Chat Room FAQs

The Signing Time Chat Room is available for use by Signing Time Parents age 18 and older, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In addition, we have a scheduled, informal chat session every Wednesday from 7-9 pm MST.

Enter the Signing Time Chatroom

Does Rachel come to the weekly chats?

In recent years, chat participants have come to expect that Rachel will attend every week. Due to demands on her personal and professional schedule, she is no longer able to commit to attending but will drop in when she is able - and you just never know when that might be!

If you have questions for Rachel, please utilize the appropriate areas of our parenting forums to post your questions. You may even find many of your questions have already been answered there!

Also, feel free to read our story and also Rachel's blog. Any personal information she is comfortable sharing publicly will be found there.

We hope you continue to enjoy meeting other Signing Time parents in the regularly scheduled chat each week. We value your participation in our growing community! See you Wednesdays from 7-9 pm MST.

How do I say something in the chat room?

After logging into the chat room, enter your comment in the long rectangular box at the bottom of the screen (the message entry box). Then click on the "Say" button or hit the "Enter" key on your keyboard, and your comment will appear next to your name in the chat screen. Everyone in the room will be able to read it.

How do I change/edit/delete something I typed?

You can't! Once you click on the "Say" button it is there for the whole room to see. Don't worry if you misspelled something or didn't quite get your comment or question out ... just try it again. We are all here to just have fun, and a few typos aren't going to get in our way!

Sometimes when I type certain words they appear with a *** in them. Why is that?

Our chat room has a "naughty words" filter. If someone types any recognizably inappropriate word, it is filtered to have just the first letter of the word with the remaining letters replaced with asterisks. Occasionally our filtering software gets a little overzealous - don't worry if something you type gets a few extra asterisks put into it.

Can I send a private message to just one user, so that no one else will see it?

Yes, you can, using the "whisper feature". To whisper to someone, click on the ear icon (get it? whispering in their ear) next to that person's name in the list of people in the room. In your text box the following line appears:

"[whisper to (name of person)]:"

Type in your comment immediately after the ":" and click the "Say" button. Your comment will appear only on the screen of the person you whispered to, even though you will be able to see it along with all the other comments in the chat room. To respond to a whisper, follow the same steps. Be very conscious while using this feature so that you don't accidentally reply publicly to a private comment! If it is not preceded by "[whisper to....]:" , it will be public.

How do I know who is in the room?

The list of all the people currently in the room appears in the right-hand column above the box that says "Memberlist."

What does the "?" mean beside someone's name in the Memberlist?

You can click on the "?" beside someone's name in the Memberlist to see their user profile (provided that user has filled in their information). If you click on the "?" by your name, you can enter your profile information, including a picture, your real name, gender, email address, age, location, and a little bit about yourself. You can also select which color you want your text messages to appear in.

Note: As with anything publicly visible on the internet, we recommend you take appropriate precautions when choosing to share personal information. For example, we recommend that you do not enter your first and last name (first name is generally sufficient), and that you hide your email address. Also keep your location general ("TX" or "Austin, TX" instead of "123 Signing Time Lane, Austin, TX 78945").

What does the "!" mean beside someone's name in the memberlist?

An "!" means that that person is an official chat room moderator. This means that they have the ability to provide some administrative functions for the room, including answering questions all the way up to removing users from the chat room who are not abiding by the rules. The moderators are Signing Time fans who volunteer their time.

I can hear a clicking sound that repeats over and over. Why is that?

This chat room software is a java-based software application. In order for the main chat screen to continuously update with everyone's comments, the room must repeatedly refresh itself. Every time it refreshes the information, it clicks. If the clicking noise bothers you there are two options:

* Turn off your computer's speakers or place your computer's volume on mute. This is the easiest, and simplest method.

* Download and install a registry patch from the chat room software developer (www.pcpin.com). This patch makes a change to your computer's registry. It is simple to install and it does remove the clicking sound on refresh. This is not software we developed, but we pass this information on as service to our chat room participants who know how to perform this kind of installation on their computer.

What do the "B," "I," and "U" boxes next to the "Say" button do?

These boxes are for text formatting features. Clicking the B (bold) box makes all the words you type into the message entry box appear in boldface. Note that when you click the "B" box to turn on boldface type, an * appears next to the "B" indicating that bold face is on. Click the box a second time to turn off bold face. "I" is for italicized text, and "U" is for underlined text.

What is the clock button for?

The clock button, located to the right of the "B," "I," and "U" buttons turns on and off the message timestamps. If you want to see the time that each message is posted within the chatroom, click the clock to turn on timestamps. If you find that distracting, you can click the clock a second time to turn timestamps off.

Can I create a new chat room for my local area playgroup to have a meeting in?

The Signing Time chat software allows users to create their own chat rooms at any time. To host a virtual meeting in a chat room for your local play group or other similar group, click on the "Create Room" button. Then give the room a name (i.e. "San Francisco play group.") Choose whether or not you want to require a password to enter the room (generally we recommend not having a password unless you have a way to ensure all your members have that information). Then, press the "Create Room" button. A new room will be created automatically with the name you specified. You will automatically be taken into that new room. Others can join you by selecting that room's name in the room selection box (located beneath the message entry area) and then pressing the "Go" button. The room will exist only as long as there are active members in it. If everyone leaves the room, it will cease to exist and will need to be re-created every time you use it.

How do I get those cool smiley faces in my messages?

To use "emoticons", click on the "Smilies" button located beneath the message entry area. A window will pop up with all the possible smilies displayed in it. Click on the smilie(s) that you want to use and you'll see that their text equivalent appears in your message entry area. Press the "Say" button, and your smilies will appear in your message to the chat room. Please don't over-use or abuse this feature.