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General Help
Commands
SITEBAN
Usage: siteban <subcommand>
For Royals and above:
siteban commands List available siteban subcommands
siteban examine Display full details of a siteban
siteban list List all defined sitebans
For Kings and above:
siteban addrange Add an address range to a specific siteban
siteban create Create a new siteban
siteban delete Delete a siteban
siteban delrange Remove an address range from a siteban
siteban expire Change the expiration date for a siteban
siteban reload Reload sitebans from disk (loses unsaved changes)
siteban reason Set the reason for a siteban
siteban rename Rename a siteban
siteban sync Save siteban definitions to disk
siteban type Change the type of a siteban (none, newbie, complete)
The 'siteban' command can be abbreviated to 'sb', and 'examine' to 'x'.
AMEND
Usage: amend <log> <comment>
Allows staff to add explanatory comments to logfiles.
You can add comments to any logfile that you can view using vlog. The
comment itself will be added to the current end of the log.
See also: archive_log, check logs, vlog
Consultancy
Much as the staff are on hand to provide you with any assistance you
might require with Snowplains, they aren't provided as a catch-all
technical support line.
If you have been referred to this help file, it means your questions are
above and beyond the normal workload of being a staff member and into the
realms of independent consultancy.
Should you still wish to pursue your line of enquiry, now is the time to
negotiate with your chosen staff member as to which rate you will be
billed at.
All billing rates are set by individual staff members and any consultancy
provided is subject to an exclusive contract between you and that staff
member and not the responsibility of Snowplains or the Snowplains Admin.
Alternatively, take your questions to an appropriate support line or search
the internet - just don't continue to harass the staff member.
Cows
Cows are ruminants or cud-chewing animals eating hay, corn, soybeans,
grass, wheat, and ensilage. Each cow eats 20 to 25 pounds of grain, 40 to
60 pounds of ensilage, 30 pounds of hay and drinks 15 to 25 gallons of
water every day.
Cows have 12 large back molars in each jaw, and 8 incisors located on the
bottom jaw, and a thick pad on the top jaw.
A cow has 4 stomachs. They are: the rumen, where the food is first stored,
the reticulum where food that has been more thoroughly chewed is stored
once the cow has chewed the cud and has swallowed it; the omasum where
extra water is squeezed out, and finally the food goes to the abomasum.
Some of the digested food is then stored in the cow's udder where it is
made into milk.
In a year, a dairy cow produces 1,500 gallons of milk.
Cows are sedentary animals spending up to 8 hours a day chewing the cud
while standing still or lying down to rest after grazing. When going to be
milked, a certain cow, in an established herd, always leads the others with
the weaker and older cattle trailing behind the group.
While some cows can live up to 40 years, they generally do not live beyond
20 years. In that time dairy cows may have as many as 10 to 12 calves.
India has the most cattle, about 200 million.
Tauraphobia is the fear of bulls, cows and oxen. One of the Snowplains
staff is a tauraphobe.
See also: Molt
F/X File Commands
Things you can do with your f/x files:
title Change the message after your name.
prefix Change the message before your name.
description Write a long description of yourself.
tagline Write a short one-line comment.
plan Set a message for when you're not on the program.
email Set your email address.
public Make your email address public for everyone to see.
private Make your email address private (only staff can see it).
gender Change your sex.
recap Change the capitalisation of your name.
age Set your age (0 turns off).
birthday Set your birthday (0 turns off).
pet_of Makes you the net.pet of someone.
slave_of Makes you the slave of someone.
picture Set the URL of a picture of you.
url Set the URL of your home page.
location Set your real life location.
rlname Set your real life name.
icq Set your ICQ number.
purity Set your purity score.
See also: examine, finger
Name Changes
If you want to change your character's name, you must be prepared to have
your current character nuked, and to be re-ressed as the new name.
You must email snowadm@snowplains.org from your registered email account,
stating the current name, that you are prepared for it to be nuked, and
the new name that you want.
You will lose ALL information attached to the old character, including
rooms, list (contents AND size), mail, objects, sps and quiz scores,
descriptions, and login time.
Although we _may_ restore list size, we can not restore any other part
of your character. You are recommended to take a copy of all room
descriptions, read all mail, etc before requesting a rename.
See also: nuke, rename
Etiquette
Although Snowplains is a place where freedom of speech is largely
permitted, it' s a good idea to bear in mind that not everyone may want
to see everything you type!
Keeping things on the right channels is a part of etiquette which is
expected on here - the channels and their highlighting levels exist for
clarity.
As a few guidelines:
- Don't clog up the room channel by repeatedly spamming with socials.
- Don't have a conversation cross-channels, as some people may then
only end up with half of it.
- Don't send messages to everyone unless it's appropriate - an example
of misuse is routinely shouting messages when logging on or off.
- Don't overuse capital letters, for it comes across that you are raising
your voice, and that's not nice.
See also: spam, caps, rules
LURKMODE
Usage: lurkmode <idlemsg>
Sets an idle message which will not be lost if you do commands. Nor will
your idle time be reset.
Use 'lurkmode' on its own to stop lurking.
See also: idlemsg, idle
HEADLINES
Usage: headlines
Display the current UK news headlines, updated on the hour every hour.
ICQ
Usage: icq <icq number>
Set your ICQ number to be displayed on your finger file.
For more information about ICQ, visit their website at:
http://www.mirabilis.com/
PET_OF
Usage: pet_of [<name>]
Become someone's net.pet, allowing you to snuggle up with your new owner,
and be taken care of all day long.
'pet_of' without a name makes you a free creature, to fend for yourself.
You may only be the pet of one person.
See also: lss, slave_of
Typos
Sometimes it's really difficult to read really bad typing.
You might notice this especially if you ever talk to Rillaith or Ghoti.
Theri tpying freqquentl ylooks liek theis!
Some Penguins have patent Rilli-decoders which helps alleviate the worst
effects of this, failing that, having built in typo-correction really helps.
PURITY
Usage: purity [<percentage>]
This sets your purity score to <percentage> pure, which will then be
visible to anyone who 'examine's you.
'purity' on its own blanks your purity score.
For an indication, 12% means someone is a little devil, and 98% means
someone is very angelic indeed! A copy of the MIT 500 question purity test
(aka the ISO standard) can be found on the ftp site.
Snowplains T-Shirts
We finally have Snowplains t-shirts. The first batch have all been sold, but
we're ordering some more. So if you want to own clothing at the pinnacle of
fashion, email berry@snowplains.org so he knows how many to order.
The design is on the FTP site, in directory 'pictures/images'.
The cost is 10 quid including postage.
Annulment of Marriages
If you get net.married on Snowplains, and later get net.divorced, this
will permanently be shown on your x file as long as your character remains
resident on Snowplains.
The only condition under which the admin will consider removing a
relationship from your x file is if the player it relates to is no longer a
resident.
Any marriage on Snowplains is your own choice, unless you're using the
commands to spam the talker, when you might be married as a disciplinary
action.
OBJ_MSGS
Usage: object <msgtype> <num> [<message>]
These commands can be used by the owner of an object to attach a message to
certain events involving the object.
There are 3 events which currently have messages attached. These are:
dropmsg Dropping an object.
succmsg Picking up an object.
failmsg Failing to pick up an object. (Not yet implemented.)
