Chat Announcements

3/1/04

As of March 1, 2004, our chat rooms will no longer be hosted by About.com. However, our chat staff remains the same, and you can still go to the same page to connect to the new chat location.

It may take us all some time to get used to the new chat rooms' controls and procedures. The chat hosts have not had a great deal of time to practice, so please, everyone, be patient and keep a sense of humor while we "break in" the new software. We're sure to be sailing along comfortably in a short time!

Our Chat Room Staff

We have an incredibly active chat community with a large diversity of individuals - all of whom struggle with bipolar disorder in their own lives or the lives of loved-ones. In order to provide the broadest range of support and topics of discussion, we have recruited dedicated volunteers from our community. These volunteers serve as moderators for scheduled chat events as well as providing structure and support to the rooms. You will recognize these individuals by the extension of HOST or ASSISTHOST to their nicknames - for example, EricaHOST or LeoASSISTHOST. Our HOSTS have full administrative powers in the rooms. The ASSISTHOSTS are available to provide additional support but cannot kick out or silence misbehaving chatters - only HOSTS can do that. When these hosts are "hatted" or on duty, they are there for you. However, there will be times when you may see a host who is not currently using the formal extension to his or her nickname. This means this person is off duty. We ask that you respect this. Please remember that each volunteer has his/her own struggles with bipolar disorder and sometimes needs support just as much as anyone else!

Trolls and Troublemakers

If another chatter is bothering you in any way, your first action should always be to highlight the person's nickname in the list and click the Ignore button. If someone "whispers" or says something in Person-to-Person Chat to you that you fine offensive, again, use the Ignore feature. We ask veteran chatters to help newcomers use Ignore when needed.