State Of Insanity
Frequently Asked Questions (With Answers)

How do I create my own entrance to SOI?
What is the syntax for a link?
What is the syntax for a form entrance?

How do I set the password on my account?
When am I prompted for my password?
How does security work here at SOI?

How do I add and delete my nicknames?
How can I change my primary handle?
How do I color my names?

How do I create a Home Page on SOI?
How much web Space do I get?
How do I set up a counter?
What is HTML?
Do you have any HTML instructional Links?

How do I create and delete rooms?
How do I change the room name?
What is the "Room Server"?
What is the difference between free, public, and private rooms?
Can I change the information associated with a room?
What is the 'Room Category'?
How do I decorate my rooms?
How do I get image files to your site?

How do I 'drop a link' to another SOI room while in SOI?

How do I roll dice or produce random numbers?

How do I use Tarot Cards?

How do I invite people to private rooms without using passwords?

Benefits of SOI

• Q: What are the benefits of SOI?
  A: Here are some of the benefits of SOI:
  • Password protection for your account.
    
  • Registration of a primary nickname, and 5 additional nicknames.
    
  • HTTPS Served disk space for each handle and nickname.
    
  • Full Control over 6 'rooms'. You may name these rooms, move them to any part of the country you desire, and decorate these rooms as you like.
    
  • HTTPS served disk space for each room.
    
  • A total of 40 Mbytes of disk space is allocated to each Citizen. HTTPS Served space cannot be used for commercial purposes.
    
  • All users of SOI are subject to our Conditions of Use.

• Q: How do I Control these functions?
  A: You control these from by going to the Control Centre.. Put "C" in the FIND box, and hit Find... or.... Click the [Controls] from any room.

Account Password Related Questions

• Q: How do I set the password on my account?
  A: Click on [Controls] then [Account Controls] to change your password.

• Q: When am I prompted for my password?
  A: All attempts to use your account will require proper authentication, and any attempts that fail due to lack of valid credidentials will trigger a login sequence.

  Authentication is done through cookies we exchange with your browser. You can read details about it here: https://soi.hyperchat.com/chat/perm/newsecure.htm.

Nickname/Primary Name Related Questions

• Q: How do I add and delete my nicknames?
  A: Click [Controls] then [Nickname Controls] to add and delete nicknames.

  Note: Nickname changes may take up to 48 hours to propogate to all services and servers.

• Q: How can I change my primary handle?
  A: Click on [Controls] then [Account Controls], and there is a place there to change your primary name. You can change it to any other registered name in your account.

• Q: How do I color my names?
  A: To Color your name, click on [Controls] then [Nickname Controls] and the name you want to color. There are settings there to set the color and other nickname properties.

Room Questions

• Q: How do I create and delete rooms?
  A: To create/delete a room, first click on [Controls], then [Room Controls]. You will be given a form that shows all the rooms you currently own and allows you to add and delete rooms.

  If you want to create a room, put a 'room id' in the box and hit the button. A 'Room Id' is a 2-8 character name that will be what people put in the FIND box to get to your room.

• Q: How do I change the room name?
  A: After you have created a room, if you click on [controls] and then [room controls], there will be a link like [Room xxx], where xxx is your room id. Clicking on this link will give you a form, which allows you to change the room characteristics.

  Among the things you can change, include the room title, room format, and room access. You can also specify background and text color, as well as supply additional text and/or images for backgrounds and icons.

• Q: What is the difference between a free room, a public room, and a private room.
  A: Free rooms are open to all, and anyone can enter whether they have a paid account or not. Public rooms require a paid account or 28 hour pass created by a paid account. Private rooms are password controlled.

  Note: Free and Public rooms Echo to SeeAll.. Private Rooms do not.... You have no control over whether or not a room echos to SeeAll..other than selecting the type of room...

• Q: Can I change the information associated with a room more than once?
  A: You may update the room characteristics as often as you like.

• Q: What is the 'Room Category'?
  A: Every room is associatd with a "Section of the Country". This is simply a way of associating rooms with the same theme together. When you are in a room where people can chat, clicking on [Change Rooms] will show you a list of all the rooms in that section. In addition, there will be a "Travel" pull down, which lists the sections and allows people to move from one section to another.

• Q: How do I decorate my rooms?
  A: You can change the room the wallpaper and add an icon (image file) by moving image files into the directory associated with the room. These image files must be either GIF or JPEG files to work with most browsers. After you move the image files into the directory associated with the room, they will appear as choices for the Background and Icon selections found in the room setup form.

• Q: How do I get image files to your site?
  A: There are two major steps to getting background and icons in your rooms.
  1. Use FTP to Copy the image files to SOI. There are two FTP Methods avilable for your use. The first is provided through "anonymous" FTP access and the second is provided through account based FTP access.

     The anonymous FTP access is the original style of uploading files. It is a little complicated to use the first time, but, after the first time it gets easier. If you would like to upload your files with this method, click here.

     The account based FTP is simplier to use and provides direct access to your FTP area. This method is still under development and may not be available at the moment. To find out if this is available, and for the instructions, click here.

  2. After copying your files to SOI, return to the chat site, click on [Controls].. then click on [Room XXX] (where XXX is the room ID) to specify the files be used as either icons or backgrounds.
     

Creating A Home Page

Please read our conditions of use for a description of proper usage of SOI http served space.

