www.ostomyland.com

1. The topic of the channel. If a special event is happening in channel it will say so here, otherwise it's generally just used as a welcome message.

2. The main part of the channel. This is where all the action happens. Your messages show up here, and everyone else's messages show up here. You'll spend most time looking at this bit of the screen.

3. The input box. Type the messages you want to send to the channel in here. make sure you click your mouse there first to get the cursor in it, or else nothing will be typed in it.

4. The "Nicklist". This is a list of all the people in the channel with you. If it's empty other than your name, then you are in there alone. People with an @ in front of their name are channel owners/operators/moderators otherwise known as "ops". In other words they run the channel and have the power over who stays and goes, so be nice to us. Currently 4 official ops exist in #ostomyland. Myself ("Jason_D" or "Jase" or "Coolthud"), "Shaz" (co-owner with me), "Kathy_England" and finally, last but not least, "Sean".

5. The colour bars. Use this to determine the colour the text you send to the channel is. The java box has a black background however most mIRC users have a white background by default so please try to use black or white as your choice of colours. The default colour that is sent to the channel is the same colour as this text here - cream, even though it appears to be typing it as black when you are typing it. Dont worry, we can read it and we'll say if people cant. It's best avoid really bright colours like bright blue and yellow as people cannot read it very well. :)

6. Confiq button: use this to go back to the java chat setup boxes/window.

7. Disconnect: Press this to leave the channel and quit.

8. The BOLD button. Press this to send your text in bold font.