Group Chat

I was with a friend yesterday, and he was chatting with another in SL, but we could not figure out how we could all-three privately group chat.

Can someone clarify that? (We use Emerald viewer)

If they are all in your friends list, highlight the people you want to chat with and open an IM.

So then, how can my friend and I meet new people and chat privately as a group? Do we have to be friends with people just to chat with them?

Local chat is just waayyyy too public.

Seems kind of painful...

Add them to your friends list if they agree to it. Or find a private spot somewhere.

Seems like if you have an IM window open for everyone individually, you should be able to "Combine IM windows into Group Chat"

That would be nicest.

It would be a nice feature, but not one that we have.

That would be a limitation of the servers?

Seems like a feature that could be hacked into the Viewer itself...

Are the Emerald people responsive to such requests?

I use calling cards for conference chats. Same sort of thing, tho. You need to have the calling card first. Highlight who you want to be in the chat and right-click then start conference in the menu that pops up. Adding more people is as easy as drag/drop a calling card on to the chat window.

I must try this, thanks.

And you can get/give calling cards without becoming Friends.

How do you Get a calling card from someone? Do they know you have taken it?

Is that polite? Or commonplace?

You cannot take a calling card from someone, they have to give it to you. To give someone a calling card, right click on their avatar (or their avatar tag; sometimes if they're moving, that's easier to hit), and in the pie menu click More -> More -> Give Calling Card.

I'm not in-world to check, but I'm pretty sure it's two levels deep and you have to click More twice...

It's not very commonplace, as far as I know, or at least not as common as it used to be. Ages ago, granting someone friendship meant they could automatically track you on the map, anywhere in Second Life. (Now you can check a box to allow them to do that, but it's optional.) Exchanging calling cards was a way to give someone a direct link to your profile without allowing them to map you.

The calling card method of starting a conference IM chat is very interesting. I've never heard of it before, and I don't recall ever having a use it, but it's still very interesting.

Using calling cards for group IMs is really handy. I never use them to actually start a conference as I find just highlighting names on my FL and hitting the IM button to be easier. Where I find it to be really convenient is when you want to add someone to an existing conference . Instead of starting a new conference you can just drag their calling card into the existing conference window and you don't need to start a new one. I tend to do this quite a lot.

How do you give someone a calling card without friending?

Added an "Invite..." button to an ongoing conference which pops up the avatar picker to let you "invite"/"add" anyone rather than needing their calling card (which isn't very intuitive in the first place).

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"Upgrading" a one-on-one IM to a conference chat isn't really possible so that will always involve spawning a new IM session window.

Question is whether adding an "Invite..." button next to the "Profile..." is the best idea; or simply figure out a way to start an "empty conference" where you add everyone you want added and start from there.

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Thanks for the idea .