To Parents:

It is impossible to police a chat room at all times, but the Austen chat room has managed to remain nearly free of ugly intruders. The chat room at ATT is a hidden, secret one. If you don't know what name to use for it, you don't even know it is there--this should do well to keep out the unwanted elements.

However, the ATT Chat service requires a person to enter a public room, before they can tuck themselves away in the private one. Austen.com has no way to control what is going on in any of those rooms, and it is possible that in passing through a public room a young person could be exposed to something that a parent might not be comfortable with. In addition, it is easy for a young person to go exploring into different rooms, and I have received a report of someone (an adult) stumbling into the middle of an unsuitable conversation.

As always, parents should be aware of what their children are doing on-line and supervise their internet experience.

Getting In:

1. Before you begin, you will need to register your name. This is pretty straightforward and you can always lie. Name and e-mail are all that are necissary, as well as the username you want to register.

2. Then, it looks like you have to go through another room in order to get to the private ones. At least, I haven't seen a way to go straight to a private room first. So, pick any room. Then you can enter how you want to enter, whether you want to use Java, Java light, or HTML. Then hit Enter.

   The following are for the HTML option.

   For Java Light Option     |     For Full Java Option

3. On the right side you'll see this:

   

   Click the "Rooms" button.

4. Then you'll see a list of rooms appear:

   

   Scroll down to the bottom and click "Private Room".

5. On the next screen type in "Austen" and hit Enter. (I don't know whether capitalization is necissary or not.)

   

1. You will get a pop up window which contains the chat. There are buttons on the bottom of the page. Click the "Rooms" button:

   

2. Another window will pop up:

   Click on "Create A Room".

   

3. From there you get another window:

   

4. Type in "Austen", I don't know if capitalization matters.

5. Click the "Private Room" button.

6. Click "Create Room"

1. As with the Java Light option, a popup window will open which contains the chat. On the right side of this is:

   

2. Sellect the "Rooms" tab.

3. Click the "Create New Room" option.

4. Another window will pop up, type in "Austen" (I don't know whether capitalization matters.):

   

5. Click the "Private Room" option

6. Click "Okay"

Note: Even if the room already exists, and even if people are already in it, you still follow the "Create" procedure. As long as the same room name is entered, everybody will end up in the same place.