channels

What are 'channels' ? Why do I sometimes have to type /1 hello my name is oxy, rather than just 'my name is oxy' in the local chat window ?

Oxy

It's to trigger a script of some kind. Scripts can listen to people (and each other) on any of millions of channels, and it's better in many cases to make scripts use some channel like /1 so they aren't trying to process every little thing everybody says in regular chat.

think of channel as something like a cb radio channel.
channel 0 is default, and everyone can 'hear' things transmitted on that channel. but sometimes you dont want things heard by everyone and everything, so some things, like poseballs, colour-changing shoes/hair etc will listen to a different channel. that way your shoes dont turn red every time you say 'red' or whatnot.

Another reason as to the why behind using channels other than 0.

Lag.

From a scripting standpoint, you have to set up a listener to listen on the channel chosen, even if it's 0, and then when something happens to trigger it, process whatever it has heard on that channel. All listeners create the same amount of stress on the system, no matter what channel they're listening to. But when it comes to actually processing what it's heard when it hears something, that adds more processing time to your script.

If you're listening to channel 0 and it has to process everything anybody within 20 meters says, that can add up to a whole lot of processing time, especially in large groups such as any of the events at Bad Girls or someplace like Dance Island that's always full.

So listening on channel 0 is an extremely bad idea for a scripter to code unless there's just no possible other way to do what they're trying to do. And also why I'm asking scripters never to listen on that channel. Please, just don't do it.

[Edited for typos lol]