoticons, are allowable here. Others, such as font size, will not work. When your message is complete, click on the "Go!" button. Messages that don't meet the posting rules and guidelines may be removed by Moderators or above.

Scrolling Message Rules
There are rules that members must follow when posting in the Writing.Com Scrolling Messages. Posts that do not fall within these guidelines may be removed by Moderators and above. Members can lose their privilege to post in scrolling messages if they repeatedly disregard the rules:

Content in Scrolling must be kept to an ASR rating or less. Please see: "Content Rating System (CRS)" .
Averting the ASR rating of Scroll by referring to things as Non-ASR is not allowed and such messages may be removed.
Tags for items rated from E to 18+ are acceptable if the title's text falls within the 'ASR' rating of Scroll. (All WritingML Item tags will be automatically converted to {ritem} tags.)
Promotion of Writing.Com items and offsite URLs within this area is acceptable in moderation only! Please use good judgment and do not constantly bombard everyone with advertising or you will lose scroll access.
Most WritingML tags will work with the exception of larger tags such as font, size, bitem, image and poll which, due to space restrictions, will not work.
English Only: Our site is based in the English language so we must request that conversation in scroll be kept to English only.
Harassment of other members, by any means within Writing.Com is strictly prohibited, will not be tolerated and may result in account termination.

Recommended Reading

1. Free and Paid Membership Benefits
2. Content Rating System (CRS)
3. Notepad

Footnotes
1  Updated by northernwrites; written by Robert Waltz