These commands as they are set the message displayed to the person
performing the action which results in the message being displayed. eg:
The daisy makes a loud "Kerthud" as you let it fall to the ground.
The complementary messages displayed to everyone else in the room are set
using 'odropmsg', 'osuccmsg', and 'ofailmsg', and will display the name of
the person performing the action in front of the message you set, eg:
Rillaith drops Marble's Giant Daisy.
See also: objects
Armadillos
The armadillo is a wonderful creature; smooth on the inside and crunchy on
the outside.
Fwuffy armadillos are, however, a much cuter breed but, as a consequence,
much rarer. Rillaith currently keeps a fwuffy 'dillo next to her bed for
those special moments when she needs something to snuggle against. Be sure
to ask her all about him.
As a word of warning, starching your fwuffy 'dillo is ill-advised and might
result in a call from the RSPCA. You have been warned!
Note for Americans and other aliens: It's okay, it's not just a cultural
difference or anything - we don't understand either. The Admin.
TLAs, or Three-Letter Acronyms
There are many TLA's (using "three" as meaning "three for sufficiently large
values of three") in use on the internet, especially amongst spods, so, for
all those people who haven't come across them yet, here are a few of the
more commonly seen ones, and their meanings.
AFAIK As Far As I Know
AFK Away From the Keyboard
BBL Be Back Later
BBS Be Back Soon
BRB Be Right Back
BTW By The Way
CBA Can('t) Be Arsed (interchangeable, but usually negated)
FYI For Your Information
IIRC If I Remember Correctly
IM(H)O In My (Honest/Humble) Opinion
IRL In Real Life
IVL In Virtual Life
IYSWIM If You See What I Mean
LOL Laughs Out Loud
NIFOC Naked In Front Of Computer (important to know, it's a regular
occurence in these parts.. ;> )
OOC Out Of Curiosity
OOI Out Of Interest
OTOH On The Other Hand
ROTFL Rolls On The Floor Laughing
TTFN Ta Ta For Now
WTF the Universal Interrogative Particle
Sex
It's that thing where two people who like each other bounce up and down lots
on top of one another.
We assume some of it goes on in some igloos on the Snowplains, but try not
to annoy people who you don't know by soliciting for action. If you really
need it that bad then you should be elsewhere on the internet.
See also: gender
Rock and Roll
Yes, we have a rock that rolls.
See also: Marble or sex and drugs. (Marble being completely unrelated to the
other topics, of course.)
Illiane
Of all the residents on Snowplains, Illiane is one to watch out for. It's
not so much the mad whirl of bounces, sulks, leers, tirades and
insinuations that she brings to people's lives; more the plain depth to
which she can drag a conversation.
If you really feel up to it, come revel in the light of Illiane's glowing
personality...and be left dazed, confused and with just the slightest
feeling that you may never be able to call yourself sweet and innocent
again.
Language
Please do not swear or use unacceptable language on public channels (ie in
the main room, in shouts, etc). Unacceptable is deemed to be anything which
causes offence to another user, and if a member of staff disciplines you for
bad language, then please respect that some people are more easily upset by
such language than you.
Please also note that foreign languages are considered spam on public
channels, since many users will not understand them. Please restrict
yourself to modern English only on these public channels.
The above rules also apply to titles, since they're shown globally on the
'who' listing.
Freer speech is acceptable in the colony, and in personal tells _provided_
the recipient is not offended by your language. Please respect other users
sensitivities in this matter.
Mav
Definition: A message or action sent by accident to the wrong recipient(s);
to send such a message or action.
After making such a mistake, the person at fault will usually just say
"mav" to the accidental recipient(s) in order to convey that the previous
message wasn't intended for them and should just be ignored.
'Mav' derives from a player named Maverick on the original MU*, TinyMUD.
Back in 1989, when the 'whisper' command was newly written, he became
infamous for a couple of choice, misdirected emotes. The term is now widely
used in the MU* community and was finally introduced to Snowplains by
Bruce.
TIMEOUT
Usage: timeout <name>
This allows you to remove someone from the program if they haven't been on
for a long time, and their existence is preventing a newbie from gaining
residency due to clashing names.
This may only be done if the old player fits all of the following conditions
- There must be a clashing newbie on (abuse of this WILL be taken seriously)
- Player's last login must be more than one month ago
- Player's total login time must be less than two days
- Player's total login / time since last on must average < two hours / month
Admin (only) can supress some of these conditions by adding a - to the end of the name.
If you are going to be away from the net for a long period of time (eg a
couple of months) not during university holidays, and you plan to be coming
back in the future, ask an Emperor to grant you the no_timeout priv to
ensure your character does not get wiped while you are away.
Multiple Characters
Multiple characters are not allowed, under any circumstances. If you forget
your password, email snowadm@snowplains.org and ask for it to be changed,
do NOT get a second character ressed. Indeed, coming on as a newbie
repeatedly (whether you already have a character or not) is frowned upon,
and will be dealt with appropriately.
If you are caught with multiple characters, you risk losing them all.
The only exceptions to this rule are staff, who may have one second, which
they may only use as an alternative to going off duty, ie when there are
other active staff connected, and not at the same time as they are connected
as their normal character.
See also: nuke
TFO
Usage: tfo <name> <msg>
Tells to the friends of <name> if you are on their friend's list. Also 'to'
or '}'.
'rfo', 'ro', and '{' send an emote to the friends of <name>.
'fto' sends a think to the friends of <name>.
'fso' and 'fdo' send a sing or a dream respectively, to friends of <name>.
'blockfriendsof' blocks all messages going to the friends of anyone.
Login Messages
No, we don't plan on having these. The messages displayed when someone
connects or disconnects are part of the atmosphere of Snowplains, and we
plan on keeping them just the way they are.
Cinnamon
Feed it to Bruce. Oh yes. And remember to stand well back. And have a
camera with plenty of film *very* handy!!
Reviewing Tells
Although a few people have enquired, there are no plans to allow for
reviewing tells or repeating tells to other people. There are telnet
clients which support this for the majority of platforms, so we recommend
downloading one of these. (Eg: tiny fugue, tush, winworlds, etc)
Web Interface
This is still fairly new, and as such, under development. Most messages
which require some form of formatting or colour have been HTML-ised, but
you may find there are still one or two things which don't quite look right.
Please bear with us on this, it's a laborious process! If you find something
particularly dodgy, use the 'bug' command.
If you connect to Snowplains via normal telnet after using the web
interface, you will need to type 'country uk' (or whatever is appropriate)
in order to stop seeing HTML tags.
See also: country
Idling
If you have been inactive for 30 minutes, you will be disconnected from
Snowplains, even if you have set an idlemsg. Kings and Emperors who are on
duty get longer, since they are probably doing something for Snowplains,
and hey, they coded it anyway, so who's complaining?!
See also: idle, idlemsg, triggering
Triggering
Triggering, either on the idle-warning messages or some other event such as
someone else connecting, is frowned upon, and should not be done under any
circumstances. Continued use will be dealt with appropriately.
See also: warn, banish, nuke
QUIZ
quiz Do a quiz command, or enter quiz mode.
Via the quiz command, or whilst in quiz mode (recommended):
play Join in the quiz. Happens automatically for your first answer.
answer Give your answer for the last question.
score Display the current scores for all players, and the winner.
natter Talk to everyone playing the quiz or in quiz mode.
commands List commands available in this mode.
round Redisplay the current round.
question Redisplay the current question.
leave Leave quiz mode.
giveup Wimp out of the quiz altogether and stop playing.
