Shadowlands Forum Utility Commands

Away Messages

!away [<message>]

Use this to tell people you're away from your keyboard, so they aren't disappointed if they talk to you and you don't say anything back.

    jeremy> !away brb, NT reboot 
     FORUM: away: at 13:39:
      AWAY:    jeremy: brb, NT reboot

To return from being away, just hit enter or type a message. While away, you can execute Forum commands and privately whisper with people without disturbing your "away" status.

Timer

!timer <time-or-minutes> [public] [<description>]
!alarm <time-or-minutes> [public] [<description>]
(Same thing, just two names for convenience)

Timer is a flexible utility that allows you to set timed reminders for yourself or everyone in the Forum. This llows you to set a timer to ring at a certain time or so many minutes in the future. By typing "public" after the expiration time, the timer will be public for everyone to see. Also optionally, you can have a description for the timer, explaining why you set the timer in the first place.

New Mail

Do you have new mail? !msgchk will tell you, just like the MH Mail command of the same name. Note that your user preferences probably have Forum automatically msgchk every few minutes for you. If you don't have an account on the system you telnet to for Shadowlands Forum, don't use !msgchk; it can't check POP or IMAP or web-based mail.

Date and Time

Wondering what time it is? !date or !time tell you the current day, date, and time (at the server's location).

Clear Screen

In case you have things on the screen you don't want others to see, or you just want a fresh screen, type !clear or hit Ctrl-L.

User Preferences

Certain user preferences get stored for each time the user logs in.

     FORUM: Your current settings:
     FORUM:     command	   !    Current command-prefix character
     FORUM:     autowho    30   Min idle when away before auto-%who on return
     FORUM:     hereidle   20   Max idle time to appear in %here listing
     FORUM:     local      No   Telnet local echo (for screwy telnets)
     FORUM:     msgchk     3    Check for new mail (minutes)
     FORUM:     tabself    No   Tab-completion includes your own username
     FORUM:     trueidle   No   Idle time based on last keypress

Just type !set <variable> <New Value> to change any of the settings. If you don't give a new value, the old value is printed out and nothing is changed.

    jeremy> !set hereidle
     FORUM: Current hereidle threshold (minutes) is 20.
    jeremy> !set hereidle 150
     FORUM: hereidle threshold (minutes) changed to 150.
    jeremy> !set command % 
     FORUM: Command-prefix character set to '%'.

Here's what they mean:

command -

The character you start each command with; Forum uses ! by default, but you may prefer / or % or even =. With !set command / (or % or = or anything you want), you can change the command character.

autowho -

If you return from being !away and you've been idle for at least this long (minutes), Forum will print the listing of folks who are here (which you can type !who to get at any time.)

hereidle -

The maximum idle time (in minutes) for a person before they're no longer shown in the !here listing.

local -

Don't turn this on unless your telnet program acts odd. (You may also consider choosing a different telnet program.)

msgchk -

Forum will automatically check for new mail at an interval you set here (in minutes). If you're a guest or have no mailbox on the system, this has no effect. To turn off auto-msgchk, set it to zero.

tabself -

When typing a command, you can use the tab key to complete a command name or username you've started typing. By default, it will never complete your own username; this is because if you and someone else in the Forum whose usernames start with J, and you want to talk to the other person, you can just type !to j<tab> this way. If you set tabself on, you can tabcomplete your own username.

trueidle -

For privacy, the !here, !who, and !users listings show your idle time as the time since your last public message or action. If you prefer, you can set trueidle on, and your idle time will be the time since your last keypress.

Ignores and Unignores

When guests become annoying, or someone is having too much fun with !roll, it is easy to block that from what you see. The !ignore command comes with several options allowing you to block all the banter to just various forms of it. You can use many at once, but we've listed them individually below for clarity.

!ignore public or !ignore banter -

All messages said publically will be ignored

!ignore guest[s] -

Anything said by a guest, public or private, will be ignored

!ignore beep[s] -

No more beeps, if you find those annoying or you need Forum to be quiet. Further beeps will be silent, not audible. Things which beep are people arriving, people coming back from away, and new mail notifications.

!ignore spam -

When someone uses the !spam command, you won't see the ASCII image

!ignore roll[s] -

When someone uses the !roll command, you won't see it

!ignore movement -

No longer see when users enter, leave, go !away or return to the Forum

!ignore chime[s] -

Turns off hourly time reminders

!ignore privbeep -

Even if you have !ignore beeps turned on, if someone privately gets your attention with !beep <your username>, you'll hear it unless you have !ignore privbeeps turned on. With !ignore privbeeps you'll instead see a message "You have been beeped by <user>."

!ignore all -

Ignores everything listed above

!ignore none -

Nothing is ignored

!unignore [public|guest[s]|beep[s]|spam|movement|privbeep|chime[s]|all|none]

takes any of these off the ignore list (!unignore none is equal to !ignore all; !unignore all is equal to !ignore none)

NOTE: The programmers have decided that !ignore <user> will not be part of the program we release; you can ignore all guests, or all public chat, but you can't ignore a specific user. However, you can prevent them from whispering to you with the !ban command described in the "user commands" section.

The Listen List

!listen <word(s)>

This command is used when ignoring public chat. It "listens" to what you're ignoring for you, for certain keywords you give it. (Type !listen by itself to see what it's listening for, your "listen list".) When a keyword is heard, the listener will display the entire line containing it, and turn off "ignore public" so you can hear anything past that. This feature is handy to see when people are talking about you while you are away!

Note that your listen list is saved with your other user preferences; there's no need to set it up again every time you log in.

Keyboard Lock

If your administrator allows you to, you can type !lock to give you a read-only view of the Forum. This is useful for if you're gaming with friends and have a nearby computer doing nothing; you can watch Forum without needing to worry. Type your password to unlock. Note that if your administrator wants, only certain users can make use of this command; your administrator may need to place your name in a certain file. Or, your administrator may let all users make use of !lock.

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