Talking together
Shouts
Send a short paid message nearby, choose its reach and cancel during the countdown.
A shout puts a short message at the top of the canvas for signed-in people within reach. Use it when you want to address people near a node rather than add another line to one room's conversation.
Open the node's Current room in Chat and choose the megaphone marked Shout. The form shows your message, its reach, the price and your available balance.
Choose text and reach
A shout is text only, from 1 to 333 characters. Type under Your shout. The character counter shows how much room remains.
How far determines which neighbouring rooms hear it. Reach follows the node tree, up or down. It is not distance across the screen.
| Reach | Rooms within reach | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| This node | Your current node. | 1 credit |
| 2 steps | Your node and one step up or down. | 3 credits |
| 3 steps | Up to two steps up or down. | 7 credits |
| 4 steps | Up to three steps up or down. | 15 credits |
| 5 steps | Up to four steps up or down. | 31 credits |
Read the help beneath the selected reach if the label is unclear. A wider reach costs more even if few people happen to be present. For your balance, see Credits.
Send and cancel
Choose Shout to begin the 15-second countdown. The form says Going out in… and offers Cancel. Nothing is shown to recipients during that countdown.
You can close the composer while the countdown continues. A smaller countdown and Cancel control remain beside the Shout button.
Cancel before it goes out to stop publication and release the reserved credits. Cancelled. Nothing was shown and your credits are back. confirms the cancellation. Too late to cancel: it already went out. means the countdown has finished and cancellation did not stop it.
When delivered, the shout appears briefly in the top bar, then leaves by itself after about eight seconds. A recipient can dismiss it sooner. It does not replace the node's wall or become a normal wall post.
When it cannot send
The form can tell you that you need more credits, must sign in, already have a shout on its way, cannot shout from here, or cannot shout right now. A pacing message asks you to wait before trying again.
If the form says Your shout was not shown. Your credits are back., the shout was refused. If the balance is unavailable, the form cannot confirm how many credits you have; check again after reconnecting.
A countdown or your own success message does not tell you how many people read the shout. It is a brief broadcast to the occupied rooms in range.
Use the same rules as other conversations
Shouts follow the community rules, including the rules on harassment, threats and private information. To raise a concern about a shout, use Report on the sender's name or contact [email protected] with the node and the words involved. See Reporting.