The Secret Society - Hidden Mystery Wiki
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Story Character 02 Christy

The following article is part of The Secret Society - Hidden Mystery Wiki's policy and guidelines.

Any registered editor is free to edit a page to improve its readability as long as the essence of the article remains unchanged.

If you would like to suggest content changes or propose a new policy or guideline, please use the wiki discussion forum.

See the policies and guidelines page for an overview of this wiki's policies and guidelines.

For any concerns regarding this article, please consult an Administrator


The Secret Society - Hidden Mystery currently follows Wikia's Community Central Chat Guidelines.

Chat is a great place to get help with starting a wikia or to get any questions about Wikia answered.

Chat Guidelines

We want to make chat a welcoming and helpful place for new and returning visitors. In order to best provide an environment to give help and support to users who need it, please keep in mind the following guidelines when using chat.


  • Be polite - Everyone else on chat is a Wikia user just like you! Speak to them as you would want to be spoken to yourself. Real people use these sites, so treat them as you would someone in person. Don't swear, use vulgarities, insult users, or tell people to shut up - even when no bad words are used, it isn't a nice thing to do. Be excellent to each other.
  • Be welcoming - New users join Wikia every day! Remember when you were a newbie? Everyone is welcome at The Secret Society Hidden Mystery Wiki.
  • Be helpful - Make sure to pay attention to other users, but build constructive conversations, and keep role-playing to a minimum. Feel free to offer help if a user joins to ask questions. Talking about your cute puppy is fine, but if someone is asking for help, please take off-topic conversations to private messages.
  • Be patient - You may ask a question when no one is around to answer it. If no one appears to be active, stick around for a while or try coming back later. The chat's not dead, it's resting!
  • Be a catalyst - If nobody's talking, try bringing up something you want to discuss. Seen any good movies? Have an awesome day at school or work? These are all good starting points for conversation.
  • Don't flood or disrupt the chatroom - Doing so makes it difficult for users to communicate and answer questions, as messages quickly disappear. This includes (but is not limited to) typing random letters, typing each word of a sentence on a different line, excessive use of the /me command, creating ASCII art, or lines in ALL CAPS. PLEASE DON'T SHOUT! (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
  • Don't try to replace the moderators - You're free to let users know of the chat guidelines, but please do not tell them what to do or not to do. If there are moderators present and active in chat, it is their responsibility to give warnings to users. Be sure it doesn't seem as though you are trying to take the role of a moderator.
  • Keep it fun! - Chat should be fun for all participants. Chat is a great tool for meeting great people and building community, so relax, enjoy yourself, and help others have a good time, too! :)


  • These guidelines should also apply in open forums.


Sometimes the chatmods may ask you to move on from a topic. This might be because it's likely to cause argument (like some religion or politics conversations) or make the environment uncomfortable to others (like using the chatroom as a dating site or canoodling nook). Please listen to the mods and drop a topic if you are asked to.

If a user bothers you, feel free to block their private messages. If ''you'' are blocked from PMing someone, it means they do not want to talk to you there. Please respect their wishes. Admins and chatmods cannot monitor PMs, and we do not accept screenshots (because they can be faked). So while it's okay to report a PM problem, simply blocking PMs is best. If many people in the channel are having the same issue, then please report that to the chatmods.

Chatmod Guidelines

  • Be a Facilitator - As a Wikia chatmod, your primary focus is on encouraging conversation, supporting users and, in general, making sure The Secret Society - Hidden Mystery chat is a welcome environment for all. The ideal chatmod is encouraging, and helps people feel supported and empowered. Chatmods are not police, they are guides and try to move the channel gently towards being a better place for all.
  • Be Friendly - The most important role of a chat moderator is in setting the tone of the channel. If you are friendly and welcoming, others will follow your lead. If others in the channel are rude or confrontational, always react calmly and politely. Avoid responding in kind, even if provoked.
  • Assume Good Faith - Since The Secret Society Hidden Mystery Wiki is open for anyone to contribute to, users of all skill levels and opinions are welcome to participate. There may be users who join chat who are unfamiliar with what being in a joint chatroom is like - assume that these users want to be a part of the discussion and that any mistake they make is just that - a mistake. Be kind in your correction and offer education to them.
  • Be a Leader - The best leaders lead by example - in communications, in supporting new users, in offering assistance to all, and in facilitating conversation within chat. Chat moderators are not "in charge" of the channel, but represent the community and Wikia as leaders.
  • Ban with great care - Banning should never be your first option when facing a challenging person in chat. Bans should be used only in extreme circumstances; banning is NOT a tool to "handle" someone you find annoying. Everyone is welcome in chat.
  • Keep it fun - Chat should be fun for all participants - including chatmods! If you find yourself getting stressed, it's always OK to take a break. Chat is a great tool for meeting great people and building community, so relax, enjoy yourself, and help others have a good time, too!


Chat Room Insights

The following was written by Fossiliferous, creator of this wiki:

When you enter chat there is a main chat window that everyone posts to and then a navigation panel on the right hand side that contains a list of people online in chat and a list of the chats you currently have open. You can use this right hand panel to see who is there, and to start private chats etc. You can also use this panel to toggle between the main chat window and any private chats you may have started.

When you start a private chat the main chat window is replaced by the private chat window so you can talk to your friend, but you do not actually leave the main chat. It is still there, and you can toggle between that main chat window and any other chat windows that you have open (chats with different friends) using the right hand panel. Since you can only see one chat window at a time, the system uses notifications to let you know when there are posts in the other chat windows that you haven't read yet.

In this case, the red 4 next to the SSHM wiki icon is letting you know that since you started the private chat with your friend 4 new posts were made in the main chat window that you haven't read yet. Clicking on the SSHM wiki icon would bring you back to the main chat window so you can read them. Then you can switch back to your friends chat by selecting it in the right hand panel. If your friend had posted a few messages to you while you were back looking at the main chat window, then you would also see red number next to the friend's chat in the right hand panel to let you know there are un-read messages in that private chat.

The reason your friend saw a different number than you is probably because they had fewer unread posts in the main chat window - e.g. if you have started the private chat with the friend so they had entered the private chat window shortly after you they may have seen more new messages in the main chat window that you did.

If the chat room is particalrly busy or you are talking to multiple people at a time in separate prvate chats you will see the red numbers constantly changing in that right hand side nagivation panel as things can move fast in chat! The notifications become very useful then if you are jumping back and forth between windows and trying to keep on top of all conversations!

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