For quiz masters only:
start Start a quiz.
round Tell players the current round.
question Ask a new question.
answer Give the answer to the last question.
lsa List the answers so far for the current question.
tick [<num>] Award someone a number of points. Default is 1.
cross Tells someone they're wrong.
finish Finish a quiz, assuming there is a clear winner.
Quiz Masters
Quiz masters are the only people who can run quizzes on Snowplains, and
have special commands to allow them to do so. If you would like to be a
quiz master, speak to an Emperor, who will give you the priv.
Before you run a quiz, make sure you have read 'help quiz' and know what
the commands are, and prepare some questions in advance. If we get a large
number of complaints from participants in your quizzes about the poor
quality of them, we will remove this priv from you, so please try to listen
to the residents to see what type and level of difficulty of questions you
can ask. Multi-round or A-Z quizzes are usually best received!
See also: quiz
LIST_SLAVES
Usage: list_slaves
Lists the people currently on who are your slaves.
Can be abbreviated to 'lss'.
See also: slave_of
COUNTRY
Usage: country [<country code>]
Change the country that Snowplains thinks you are in.
This affects the language that output appears in. In the future it may do
other things like set your jetlag automatically.
The country code is the standard two-character country code used at the
end of Internet addresses (eg uk, us, etc). If no support is provided
you will get the default (UK English) messages.
See also: jetlag
Games
Currently Snowplains has two playable games. These are i-spy, and
scissors-paper-stone.
If you have any other games you would like to see coded, remember the
'suggest' command!
See also: sps, ispy
SPS
Usage: sps <player> <scissors|paper|stone>
Invite someone to play scissors-paper-stone with you, or play against a
player who has invited you.
'sps' on it's own cancels the current invitation, and 'sps' <someone else>
will cancel the current invitation before inviting another player to a game.
See also: ispy, games
BUY
Usage: buy <object #>
Buy an object, at a cost of login time.
This will reduce your login time by the amount indicated when looking at
the object.
See also: objects, inventory
INVENTORY
Usage: inventory
Displays a list of the objects you are carrying.
See also: objects, buy
OBJECT
Usage: object <subcommand>
Perform actions on objects. The subcommands are as follows:
object buy Buy an object, in exchange for login time.
object commands List the available object subcommands.
object drop Drop an object into the room you are in.
object get Pick up an object from the room you are in.
object info Display some info about an object.
object inventory List all the objects you are carrying.
The commands for owners of an object are:
object destroy Allows you to completely destroy an object.
object give Changes the ownership and location of the object.
object dropmsg }
object odropmsg } Set messages for an object.
object succmsg } See 'help object_msgs' for more info.
object osuccmsg }
object failmsg } \_ These last two not yet implemented
object ofailmsg } /
Kings +
object chown Change the owner of an object.
object create Create a new object.
object list Lists to a file all the objects there are.
object sell Put an object on sale.
'inventory' and 'buy' can also be used on their own.
See also: object_msgs, inventory, buy
PENGUINFEEDBACK
Usage: peng <your comments>
If you have any comment to make about any Penguin, good or bad, please feel
free to use this command to let us know. Your comments will go to any
admin connected at the time, and will also be saved to disk.
Please use this command for complaints or for praise, as this will let us
know who is doing their job properly. We would also appreciate any comments
you have about our summer penguins.
Please help us by using this command in a serious manner, and not for joking
about, as this will only spam the log and waste disk space, resulting in
this command having to be removed.
This command has also been aliased to 'pfb'
HINTS
Usage: hints <hint rate>
This command sets the rate at which the automatic hints and tips appear.
Use 'hints 0' to turn the hints off altogether.
Saved channels
The z-commands allow you to set a special group which you will join
automatically every time you log in, and can talk on using the shortcut
commands zu (natter), ze (emote), zt (think), zp (premote), zs (sing)
without having to type the group name.
You can leave a z-channel temporarily with the 'grpleave' command, but you
will rejoin it next time you log in.
This is similar to z-channels on other talkers.
To join a z-channel, use 'zc <name>'. To leave, just use 'zc'.
See also: groups, grpjoin, grpleave, grpinfo
GRPLEAVE
Usage: grpleave <group name>
Leaves a group you don't want to be in any more. Useful if group tells are
spamming you.
If you use this to leave a group you used 'zc' to join, you will rejoin the
group when you next log in.
See also: grplist, grpinfo, grpjoin, groups, zc
GRPJOIN
Usage: grpjoin <group name>
Joins a group. Also creates it if the group does not exist.
See also: grplist, grpinfo, grpleave, groups, zc
GRPINFO
Usage: grpinfo <group name>
Shows information about a particular group, including who created it, when,
and who are the members.
See also: grplist, grpjoin, grpleave, groups, zw
GRPLIST
Usage: grplist
Lists the available groups, and whether you are a member of them.
To join a group, simply use it. Or use the 'grpjoin' command.
See also: grpinfo, grpjoin, grpleave, groups, channels
Groups
A group is a shortcut to a list of people. Groups can be used wherever
you could normally use a list of people, for instance in the 'tell' command.
To specify a group, you simply use a # followed by the group name eg.
tell #spods Go to bed!
If you use a group in a command, you automatically become a member of it -
if it doesn't exist, it will be created automatically too!
See also: grplist, grpinfo, grpjoin, grpleave, user_list, channels
Snowplains Newsgroup
The Snowplains UseNet newsgroup is: alt.talkers.snowplains
If your site doesn't have our newsgroup, ask your news administrator!
HELP ME!
Your cries for help go unheeded. Aww :( (Try talking to a Penguin..)
RANK
Usage: rank [<name>|<ranking>|<from> <to>]
Tells you how far down the spods list (the list of login times) you come.
'rank <name>' tells you the position of anyone else, and the spods above
and below them.
'rank <ranking>' tells you who is at a particular ranking.
'rank <from> <to>' lists spods from ranking number <from> to ranking
number <to>.
See also: spods, weekly, wspods
LOCATION
Usage: location <place>
Sets your real-life location, displayed when someone examines you.
See also: rlname
RLNAME
Usage: rlname <name>
Sets your real-life name, displayed when someone examines you.
See also: location
GUESS_ISPY
Usage: guess_ispy <word>
Use this command to guess to word set by 'ispy'.
See also: ispy, sps
ISPY
Usage: ispy [<word>]
The Snowplains version of I-Spy!
'ispy' on its own tells you what you should be guessing.
'ispy <word>' allows you to set a word for others to guess. The word cannot
be changed again for ten minutes.
See also: guess_ispy, sps, games
SLAVE_OF
Usage: slave_of [<name>]
Become someone's concubine (females) or slave (males and others).
'slave_of' without a name makes you a free person.
You may only be the slave/concubine of one person.
Don't get stressed about sexism - it's just for fun!
See also: lss
REGISTRY
Usage: registry
View the registry of marriages and divorces.
See also: marry, wedding, propose, reject, minister
ACCEPT
Usage: accept <name>
Use this to accept someone's proposal of marriage, and become net.engaged!
See also: reject, propose, marry, wedding, registry, minister
REJECT
Usage: reject <name>
Reject someone's proposal of marriage, or withdraw your own proposal to
someone.
Also cancels an engagement.
