Yaplet

Yaplet is the embedded chat thingy in the sidebar. It enables communication between people who don't have Gtalk or Gtalk-enabled iChat, and it has pretty much the easiest interface ever.

How to use Yaplet!

The little box to the lower left is your name. You can change it by just typing in a different one. The box next to that is where you type your messages. See? Easy! Up top, there's a logo and a number of icons. The number next to the logo indicates how many people currently have Yaplet open. This could mean that they are actively chatting, or they could just be reading the blog. Who knows?

You know! By clicking the number, a list of users appear. The black names represent people who are representin'. The grey names represent people who have represented in the past. From this pop-up-ish list, you can PM, ignore and vote to ban people.

Next to the little number is a key, where you can choose to cancel or allow swear filtering (though we probably won't be needing that) or do administrative things, though none of us are webmasters of anything.

Next to the key is a bell. Click it to enable audio notifications of new messages. Useful if you end up minimizing the poplet. (Remember that word!)

Next to the bell lie two ways of sharing the chat, but we all know about it anyway.

Now for the cool part!

Click on the little double-window icon or the 'Bookmarklet' link above to bring up the poplet, or pop-up bookmarklet. Now you can minimize Yaplet or browse other sites while using it! "But I don't wanna go to the blog every time I want to chill wit mah froods," you say. "Also, you're the coolest EVER." Therein lies the cool part! If you drag the word 'Bookmarklet' up into your bookmarks bar or toolbar or whatever, you can click it at any time to bring up a chatroom! If there's anyone inside, chat away; if not, click the little bell and minimize it, and you'll hear a beep-like beep the next time somebody says something. If you don't have a bookmarks bar, you can secondary-click ('right-click' is discriminatory in that it implies that the person is right-handed!) the 'Bookmarklet' link and there should be an option to add it to your bookmarks.

An annotation! If you go to the official Yaplet site, you'll be presented with a bookmarklet that allows you to chat in a different room, depending on the site you're on at the time. The 'Bookmarklet' link on here gives you only one one chat room: ours.

Etiquette time!

The cool thing about Yaplet is that it lets you have a conversation from anywhere on the Internet. The bad thing is that a conversation is typically comprised of two things:

1. A set of people

2. At least one idea

What does this mean? It means a conversation cannot occur if you constantly rename yourself, leaving all with ambiguity as to your true identity. If you need to rename yourself for comedic effect, do so infrequently with cleverness, not frequently with randomness. It's seriously not funny most of the time. In addition, there's no way of tracking who's who, as there are no notifications upon a name change. In addition, remember the golden rule of not having anything to do with MySpace: customize only to optimize. (You don't want to be like MySpace, do you?)

I will now leave you with two hypothetical conversations depicting the advantages of being more than yourself.

Conversation 1: A Fierce Battle

Ratte-Kinge: Yeah democracy!

King Kessler: Boo dictatorship in the absence of checks and balances! Yeah wikiism!

Ratte-Kinge: Boo vandalism!

King Kessler: But graffiti can be art sometimes!

Jesus^NPC: I beg to differ with your implication!

Jesus^NPC: While artistic value can certainly be conveyed through graffiti, there are few advantages offered by the medium aside from greater exposure.

Jesus^NPC: This greater exposure, however, is the direct result of advertising to airspace that doesn't belong to the vandal in question. In short, stealing!

Ratte-Kinge: ... Wow, man, do you just listen in on conversations until you hear the slightest implication of immorality, then metaphorically pounce on the sinner in the form of a sermon?

Jesus^NPC: Naw, that'd be a bit of a time-drainer. I get an RSS feed to my cell phone.

King Kessler: You can get an RSS feed for Yaplet?

Jesus^NPC: I'm in heaven, man. EVERYTHING has an RSS feed.

King Kessler: ...

Ratte-Kinge: ...

Jesus^NPC: ...

King Kessler: Yeah communism!

Jesus^NPC: Ideal communism, of course!

King Kessler: Of course!

Conversation 2: Dress-Up

Picard^1: Lol, I'm Picard.

PIANIST^NPC: Lol, I'm a pianist.

/npc Your: Mom Lol, I'm your mom.

/npc Your^NPC1: Mom Lol, you didn't use proper grammar.

Desmond^1: Lol, I'm stupid.

Ratte-Kinge^NPC: Lol, Desmond just claimed to be stupid.

Ratte-Kinge^1: I do, indeed, say, old chap, that in fact, I currently lack tendencies to partake in the act of emphasizing previously-iterated statements concerning Desmond's apparent claims relating to possible mental retardation on his part.

PIANUSFORTE: Lol, I'm the thing at which the pianus-fisch excels.