Register with Classmates.com. They will email you a registration number..... remember it, as you will need it for future access.

Once registered, you will use your registration number and password to get to the Jal page of Classmates.com. Here you will see a list of all other registered Jalites.

To get to the chatroom.......

Go to ClassMates.com........"Log In"

When the list of classmates loads, scroll down left side, click on "Message Board"

When the messageboard loads, click on the "Chat" tab across top of page

Scroll down a bit; you will see "Name for new chat in this forum"

It will probably say "Jal Panthers". If no one else is there, you can open your own room and call it whatever you want. Click green "Chat" button to go to the room.

Give the java applet plenty of time to load; it takes a bit---you'll see a large gray space in the meantime.

The Eunice folks have a chatroom with Classmates, and they swear by it....
much faster in response than the ALL-JAL chatroom we now use.

About ten Jalites experimented with this chatroom Jan. 31st.
Here's what we found.........Pros and Cons...

Pros: 1. You are automatically signed into the chatroom, because of your                Classmates.com registration.....you don't have to spend time getting
               a 'handle.'

           2. The room has a very fast response time, as promised.

           3. Like our other room, you can use your enter key instead of having to                click 'send' with the mouse.

           4. You don't have to click a 'clear' button with your mouse between                messages.....it is automatic. A nice feature.

           5. Long messages are also automatic.....apparently you can type, and type,                and type without coming to the end of the message window and having                to send only part of a message.

           6. The messages don't disappear within a few inches of leaving the                screen...you can scroll all the way back to where you entered the room                and see everything that has been said...a really nice feature.

           7. You know who's in the room, because when they leave, so does their                name, unlike the present All-Jal Chatroom. Although the up-side of the                way the present room operates is that you can see who was there, even                if you missed the chat.

Cons: Only one that I can see: You have no color options for your individual text.             Everything is blue. The different colors in our present room help make it             easier to keep up with 'who said what.' No big deal, but I've gotten use to             the various colors, and I miss them in this room.

No Lurking Allowed: Ha. For those of you who like to "watch" the All-Jal Chat, without actually joining in...you can't do that here.

Possible Con: I'm still not certain that all browsers will be able to get into the room.
            If you should be unable to access the room, or get any type of error             message, let me know by email.
If you can't access the room because your browser is not java-enabled, here's something you're suppose to be able to do to fix that problem: Return to the Jal Message Board page of Classmates.com. Click "Control Center" near the middle of the blue bar which goes across the page. Then click "Chatrooms"......followed by clicking "Preferences." Select "HTML " chat instead of "Java".
Now you should be able to access the room. If not, let me know.

Thanks, Jerry Phillips

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