See also: accept, propose, marry, wedding, registry, minister
PROPOSE
Usage: propose <someone>
This officially asks someone if they will net.marry you.
Please note, you can only have one proposal in the offing at any one time!
Nor can you propose to someone if you are already net.engaged or
net.married, or the other person is net.engaged or net.married.
When someone x's you, it will say if you want to net.marry someone, or who
you are net.engaged to.
See also: accept, reject, marry, wedding, registry, minister, annulment
PICTURE
Usage: picture <picture url>
This sets the URL of a picture of you.
See also: url
URL
Usage: url <homepage url>
This sets the URL of your homepage.
See also: picture
Snowplains Addresses
Snowplains talker is accessed via telnet at:
snowplains.org 3456
88.208.217.136 3456
The URL for the website is:
http://www.snowplains.org/
The Snowplains FTP site can now only be accessed through the website.
The email address for the Snowplains Admin is:
snowadm@snowplains.org
RESIZE
Usage: resize [<name>]
This automatically increases the size of your list, dependent on your
total login time.
You will get 5 spaces extra to your original 25 for every 2 days login.
Choccies can resize a player's list using 'resize <name>'.
See also: limits
Snowplains Meets
Meets are a way of meeting spods from Snowplains irl, and finding out the
real faces behind the names you see so often! If you want a meet in your
area, please feel free to organize one! The Snowplains Admin will support
you, and help you to advertise it, but they can only organise ones near
them irl, so it's up to you!
Snowplains will be ten years old on Saturday 18th of February, 2006!
To celebrate the admin plan to go to the pub (in Ipswich)! We'd like as
many of you as can to join us :)
For details see: http://www.snowplains.org/meets/ips0206.html
Check out the meets web page at:
http://www.snowplains.org/meets/
To see your meet on this page, email snowadm@snowplains.org
Elections
We need some new Choccy penguins!
Nominations were open from the 19th until the 29th of January. The admin
have prepared a shortlist of candidates from these nominations, which you
can view using the "shortlist" command.
Voting is now open, and will close at 8pm GMT on Tuesday 11th February.
Please see "help vote" for IMPORTANT information before you vote.
See also: democracy, electioneering, shortlist, vote
ELECTIONEERING
Electioneering includes hassling other users for nominations or votes.
During nominations, please remember that the admin will give more weight to
self-nominations (with reasons) than nominations by others. It isn't a vote
at this stage, and harassing other people to nominate you will probably
result in you being excluded from the election.
Once voting is open, there will be a "Hustings" directory in the news system
for candidates wishing to put themselves forward publicly. Excessive
Electioneering is banned. If you're a candidate, DON'T DO IT or you will be
removed from the election.
If someone annoys you by doing it, log it with the 'emergency' command and
mail the admin to tell them.
See also: democracy, election, shortlist, vote
Voting
Nominations are now closed for the current election.
The admin will now produce a shortlist of candidates for the election, from
the nominations that have been submitted.
Voting will open once everything is ready. Hopefully soon!
See also: democracy, election, electioneering
VOTE
Usage: vote <name>
You may only vote THREE times. Please use your vote wisely.
Your three votes are completely separate; you can use each one for any of
the candidates in the election (including yourself, if you're standing).
This list of people to vote for is viewable by typing: shortlist
You may only vote if you were made resident before nominations opened, on
Sunday 19th January.
Excessive Electioneering is banned. If you're a candidate, DON'T DO IT or
you will be removed from the election. If anyone annoys you by doing it,
log it with the 'emergency' command and mail the admin to tell them.
Voting closes at 8pm GMT on Tuesday 11th February 2003.
See also: democracy. electioneering, shortlist
NOMINATE
Nominations are now closed for the current election.
The admin have produced a shortlist of candidates from the nominations.
Voting is now open, so you can make your choice! Make sure you read 'help
vote' for full details before you vote, though.
See also: elections, electioneering, shortlist, vote
NOMINATE
Nominations are now closed for the current election.
The admin have prepared a shortlist of candidates from the nominations,
and voting is now open!
See also: elections, electioneering, shortlist, vote
NOMINATE
Usage: nominate <name> <reason>
We need to elect some new Choccy penguins. If you would like to volunteer,
or you think someone would make a particularly good Choccy, please use this
command to nominate them.
Self-nominations are allowed AND ENCOURAGED, they carry more weight than a
nomination from someone else. This is not a vote, and lots of nominations
don't make a difference.
Obviously hopeful candidates should know the talker and its commands well,
and spend a reasonable amount of time on it. We need people who are
COMMITTED to the job. They should also be a responsible person, and
prepared to take on the job and its responsibilities.
For a description of what the admin expect from staff on Snowplains, a copy
of the Penguin Guidelines is available on the web site (in the ftp site
section). It's a good idea to read this before making any nominations.
Excessive electioneering will simply result in you being excluded from the
election. So don't do it!
See also: democracy, election, electioneering
SHORTLIST
Usage: shortlist
Displays the list of people for whom you can vote during an election.
Remember that you have three votes, each of which can be used for any of
the candidates.
See also: democracy, election, electioneering, vote
Elections
We currently have no immediate plans for another election for new staff,
but rest assured there will no doubt be some at some point. If you think
you would make a good penguin, we suggest you look at the Guidelines as
posted on the web site (http://www.snowplains.org/ftp/docs).
Would-be Penguins are required to demonstrate a good knowledge of the
commands of the talker, and a sufficient online presence as to actually
be of use to us!
Retirees
March '96: Kleoette retired as a Choccy Penguin.
October '96: hatter, Pantling, and Malus retired as Summer Penguins.
Wakko retired as a Choccy Penguin.
November '96: Goldfish retired as a Choccy Penguin.
February '97: Dot retired as a Choccy Penguin.
October '97: Priscilla, Dodgy, Buttmunch, Picard, TheBabe, Pineapplehead,
and hatter retired as choccies. Wabbit stepped down to Choccy
from Royal.
November '97 Perci retired as a Royal Penguin.
December '97: Rubberplant and Taggy retired as Choccy Penguins.
January '98: Wabbit retired as a Choccy Penguin.
March '98: Mgf retired as a Choccy Penguin.
June '98: Daine retired as a Choccy Penguin.
August '98: Garion, Mulder, Smurf and Trub retired as Choccies, and Newt
stepped down as a Royal.
November '98: Raiden stepped down as a Royal.
December '98: Emi retired as a Summer Penguin.
January '99: Alecto retired as a Choccy Penguin.
August '99: Ghoti retired as a Choccy Penguin.
October '99: Tharg retired as a Choccy Penguin.
January '00: Laura retired as a Choccy Penguin.
February '00: Nick retired as a Royal Penguin, and Dcr as a Choccy.
June '00: Raptor retired as a Choccy Penguin.
August '00: Vento retired as Royal Penguin.
December '00: Rillaith retired as a King Penguin.
November '01: Odie retired as a Royal Penguin.
January '02: Cassandra retired as a Choccy Penguin.
May '02: Tinkerbell retired as a Choccy Penguin.
January '03: Bruce retired as a Royal Penguin.
August '04: Perci retired (second time!) as a Choccy Penguin.
September '04: Jellojoy retired as a Choccy Penguin.
June '07: Gangsta, Molt and Stipe retired as Royal Penguins, and Elvina and
Jaq retired as Choccy Penguins
Thanks to everyone.. You've done a great job!
