Psi

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Notes About Psi

Psi is a cross-platform Jabber/XMPP client. If you do not need to communicate directly with Yahoo/MSN/etc, this is a very good client to consider. It will connect directly with Google Talk, any Jabber/XMPP server, and CS Chat. It provides one of the nicest user experiences of all the clients we document.

Getting Connected

Getting started with Psi is very easy. The first time you start it, it will ask if you want to make a new account or use an existing. Click "Use existing account". The next window will ask for your account details. The "Jabber ID" is your CS Screen Name followed by "@cschatter.com" (in all lower case, with any non-alphanumeric replaced with _). So, if your CS Screen Name is "Flipper", your Jabber ID is "flipper@cschatter.com". Your password is exactly as you enter it for the forums. Click "Save"

Click the status button in the roster window (see image below), and set your status to "Online". You will be asked to trust a self-signed SSL certificate. Click "Trust this certificate".

Joining a Group Chat

When you finish signing in, you will automatically be taken to the main group chat. To rejoin it (if you close the window, for example), click the Psi symbol (see image below), click "Join Groupchat". In the window that opens up, you may have a field labelled "Identity" (if you are using multiple different Jabber/XMPP accounts). If you do, make sure that it is showing your CS Screen Name. Set "Host" to "c.cschatter.com", "Room" to "cs", and "Nickname" to your nickname. Click "Join".

To make your own group chat room, follow all the above steps. When asked for the name of the group chat to join, enter a new name other than "cs".

Emotes and Nicknames

You can do emotes, which are statements that look like actions. This is done using /me does something, and will look like this in the room:

CSScreenName does something

You can also change your nickname while in the chat room. This is done using /nick NewNickName, and this will change your nickname that others see in the room. Note that people can always find your real screen name by looking at your user information, though.

Moderating Your Chat Room

If a need arises to kick someone out of your chat channel, you can right-click on their nickname, and click "Kick" (either with "No Reason" or "Custom Reason"), and that user will be kicked off the channel.

If it goes further, and you must ban someone from joining your channel again, you can right-click on their nickname, and click "Ban" (either with "No Reason" or "Custom Reason"), and that user will be unable to join the channel again.

If you discover you need to unban someone, the easiest way will be to "Configure the room". You do this by clicking the "Actions" button in the upper right corner of the window (see picture below for reference), and clicking "Configure Room". In the window that appears, the first tab will be labelled "Affiliations". Find the user's screen name under the section there labelled "Banned" (you may have to scroll), click their name, and then click "Remove"

Adding Contacts

To add contacts and friends, visit your CS Buddy List, and add them there. From there, the data will be copied from CS to CS Chat. This process normally takes 30 to 45 minutes. Once done, you will see the person appear in your contact list the next time you log on.

Note, though, that a person on your roster for CS Chat will never be removed by this process. Delete them from your CS Buddy List, and then delete them in your roster window, if you wish to do this.