How to admin your own chat room

Chat room creation form	Controls	Chat room controls
Entering Info	Admin Codes	Admin access list
		Admin monitor
		Admin code

Basics - It is possible to setup one chat room for which you are the administrator of the room. Being an administrator or 'admin' allows you to moderate the room by giving you the power to take away a person's microphone (if it is a voice room) and the ability to bounce (remove) a person in the event that they are extremely disruptive or abusive.

Your nickname will be identified as an 'admin' account in your room by having an @ sign precede your name. The @ sign indicates 'admin' capabilities. Paltalk personnel have admin capabilities in all rooms they enter. They are differentiated from room admins by having their nickname appear in red in addition to having the @ sign.

Locking a room - When you create a room, you will have the option of specifying a lockword or not. If you specify a lockword, anyone trying to join your room will be asked to specify the lockword before they are allowed to enter. In this way, you can control who may enter your room by who you tell the lockword to. If you do not specify a lockword, the room is open to everyone.

Assigning admins to your room - You may allow an unlimited number of people to 'admin' your room with you. When you create the room, you will be asked to specify a 4 digit admin code. The admin code is the key to your room. Anyone who knows it can open or join your room as an 'admin'.

When setting up a room to admin you must supply the following information

Room name - The name of the room. You are not allowed to make any room with a title that defames, disparages or excludes any race, creed, religion, age room, gender, national origin, or any other organization, business entity or individual person. You also may not make any room that condones or promotes the use of drugs, encourages software piracy, child pornography, or any other illegal activity. You may not make a room which promotes any commercial organization or activity without express permission from the Paltalk business office.

Category - Paltalk rooms are organized into categories. You will have to select from a drop down list which category you prefer your room to be found in by others.

Rating - Similar to a movie rating. The options are G, R or A. G rated rooms must be suitable to all audiences including minors. Text in G rooms is automatically filtered to eliminate possible offensive language. R and A rated rooms are suitable for adults only and the text is not filtered what so ever. The difference between these two rooms is that an A rated room allows sexually explicit language where an R room does not.

Voice Enabled Switch - On indicates that you want to allow voice in the room, off indicates that it will be a text only room.

Admin Code - A 4 digit numeric code that is the key to joining your room with 'admin' privileges. Select an admin code that is easy to remember. Share this code with those people you wish to help you 'admin' your room.

Lockword - An optional field. If you specify a value in this field, anyone not knowing your lockword will be prevented from entering your room. Anyone trying to join your room will be asked to specify the lockword before they are allowed to enter.

Intro Msg - An optional field. If specified, every time someone joins your room, they will be automatically greeted with this message.

click HERE for more information about creating your own chat room

Basic Controls
For more detailed info on controls click HERE.

Bouncing Someone - If someone is being severely offensive or disruptive, you have the power to bounce them from the room. To bounce someone, you right click on their name, select 'Bounce', and then supply a reason why you are bouncing the person. All bounces are monitored so anyone abusing this power will quickly lose their room. When someone is bounced, they may not reenter your room for 24 hours.

Bouncing Caveats - We track how many bounces an 'admin' does per day and overall. If the number of bounces per day is high, all users entering your room will receive a warning similar to the following:

Room admins in this room HAVE AND DO frequently use the power to remove members at their discretion to maintain an orderly room as they see fit. If this is unacceptable to you, please leave and visit one of our many other rooms.

If the number of bounces is excessive overall, the room may be closed down permanently and your account restricted from creating new rooms in the future.

Muting Someone - (voice rooms only) By double clicking on a user's nickname, you can place a 'red dot' on them to prevent them from speaking. You would use this for example to take the microphone away from someone who is talking too long or is deliberately trying to tie up the room. Normally you would take the microphone away and then soon after, give it back.

This is known as a 'red dot'

Muting Everyone - It may be desirable to mute everyone's microphone except your own to help moderate a room. You then can choose to individually turn someone's mic on, let them speak, and then take the mic away. To do this, select the "Remove All Mics" option under the 'admin' menu. This will remove all the mics from everyone except yourself. New people joining the room will default to having their mic turned off. To restore everyone's mic back, choose the "Give Mics To Everyone" option under the 'admin' menu. This will restore everyone's mic and new people joining will default to their mic being on.