BLOCKFRIENDS
Usage: blockfriends [on|off]
Blocks all friends tells, which you would otherwise see. Alerts your friends
to this fact, and displays your name in [] on fwho.
Royals and above don't receive friend-tells from anyone not flagged as a
'friend' on their OWN 'list'.
See also: tf, friend, friends, blockfriendsof
Democracy
We didn't have enough ressies before Easter 1996 to hold a vote for penguins.
The admin tried to make as fair a decision as we could.
Since then (unlike most other talkers) we have allowed the residents of
Snowplains to choose who most new penguins are, by holding elections.
Anyone who has any complaint about any of the penguins should bring the
details to the admin.. even if the complaint is about them, they need to
know your views, and we hope we can do something about them. This is what
the 'pfb' command has been introduced for.
The only thing we cannot do is demote the 4 present admin, who NEED their
status to actually run the talker. If you don't like them, you will have to
go elsewhere.
See also: promotion, nominate, pfb
Weddings
If you want to get married, ask a Penguin about it. The ceremony can only
be performed by certain Penguins who serve the Ice Gods, called Ministers.
With enough notice, even the Ice Gods themselves and their handmaiden might
be there!
Please note that you must be net.engaged to be net.married to someone.
See also: marry, propose, reject, registry, minister, divorce, temple
DREAM
Usage: dream <your dream>
This 'emote's a dream to everyone in the room. It is seen as:
Rillaith dreams . z Z ( Mmm.. Choccy ice cream! *drool* )
It can be abbreviated to *
Goldfish
o o
><> o o
o o ><> o o o __
o ___/|__ o o o ><> o o /o \/|
o /o \/| o o ___/|__ o \__/\|
( >> | o o /o \/| o ___/|__
\_______/\| o ___/|__ ( >> | o /o \/|
o /o \/| ><> \_______/\| o ( >> |
( >> | ><> \_______/\|
\_______/\|
SUGGEST
Usage: suggest <your idea>
If you have any suggestions for how we could improve Snowplains, please use
this command to let us know, for example, ideas for new socials, new
commands, modifications to existing ones, etc.
Any admin logged on at the time will be notified of your suggestion, and it
will be saved to disk.
If you have any suggestions for new socials, please register them using
this command. It would also be helpful if you could give an idea about what
you think it should say. Alternatively email snowadm@snowplains.org.
See also: bug, social
SCRIPT
Usage: script <reason|off>
If granted this priviledge by an Emperor, you can use extended scripting.
Basically, this means that everything you see is logged, until you type
'script off'. A valid reason MUST be given.
See also: emergency
SING
Usage: sing <song lyrics>
Sings a song to the rest of the room, for example:
Rillaith sings ./~ I saw a mouse! Where? There on the stair! Where on
the stair? Just there! A little mouse with clogs on, well, I declare!
Going clip clippity clop on the stair! Oh yeah! ./~
Spam spaM sPaM spAm SPam SPaM!
SPAM!
SPAM!
SPAM!
SPAM!
SPAM!
SPAM!
SPAM!
SPAM! (Egg and beans anyone?)
SPAM!
SPAM!
SPAM!
SPAM!
SPAM! (Now YOU know what it's like....)
Spamming, for those of you fortunate enough to have never experienced it
until you read (or were shown) this help file, is filling up someone's
screen with lots of nonsense, eg repeating a command several times, or
"piping" ascii art to someone's screen.. But be warned.. The penguins
don't like it. The other users don't like it. Don't do it!
Shouting or talking in public rooms in a foreign language is considered
spam, as not everyone will understand. Please stick to English.
See also: etiquette
Advertising
Advertising other talkers is frowned upon. Don't do it.
See also: inebriate, warn, banish, nuke
Caps
Please do not over use Capital Letters. Words in caps are the net
equivalent of SHOUTING at someone, and have a tendency to make people quite
irate! Please be considerate in your use of them in prefixes, names,
titles, and above all, communicating!
See also: etiquette
Tori Amos
Apparently the world's greatest female singer-songwriter. Especially prone
to writing beautiful songs about zebras, Jupiter, bakers and faeries,
playing the piano like a dervish, and looking gorgeous. She's the topic of
many a head-scratching conversation in the meeting place.
Our resident Toriphiles are Goldfish, Grendel, Jarel, Newt, and Bruce
(amongst others), for whom this has been added, and whose opinions it
contains!
Snowplains ftp site
Want to see what other spods look like? (Are you sure? Crazy maybe?)
Then check out the pictures section on the ftp site.
If you have a picture of yourself you would like to add, let one of the
admin know.
The snowplains ftp site can be accessed through a web browser at:
http://www.snowplains.org/ftp/
See also: web, url, address
Spod
One of those people often found around the Snowplains and like places...
They seem to have a fascination for Satan's Unholy Brew (also known as
Coffee to those who don't LITERALLY drink it black) and are never found next
to their computers without plenty of garlic bread close to hand once
darkness has fallen to cover their naked and unashamed spoddiness.
See also: penguins, marble, pling
SPODS
Usage: spods
See the list of the present top ten spods, and their total login times.
See also: spod, rank, wspods, weekly
Snowplains Village
To visit another person from the main meeting place, type:
entrance
village
<person's name>
These can all be abbreviated to make it easier!
See also: main, map, go
The Temple of the Ice Gods
To visit the Temple from the main meeting place, type:
entrance
cavern
hole
temple
These can all be abbreviated to make it easier.
See also: main, map, go
MAP
Usage: map
Views the map. Very useful!
See also: village, temple
Limits
All players start with certain limits applied to them. These include a
maximum number of rooms, and a maximum number of spaces in your list.
If you want these limits to be increased you must ask a King or Emperor
Penguin. However, there will be a restriction on how much your limits can
be changed.
Rooms - You start with 2. This will be upped to no more than 5 if you have
a plan for an area which needs more rooms, and if you can convince
a Penguin that this is a worthy cause!
Lists - You will start with 25 spaces. This can be upped at a rate of 5
extra spaces per 2 days login time, up to a total of 50. You can
resize your own list to the current maximum by typing 'resize'.
See also: resize
SOCIAL
Usage: social <command> [<name>]
"Socials" are commands which save you the bother of emoting something, but
don't blame us if the response isn't exactly what you're expecting!
You can also abbreviate this to: $<command> [<name>]
'socials' lists the social commands available, and the total number of
socials available.
'$$ [<name>]' does a random(ish) social. Don't say you weren't warned!
'$<social> $' does the specified social to a random(ish) person in the room.
'$$$' does a random social to a random person in the same room as yourself.
See also: bansocials, suggest
Snowplains Web Page
Snowplains has a web page! It's at:
http://www.snowplains.org/
So what are you waiting for? Go have a look!!!
See also: ftp, url, address
Promotion
If you would like promotion, then read on..
There is a strict order of ranks, and the only way you will be promoted to
a particular rank will be via all the ones before it.
There is no guarantee that you will ever be promoted beyond any rank you may
actually reach.
If you ask for promotion, or badger any King or Emperor Penguin asking for
promotion, this is what will happen:
+ First of all you will be pointed in the direction of this help file.
+ The next time, you will have a flag set on your character which tells
ALL the Penguins that you have been a nuisance, and will prevent your
character EVER being promoted.
