When you first open the page, you'll see this screen:

Please enter the username and password you were provided by Danni if this is your first time using the client. If you have connected previously and changed the initial password as instructed, use that password instead.

On successful login you'll be presented with the screen below if you're not already connected to the server.

As you can see in the above screen shot there are a lot of additional fields compared to the public version.

Here's a close up of the fields. Most of these are documented in the Public version Guide so we won't address those here.

The important settings on this screen are the ones under Authentication. If you have a NickServ account, you must use SASL authentication here for the webchat's multi-connect function to work properly.

Click the radio button next to Username + password (SASL Plain) and two new fields will popup. Enter your registered Nickname into the Account field and your NickServ password into the Password field here. This will allow the services to authenticate you immediately on connect and will enable some features to work properly like setting a custom vhost if you've been granted one.

The information below applies to both versions and is included in both guides automatically. There is one small difference to be aware of though. You do not have to use your normal nick in the Nickname field on the private version to authenticate with NickServ successfully. You could as an example leave the default webchat_numbers nick set, but login with NickServ via sasl and get all your normal channel permissions.

Once you are connected you'll see something similar to the below:

In the above screenshot you can see that I have joined with the settings shown in the connect screenshot. See that line about joining that looks like this? webchat_42571 (webchat@webchat_42571.users.abdlstories.club) Webchat User has joined the channel? Let me break it down for you.

Notice it says webchat_42571 here? that is the NickName from the NickName field. The first one is what users will see you as. The second one is part of the hostmask (I'll explain this in a moment). The webchat@ portion comes from what you enter into the username field. If you are using the public interface this is most likely a version of your forum username as the board generates links that set both the Nick and Username to IRC friendly versions by default. If the board can't determine your username (you're logged out, for example), this defaults to webchat.

So what is a hostmask? It's this: webchat_42571!webchat@webchat_42571.users.abdlstories.club. Note that for privacy reasons your hostmask is set to something fairly generic. Only our IRC Operators (server admins) can see your real IP address/hostmask. Unless you've been granted a custom one they are always in the form of nickname.users.abdlstories.club

An example of a custom one you will see is that all the bots have custom hostnames in the form of ghouls.monsterhigh.edu. You will never see a regular user with that hostname.

Another example you will see is Danni's custom host of diapers.and.pacifiers.

One nice thing about this client is most of the interface once connected is self-explanatory. However, there are some settings you can adjus by clicking on the gear icon in the bottom left column of the interface. These settings include changing the theme and enabling in browser notifications. Feel free to explore the settings, you can't do any permanent harm.

Please do not enable the Advanced Settings checkbox unless you know what you are doing. On the public version it only adds the option to receive notifications of all messages which can get annoying quickly, the nick autocomple postfix (if you press tab to autocomplete a nick, it adds what is in that box after it, and the default is our preferred option), and the Custom CSS box. You can use the latter to customize the interface a little, but it can be a pain to recover from if you screw it up. Please try one of the other themes before using the custom CSS option.

Some changes you may want to make are below:

• Check "Include seconds in timestamp"
• If you're used to 12 hour time, check the "Use 12-hour timestamps" option.
• Under status messages, change it to Show all status messages or you may miss important messages from server, services, or operators

Finally, if you're using a browser based on Chromium (current versions of Edge, Opera, Chrome to name a few) you'll see a button to "install" a native app. This will create a shortcut that will open the chat in a dedicated window that looks more like a native app. I strongly discourage this unless you're the only user of your computer.

Usage note: Never use the /quit command to disconnect from IRC unless you really want to reenter your information. Use /disconnect instead. However, there is a very important feature of the private version. If you don't use either command you can simply close your browser and you'll remain connected server side so that you can see missed messages when you reconnect. This client also allows you to be connected from multiple devices whereas the public version does not support this.