chat not working?

[LibGwen]

I'm suspecting my chat utility doesn't work and in fact has never worked.

I haven't talked to many people yet.  (Mostly I've been exploring my inventory and playing with avatars.)  People I have talked to have either called me rude things or just wandered off.  At first I thought there are just a large number of rude people in SL, but today it occurred to me that not one person made any reference to anything I said.  Perhaps my messages aren't getting through?

Or maybe it *is* just a matter of rudeness.  Surely they can see my avatar typing?

What do I do about this?

[Rolig Loon]

It's unlikely that people aren't able to see your chat, so long as they are within range (20m).  There are several other possibilities, however.  One is exactly what you suggest.  Some people just don't want to talk with strangers, and aren't polite enough to even respond with "Hi" before moving on.  If you have been mostly around other newcomers to SL, many of them may still be unsure about how to respond or (as many of us old-timers have found), don't believe that you are a real person instead of a bot.   If you have been in fairl crowded places, like malls or dance clubs, people may also not know just who you are speaking to.  It helps to say "Hi, Bob!" instead of just "Hi!"   Finally, SL's servers are sometimes annoyingly slow.  Chat lag in some places can delay your typed commentsand scramble the order in which they appear.  My response in those places is to just keep quiet and not add to the confusion.  Other people may act the same way.

Anyway.... there lots of likely possibilities other than your chat misbehaving. 

ETA:  I almost forgot another big one.... SL has many residents whose native language is German, Portuguese, Japanese .... It takes a while for a non-native English speaker to understand what you are saying and frame a reply in English.  I run into that one a lot. :smileywink:

[Peewee Musytari]

There definately are some rude people in SL (just like RL) but they are by far outnumbered by friendly people, so it may just be the quality of people that you have been unfortunate to come across.

Just ignore them like you would in RL, search for places called NCI, either by typing that into search or I believe they are listed on your sidebar too in destinations. You will find lots of very helpful people there that will happily tell you if your chat is working ok.

[LibGwen]

Thank you both. You both gave very good advice. I went to one of the NCI Info thingy locations and managed to coax an affirmative out of someone else who was there. (*And* got some very useful starting tips from the NCI info board.) So, yeah, my chat is working.

[Peewee Musytari]

Great news & yes the folks at the NCI`s are great...Now that you know your chat is working I hope you find some nicer people to talk to and don`t come across anymore of the grumpy ones ...Welcome to SL