+ If you don't believe us, try it and see.....
Promotions to Choccy are done by elections. Promotions beyond this level
are decided on by the current Penguins. Please use the 'pfb' command to
tell us what you think of our current penguins, and hence have your say in
these promotions too.
See also: vote, nominate, pfb, pita
Advanced Help
Normal ressie commands or help files might be different for Royals or
Emperors.
The ones to watch out for are:
grabable check colony
boot with
(*) marked commands are not used a lot, technical stuff generally.
A 'note' is an item of mail or news.
BLANK_OWN_LIST
Usage: blank_own_list
This wipes all the entries in your 'list'.
See also: rlist, list
COMMENTS
Usage: comments
This shows the comments people have set in response to the 'session'.
The users who set the comments are not shown, nor are blank comments.
See also: seesess, comment, session
REMOTE_DREAM
Usage: rd <user_list> <dream>
This sends an 'emote':
<your name> dreams . z Z ( <dream> )
to a particular list of users.
It can also be used as 'fd' for 'rd friends'.
'rd @<name>' or 'fdo <name>' will dream to someone else's friends.
See also: user_list, dream, remote
REMOTE_SING
Usage: rs <user_list> <song>
This sends an 'emote':
<your name> sings ./~ <song> ./~
to a particular list of users.
It can also be used as 'fs' for 'rs friends'
'rs @<name>' or 'fso <name>' will sing to someone else's friends.
See also: user_list, sing, remote
REMOTE_THINK
Usage: rt <user_list> <msg>
This sends an 'emote':
<your name> thinks . o O ( <msg> )
to a particular list of users.
It can also be used as:
!~ for rt everyone
ft for rt friends [Residents only]
st for rt sus [Penguins only]
You can also use .<user_list> ~<msg> instead.
'rt @<name>' or 'fto <name>' will think to someone else's friends.
See also: user_list, think, remote
HOMEVIEW
Usage: homeview
This tells you who is in your room at that time, their title, and how idle
they are.
Emperors - This allows you to see who is in ANY room, using
homeview <owner.roomid>
See also: notify
JETLAG
Usage: jetlag <hours>
This allows you to set your time difference in hours to the time on
Snowplains (GMT)
Once set, 'jetlag' on it's own will tell you the value to which it is set.
See also: time
NOEPREFIX
Usage: noeprefix
This toggles whether you are ignoring prefixes on all emotes that you see.
See also: noprefix
SHOWEXITS
Usage: showexits
This toggles whether you will see the exits from a room on entry into the
room. New residents have this on by default.
See also: exits
SUMMINK_VERSION
Usage: summink_version
This tells you that Snowplains was based on Summink version 1.0
Jarel
Jarel first suggested Snowplains to Berry and Rillaith, although it wasn't
"Snowplains" at that point. He had downloaded "Summink" code from the
Surfer's web site, and we decided to give it a go! Marble was drafted in to
help with the coding, and off we went!
A 3rd year compsci when we started, he now works for BT, so he spods nearly
as much as he ever used to while supposedly writing his dissertation *grin*
See also: emperor
Marble
One of the biggest spods you'll ever get to meet this side of the South
Pole, and a King Penguin.
Having said that, he HAS helped us quite a bit :)) *hug*
See also: spod, king
Pling
Pling is a '!'. At least, that's what spods call her, unless they call her a
shriek. But that's likely to get you kicked sharply in the shin, so be
warned. She has her own social, and is often to be found giggling inanely
and/or randomly, especially on the Penguin channel! In real life, she is
known for her abilities at drinking copious quantities of demon brew, and
her more... violent tendencies.
Her aim in life is apparently to get to Number 1 on the top ten list of
spods, but her chances of this are now slim, having graduated! Good luck to
her!
See also: spod, royal
Penguins
These are the friendly bureaucracy of Snowplains. They are responsible
for the day to day running of Snowplains, and come in several different
species. These are Emperor, King, Royal, and Chocolate penguins.
See also: emperor, king, royal, choccy, summer, pfb, stafflist
Emperor Penguins
These are the chief penguins, with the greatest power, and most
responsibility on Snowplains. Their closest relatives in the evolutionary
tree are the King penguins.
Berry and Jarel are the Emperor Penguins.
They can be contacted via email to: snowadm@snowplains.org
King Penguins
These are the closest relatives of the Emperor Penguins, and have nearly as
much power as them on the snowplains. They were mildly less likely to wreck
the place, for the mere reason that they wouldn't know how!, but scientific
studies are showing that they are as adept at this as the other members of
their genus.
Marble and Pling are our King Penguins.
Royal Penguins
These are the penguins who can help with most of a user's problems which the
Choccy penguins cannot sort out.
This species is represented at the moment by Gravity, Gribble, Hobnob,
Marnanel, Narenek, Phlebas, Ruby and Thorin.
This species was once considered extinct, or at least very, very good at
hiding, as no-one had found a member of it.
See also: summer, pfb
Choccy Penguins
A novel and rare species of penguin, these have some power over new visitors
to the plains, and are highly conversant with the other species of penguin.
They are responsible for assisting new visitors, and can grant you
residency. They are commonly found in groups, and have very brightly
coloured, very waterproof plumage. They do need to be kept in a cool dark
place tho, as they have a tendency to melt in strong sunlight.
This species seems to be extinct!
See also: summer, pfb
Summer Penguins
During the summer, whilst many of our normal Penguins are off on their
holidays, Snowplains is usually helped out by some Summer Penguins. Clad in
brightly coloured (some would say garish) Bermuda shirts, these penguins
are immediately recognisable!
If you have any comments about how these Penguins get on, please let us
know, using the 'penguinfeedback' command.
See also: pfb
Site Admin
The Site Admin are the very nice penguins who run the computer that
Snowplains runs on. They don't have any extra rank on Snowplains itself
because of being a site admin, although they do have a few extra commands
to enable them to shut it down when they need to do something to the site,
and so forth. They don't administrate Snowplains itself, so if you're
looking for those admin, try the Kings or Emperors.
For the first time in a long time, we don't have any site admin, because
our new site is run by the regular admin!
Snowplains Staff
Our staff here are all Penguins of different varieties:
Emperors: Berry, Jarel
Kings: Marble, Pling
Royals: Gravity, Gribble, Hobnob, Marnanel,
Narenek, Phlebas, Ruby and Thorin
See also: penguins, emperor, king, royal, chocolate, pfb
Ministers
Ministers are penguins specially chosen by the Ice Gods, and invested with
the power to perform marriages and divorces. They have power over other
penguins in the temple, where they have the power of the Ice Gods behind
their actions.
Currently blessed penguins are: Buttmunch, Cirrus, Elvina, Giovanni, Iskai,
Jillybean, Juls, Muzicgirl, Nick, Raptor, Rillaith, Tinkerbell and Ylla.