The Static Text Message  - When your room is open, you will find that right below the banner area is a static text field. You can use this field to display a message to your users that will stay on the screen and not scroll off. Some examples of how to use this field are to display a URL to a web site of interest, or to display a welcome message, or perhaps to display a topic of the day. You have the ability to change this field at any time by using the 'admin console' and typing over what is currentlyin the 'intro msg' area, then pressing the 'update message' button. This area is only editable to the room admins. Your members see this field all the time but cannot not modify it.

Closing the room - You may desire to close your room down for the day. Perhaps you wish to log off and do not want your room open while you are not around. Another reason to close your room down is if you have made changes to the room's definition using this facility and you want to pick up the new changes. Changes are picked up when the room is opened, so if you make changes to your room while the room is already open (example change it's name), the change will not be reflected until the room is closed and reopened.

There are two ways to close a room. When all members have left the room, the room is automatically closed. Alternatively you may wish to forcibly close the room while it still has members. To do so, use the 'admin console' and press the 'close room' button.

The room will close down immediately. Note - changing your admin code is always immediately reflected and does not require you to close and reopen your room to pick up that one change.

Assigning admins to your room

note: As a security feature your room will vanish from the room list if all of your admins leave the room.  All entry to your room will be denied until an admin returns to your room.

Admin Code and How to open the room
 When you create a permanent room, you will have to specify a 4 digit admin code.

This admin code is the key to opening your room.

Co administrators - You may allow an unlimited number of people to 'admin' your room with you by telling them your admin code. Anyone who knows your admin code can open or join your room as an admin. The procedure for them to open or join your room as 'admin' is similar to how you open up the room. They must select the 'Join a Chat Room as Admin' option under the 'actions' menu on the main pal list window, then select your nickname from the dropdown list, and then they must specify your admin code. The room will open automatically.

If you wish to change who may 'admin' your room with you, you simply change the admin code. Pick your co-admins wisely because you are responsible for their actions as well as your own. Violations of these guidelines by you or your 'admins' will cause the loss of your room and the ability to create new rooms in the future.

Creating Your Room
You may setup one room for which you are the admin of.

The 'admin' can control who speaks on the microphone and remove people from the room who are being disruptive.

There is a one time process to initially setup your room.

Step 1
select the 'chat rooms' tab on the main Paltalk window.

Step 2
click on the 'my room' button in the toolbar

A new window will launch that will show your current group settings.

Step 2b
if you have not previously set up a room, click on the 'create room' button

If you have already created a room the details of the room will be shown.
If this is the case, click on the 'edit my room' button.

the 'chat room creation form' will launch in a new browser window.

'Build' your chat room by filling out all of the required information on the form such as name, category, rating, and intro message.

Please choose your rating wisely!  Paltalk frowns upon rooms that are not properly rated and may alter your room rating without notice if you violate our ratings policy!

If you already have admins for your chat room in mind you can add them to the admin access list while creating your chat room.

Step 3
You will be presented with the 'chat room creation form'. This form defines your room, it's name, rating, category, etc. One field you will be asked to enter is a 4 digit admin code. The admin code is the key to your room. Anyone who knows your admin code can enter your room with the same admin capabilities as you.

Share your admin code with those people you wish to co-admin your room with you. You may at any time change the admin code if you change your mind about who the co-admins should be.

Step 4
Once your room has been setup, you only need to open it whenever you wish to use it from that point on.

To open your room...

1 - go to the main pal list window

2 - select the 'chat  rooms' tab

3 - press the 'my room' button

4 - press the 'join my room' button on the my room window (shown above)

Your room will open and you can start inviting your pals!

Other users may open your chat room with your permission if you have given them your admin code

see open a chat room as admin

Once you have your room set up and running you will need to maintain order in it.

click HERE for more information about other controls that are available for you to maintain order in your room