If you know how to write in HTML, you can create your own home page. (You can get help with HTML here or here or here)

If you want to add a counter to your home page... go here.

For each of your nicknames.. you get a directory.. and if there is a file in that directory called 'homepage.html'... that is your homepage.

You can create a home page simply by clicking on [controls]..then [nickname controls].. then clicking on the nickname and pressing the EDIT HOME PAGE button. If you use the SOI editor to create your homepage..the page must be less than 20,000 characters in size.

You can also create a home page on your computer (under the filename homepage.html) and then when you have created your page, you can copy the files to SOI using "FTP", which stands for File Transfer Protocol. There are two FTP Methods avilable for your use. The first is provided through "anonymous" FTP access and the second is provided through account based FTP access.

The anonymous FTP access is the original style of uploading files. It is a little complicated to use the first time, but, after the first time it gets easier. If you would like to upload your files with this method, click here.

The account based FTP is simplier to use and provides direct access to your FTP area. This method is still under development and may not be available at the moment. To find out if this is available, and for the instructions, click here.

If you want info on posting sounds files from web pages.. click here

Handy Substitution Sequences

Room Navigation

Syntax	Meaning	Example =>Result
#r-room@site	Creates a link to room@site and displays it with the #r- prefix.	#r-soi@soi => #r-soi@soi
#r-room@site(Text Here)	Creates a link to room@site and displays it with the text provided. The text cannot contain parenthesis, as they are the delimiter for the text.	#r-soi@soi(Click to SOI) => #r-Click to SOI
#r-room@site,codeword	Creates a link to room@site and provides a codeword in the link to open the room if locked. The codeword is NOT secret and this should only be used for semi-private rooms where the codeword is posted on the door, or similar circumstances. Again, the codeword is NOT secret.	#r-soi@soi,opensaysme => #r-Click to SOI
#r-room@site()	Creates a link to room@site and displays an image instead of text.	#r-soi@soi(<img src=https://soi.hyperchat.com/soi75.jpg alt="SOI-75">) =>
#r-room@site(),codeword	Creates a link to room@site, displays an image instead of text and provides a codeword in the link to open the room if locked. The codeword is NOT secret and this should only be used for semi-private rooms where the codeword is posted on the door, or similar circumstances. Again, the codeword is NOT secret.	#r-soi@soi(<img src=https://soi.hyperchat.com/soi75.jpg alt="SOI-75">),opensaysme =>

There cannot be any extra characters in these command sequences. That includes no extra spaces. Any of the IMG HTML modifiers will also work. The ALT HTML modifier is a good one to include in the IMG statement. If someone is running with images turned off, then, this text is displayed in place of the blank image icon, which, allows the viewer to still understand the purpose of the link.

Quick Links to Content

This table summarizes this feature:

#i- Substitutions

Rolling Dice/Random Numbers

This table summarizes this feature:

Syntax	Meaning	Example Result
#rXXdYYt	This command rolls XX dice with YY sides. If you specify 't', there is a total displayed. For example, #r5d8t rolls 5 D8s and totals them up. This only works with D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, and D20 dice.
#rd4	This command rolls a 4 sided die (1-4).
#rd or #rd6	This command rolls a 6 sided die (1-6).
#rd8	This command rolls a 8 sided die (1-8).
#rd10	This command rolls a 10 sided die (0-9).
#rd12	This command rolls a 12 sided die (1-12).
#rd20	This command rolls a 20 sided die (1-20).
#rd[number]	This command produces a random number between 1 and the number provided, inclusive. For example, #rd22 will produce a number between 1 and 22, inclusive.

If you would like to have a new specific-sided die available, with a specific set of images to display the result, just send a note to seph. If you can provide the images, we can make that happen.

Playing & Tarot Cards

All the cards are dealt face up.

This table summarizes the commands for this feature. You simply type the commands into the chat box and press talk/listen.

Syntax	Meaning	Example Result
#tc-s	This command shuffles the tarot deck. There is one tarot deck per room. Example: #tc-s	[shuffle]
#tc-sxx	This command shuffles the tarot deck and draws xx cards. The value of 'xx' can be from 1 to 10. Since this command also shuffles the deck, there are always enough cards to draw. Example: #tc-s1	[shuffle]
#tc-xx	This command will draw xx tarot cards from a previously shuffled tarot deck. The value of 'xx' can be from 1 to 10. If there are not enough cards left in the deck, the missing cards will be displayed as 'End Of Deck'. Example: #tc-2
#pc-s	This command shuffles the playing card deck. There is one playing card deck per room. Example: #pc-s	[shuffle]
#pc-sxx	This command shuffles the playing card deck and draws xx cards. The value of 'xx' can be from 1 to 10. Since this command also shuffles the deck, there are always enough cards to draw. Example: #pc-s1	[shuffle]
#pc-xx	This command will draw xx playing cards from a previously shuffled deck. The value of 'xx' can be from 1 to 10. If there are not enough cards left in the deck, the missing cards will be displayed as 'End Of Deck'. Example: #pc-2

The default tarot deck is the Rider-Waite deck. If you would like to have a custom deck, send a note to seph. If you can provide public domain images, we can make that happen.

The default playing card deck is the standard english deck. If you would like to have a custom deck, send a note to seph. If you can provide public domain images, we can make that happen.