See also: lsm, minister_comms, weddings, temple
Minister's Commands
divorce, frazzle, marry, say_loudly
Choccies' Commands
assist, banlist, comfy, confirm, dns, drag, force, forceable, id,
inebriate, join, lsn, mode, new, off_duty, on_duty, pmotd, qassist, rename,
resident, sn/se/st/ss, sober_up, su_hi, trans, unconverse, visit, vlog,
warn
See also: royal_comms, king_comms, emp_comms
Royal Penguins' Commands
banish, banshouts, bansocials, blank_prefix, blank_title, id, jail,
list_res, reset_session, reset_sneeze, rm_shout, rm_title, rn/re/rnt/rns,
say_loudly, sneeze, trace, unbanish, unjail, unwalrus, vlist, walrus, yoyo
See also: choc_comms, king_comms, emp_comms
King Penguins' Commands
abort, ae/an/at, archive_log, bedit, blank_email, blankpass, chlim_list,
dump (*), echoall, email_list, list_staff, lookup, lurkmode, make, newbies,
nuke, pita, priv, reboot, reload, reset_login, reset_resdate, rm_move,
scare, shutdown, spam_me, splat, sync, syncall, unspam_me, unsplat,
validate_email, vlog, votecount, wall
See also: choc_comms, royal_comms, emp_comms
Emperor Penguins' Commands
barge, chlim_auto, chlim_exit, chlim_mail, chlim_room, defrag, dfcheck,
dfstats, grant, lag, list_notes (*), netstat, relink, remove, restore (*),
rm_note (*), rshp_add, rshp_del, view_note (*)
See also: choc_comms, royal_comms, king_comms, advanced
Designing Rooms
If you would like to help us out as we get Snowplains off the ground by
offering to design some rooms, we would be most grateful. Basically what
we would like are rooms that can be used for rooms on Snowplains. When I
have come up with a sensible map, we'll have more of an idea of the rooms
we want. Until then, the more suggestions or descriptions the better :)
What we need for rooms are:
The description.
An enter message What people see when someone arrives there.
Any auto messages What the room emotes at specified intervals to
anyone inside.
Email your ideas and suggestions to me at: snowadm@snowplains.org
If there are any problems, email me on the above address, or the admin,
at snowadm@snowplains.org
Thanks to everyone who has been helping us set Snowplains up.. Let's hope
it thrives! And a big thank you in advance to anyone who offers some ideas
on how to make this more fun environment too! ~Rilli
Help
-=> How to use help <=-
It is hugely recommended that you read help pages 'H1' through 'H16' for a
quick guide on the commands available and general information. (Do help H1
... etc). The pages are listed on 'help index'.
'help index' gives an index to pages H1-H16
'help <command>' gives help on individual commands.
'help basic' gives you an overview of the basics you need to know about
what the commands do.
Look around and enjoy the place. If you would like a permenant account then
ask around for 'residency' and you'll usually find there's someone around
who can help you out. 'lsu' will give you a list of the people connected who
can give you this.
There are many rooms on the Snowplains.. Type 'map' to see where you can go.
Above all.. Enjoy yourself!
Help Index
H1 comms Communicating
H2 info Information Commands
H3 custom Customisation Commands
H4 moving Moving Around
H5 list List Commands
H6 check Check Commands
H7 news News Mode & Commands
H8 mail Mail Mode & Commands
H9 room Room Mode & Commands
H10 editor The Editor & Commands
H11 misc Miscellaneous Commands
H12 flags Flags
H13 rules *** The Rules ***
H14 disclaim Disclaimer
H15 credits Credits
H16 tutorial Basic Help & Tutorial - Especially useful
for new users.
Any problems, comments or suggestions to: snowadm@snowplains.org
Communicating
say (' ` ") Say a message to people in the same room as you.
emote (: ;) Emote an action to people in the same room.
remote (< ,) An emote, but to a particular person(s).
pemote (:: ;;) Possessive emote (puts 's after your name).
premote (<: ,;) A pemote, but to a particular person(s).
shout (!) Shout something to everyone on the program.
tell (> .) Tell a particular person(s) anywhere in the program.
whisper (=) Whisper to a person(s) in the same room as you.
echo (+) Echo to people in the same room as yourself.
recho (-) Like echo, but to a particular person(s).
reply (]) Reply to a tell to several people.
ereply ([) As reply, but for an emote.
converse A typing shortcut where everything you type will be "said"
to the room you are in. Use with care.
/end End converse mode.
think (~) Express something as a thought to the room at large.
tf Short form of 'tell friends'.
rf Short form of 'remote friends'.
rt Short form of 'remote <player(s)> thinks . o O ( blah )'.
social ($) A set of "social" commands. See 'help social'.
sing Sing a song to the room at large.
dream (*) Dream a dream to the rest of the room.
Information
who Lists who is currently on the program. (who 2 etc)
swho A brief version of 'who'.
twho Does a 'who' with titles, not session messages.
fwho Show which of your friends are on. (see help list)
friends Lists all the people logged on who have you as a 'friend'.
where Lists where everyone (or a particular person) is.
with Lists who a particular person is with.
hide Make it so no-one will know where you are.
idle Shows when someone (or everyone) last did something.
idlemsg Set a message to say why you're idle.
examine (x) Show info about a person who is logged in.
finger (f) Show info about someone who isnt logged in.
look (l) Show the room you are in, and who is in it.
time Show the local time, and some information about the program.
map Displays the map.
commands A list of every command you can do.
privs A list of abilities you have.
grabable Lists who you can grab.
Customisation
title Change the message after your name.
prefix Change the message before your name.
tagline Set a short description of yourself.
description Write a long description of yourself.
plan A message for when you're not on the program.
prompt Set the normal prompt to something.
cprompt Set the prompt as seen in converse mode.
password Set your password.
email Set your email address and who can see it.
gender Change your sex.
entermsg Change the message people see when you enter a room.
ghome Toggle whether you get transed to your home when you log in.
recap Change the capitalisation of your name.
age Set your age (0 turns off).
birthday Set your birthday (0 turns off).
url Set your webpage URL.
picture Set your picture URL.
rlname Set your Real Life name.
location Set your Real Life location.
icq Set your ICQ number.
Moving Around
go <exit> Move to an adjacent room,
home Go home.
main Go back to the main room.
exits Find out where you can 'go'.
check room Find out the name/id of the room you are in.
grab Grab someone into the same room as yourself.
<exit name> 'go'es through the exit with that name.
See also: village
Lists
list View your list.
clist Clear entries in your list.
slist Set particular flags in particular entries.
rlist Reset particular flags in particular entries.
tlist Toggle particular flags in particular entries.
flist Force the flaglist to that specified.
noisy,ignore, }
inform,grabme, } Toggle, set or reset flags according to which command is
friend,bar, } used on a particular person or persons in your list.
beep, block, } See 'help flags' for more information about these.
mailblock }
resize Set your list to the maximum size currently possible.
Special user lists can be used as list entries, such as sus and everyone.
Check
check autos See the automessages in a room.
check commands Lists all the check commands you can perform.
check email See what your email address is set to, and who can see it.
check entry Check the entry for your name, on someone elses list.
check exits View the exits in the room.
check flags Checks how some things are set for you.
check list Check your list.
check mail View your mailbox.
check news Check to see if there are new articles of news.
check room List info about a room.
check rooms List your rooms.
check url List the homepage URLs of those logged on.
check wrap Check the line/word wrap stats.
Choccy+
check dns Indicates whether DNS lookups are enabled or not.
check logs Lists any important logs which have changed.
check name Reports on name clashes - check before renaming a newbie.
check toggles Shows you the status of the system level toggles.
Royals+
check flatlist Lists open connections, including file descriptor info.
check ip Lists ident and host info of all those logged on.
check mails Lists email addresses of those logged on.
check res_list Same as list_res <letter>
Kings+
check info List all the info about a player (very useful)
check updates Letters not yet saved physically to disk after updates.
