AltME AltME User Guide - Alert Messages
Updated: 8-Jan-2010


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Introduction

An alert is a message that pops-up on the screen. Use an alert when you really need to get someone or some group's attention.

Alert are useful for situations like:

  • you need to call a user on the telephone, but the line is busy
  • you want to make sure that a user knows when and where to meet for an important meeting
  • you want the user to see something that's on TV right now
  • you want to broadcast an important message to all users or to a group of users
  • other types of emergencies

Use Alerts Sparingly!

Sending a lot of alerts is annoying to other users. If you abuse alerts, the Worldmaster might kick you out of the world, (and there's no way to get back in other than beg).

Sending a User an Alert

To send an alert to a user, right click on the user's name. You will see a User Information panel such as:

mainuserinfo.png

Click on buttonalert.png

A message panel will open, and you can type your alert message. Keep it short and to the point. When you are ready to send the alert, click on the send button.

alertsenduser2.png

The alert will be sent immediately, and if the user is online, the alert will popup on their screen. If the user is not online, the alert will popup the next time they visit the world.

The user will see:

alertviewuser.png

Sending a Group an Alert

You can send an alert to a group of users or to all users. The steps are the same as sending an alert to a single user. Right click on the group name. To send an alert to all users, click on the All group. The group information panel will open:

alertgroup.png

Click on buttonalert.png

A message panel will open, and you can type your alert message. When you are ready to send the alert, click on the send button.

alertsendgroup.png

The alert will be sent immediately. Users who are online will see the alert popup on their screen. Users who are not online will see the alert popup the next time they visit the world.

Each user in the group will see:

alertviewgroup.png

Viewing Prior Alerts

When an alert is sent, it is also copied to the appropriate chat box. You can tell that it's an alert because the date field turns red.

For example, the user alert sent above will appear in the user's chat panel as:

alertmsguser.png

and, the group alert sent above will be seen by all users in their group chat panel:

alertmsggroup.png

Replying to an Alert

When you receive an alert, you can reply to it by clicking on the reply button. This button is simply a shortcut that takes you directly to the chat area for the user who sent you the alert. If you are already looking at that chat area, then nothing happens.

You can then type your reply as a normal message (because, normally you don't want to reply to an alert with another alert.)

Expired Alerts

After 15 days, an alert will no longer popup when a user (who has been offline for that time) visits the world. However, alerts can still be seen in the chat panel.

This feature prevents new users from being flooded with alert messages when they first logon. Only alerts from the last 15 days will be seen.

Removing Alerts

Just like messages, alerts cannot be removed. They will eventually scroll off the top of your chat message box.

Shortcut Keys

These shortcut keys are handy for alerts:

 CTRL-SWill send the alert message just typed.
 ESCAPECloses the alert sending window, or an alert that has just been received.

Coming Soon

You will be able to specify the duration of an alert - how many hours or days you want it displayed (or permanently).


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