Puts aunder unsaved letters.
BANSHOUTS
Usage: banshouts
Temporarily removes the ability to shout from everyone. Remember to reset
this after a while!
See also: check toggles
BANSOCIALS
Usage: bansocials
Temporarily removes the ability to use socials from everyone. Remember to
reset this after a while!
See also: check toggles
HTTP
Usage: http [on|off]
Switch the web login facility on or off, web who listings and web examine/
finger.
'http' on its own reports the current status.
See also: check toggles
DEBUG
Usage: debug <level>
This allows you to determine how much debugging spam you are willing to
suffer.
<level> starts at 0 (off). At a <level> of 1, you only get the most
important messages; as you increase the number towards the maximum of 9, you
receive more and more messages. From level 8 upwards, you are presented with
anything that is being saved to a log file.
Snowplains NEWSystem
Snowplains NEWSystem is loosely based on the ideas of UseNet news, although
obviously greatly simplified. News articles are split into newsgroups (or
directories if you prefer) and you can only read articles in newsgroups
which you are 'subscribed' to. The first time you enter the NEWSystem by
typing 'news' you are automatically subscribed to all the newsgroups there
are. 'unsubscribe' will let you leave one after that.
Generally you will just want to read new news. The 'next' command is the
easiest way to do this - just typing it repeatedly will step through all
the news you haven't read in all the newsgroups you have subscribed to.
Use the 'goto' command to go to a particular newsgroup, and 'list' to list
its contents. 'list a' will list even the articles you haven't read.
'read' will then read an article, you can reply to it with 'reply' or post
a new article with 'post'.
A full list of commands can be found by typing 'help newscomms'.
News Commands
check news See if there is new news since you last read it.
news Do a news command, or enter news mode.
Via the news command, or whilst in news mode (recommended):
check See if there is new news since you last read it.
next Reads next unread article. Also 'new'.
list [a] Lists unread articles in the group. Also 'ls'. With an
"a", lists all articles in group (read and unread).
read <num> Read news article with number <num>. Also 'cat'.
post <title> Post an article. (Read 'help edit'.)
reply <num> Reply to an article with a new article.
remove <num> Remove one of your posts.
catchup Mark all news articles in current newsgroup as read.
goto <group> Enter newsgroup with name <group>. Also 'cd'.
inform Alerts you to when a new news article is posted.
subscribe <grp> Adds newsgroup to list of groups checked for unread news.
unsubscribe <grp> Removes newsgroup from list of groups checked as above.
commands Lists all of the available news commands.
help <subject> View help on <subject>.
end Exit sub command mode.
Kings+
newgroup <grp> [<rank>] Create new newsgroup.
remove <num> Remove article <num> from current group.
rmgroup <grp> Remove newsgroup <grp>.
sync Save news to disk.
Snowplains MAILSystem
Snowplains MAILSystem provides a way of communicating via mail with other
users of Snowplains. Like most other mailers, it provides facilities for
sending, reading and replying to mail, and organising it into folders. The
system requires no setting up: the simplest use of it is just to use
'mail check' to list your new mail, 'mail next' to read each message, and
'mail delete all' to delete them afterwards.
Incoming mail comes into a folder called 'INBOX'. This folder is created
automatically for you and automatically selected when checking your mail.
You may create other folders at any time and move mail into them. Also,
Snowplains can keep copies in a particular folder of all mail you send,
and move all your read mail from INBOX to another folder periodically.
By default, any deleted messages will be expunged (wiped completely)
whenever your player is saved (this is usually only when you log off).
Expunged mail cannot be undeleted.
There's a complete list of commands available by typing 'help mailcomms'.
MAILSystem Commands
check mail List any mail in your inbox you haven't read.
mail Enter mail mode, or do a mail command.
Via the mail command, or whilst in mail mode (recommended):
check Check the mail queue for any new mail to you.
next Show the next unread mail you have.
list [n] List all [or just new] mail in the current folder.
read <num> Read a particular message. Performs the onread action.
unread <num> Unread a message so it looks new again. The onread
action is not undone, however.
onread <action> See 'help mail_read'.
post <names> <subject> Send a mail to one or more users. Read 'help edit'.
reply <num> Reply to one of the mails you have received.
replyall <num> Reply, to all recipients of the original.
onreply <action> See 'help mail_post'.
forward <num> <names> Forward a copy of a mail to one or more users.
onpost <action> See 'help mail_post'.
delete <num> Mark a message (or 'all') as deleted.
undelete <num> Remove the deleted mark from a message.
expunge Permanently deletes all messages that you have marked
deleted.
inform Toggle whether you get informed about new mail.
goto <folder> Change the current folder.
ongoto <action> See 'help mail_folders'.
create <folder> Create a new folder.
destroy <folder> Destroy a folder and all its messages. BE CAREFUL!
move <num> <folder> Copy a message to another folder and delete it.
onsave <action> See 'help mail_onsave'.
commands List all the available mail commands.
help <subject> Normal Snowplains help.
end Leave mail mode.
Reading mail
Individual messages are read using 'mail read <number>'. A header showing
the sender, recipients and the subject, and the message body are shown.
'mail unread <number>' makes a message look unread. Useful to make it show
up with 'mail check', which only lists unread mail.
'mail onread <action>' allows you to perform an automatic action when
reading a message.
delete The message will be marked as deleted after reading.
keep The message will be kept after reading. [DEFAULT]
See also: mail, mailcomms
Sending mail
Send a mail to one or more users using 'mail post <names> <subject>'. The
names are comma separated with no spaces, and the subject is optional. You
will be put into the editor - use '.end' to send the mail when you are
happy.
'mail reply <num>' replies to the sender of a mail you have received. You do
not specify a title - "Re: " will be prepended to the original one.
'mail replyall <num>' replies to the sender and all the recipients of a
mail.
'mail forward <num> <names>' lets you send an exact copy of a mail you have
received to someone - you cannot edit the mail, and it will contain at the
top a copy of the header which was on the original mail.
'mail onpost <action>' lets you do things automatically when posting. This
applies to 'mail post', 'mail reply', and 'mail forward'.
save <folder> A copy of all sent mail should be saved to <folder>.
If the folder is full, the earliest message is removed
to make room for the copy.
forget Don't keep any record of sent mail. [DEFAULT]
'mail onreply <action>' specifies whether the original mail should be
quoted or not when replying. The default action is 'quote', but you can use
'noquote' if you wish.
See also: mail, mailcomms
Mail folders
A folder is a collection of messages, each folder holding up to 16 messages.
New folders can be created easily with 'mail create <folder>' and there is
no limit on the number of folders and no restriction on their names.
INBOX is a special folder created by the system automatically when needed,
and used to receive new mail.
'mail destroy <folder>' will destroy a mail folder. You may not abbreviate
the name of the folder with this command.
'mail ongoto <folder>' causes automatic actions to be performed when
changing folder:
expunge Clear all deleted mail from the current folder.
keep Leave the current folder as it is. [DEFAULT]
See also: mail, mailcomms
Mail 'onsave' handling
'mail onsave <action>' lets you specify what Snowplains MAILSystem should
do automatically when your player is saved. Normally your player is only
saved when you log off, but it also happens when you change email address or
password, or when you use the 'save' command. Both 'expunge' and 'move' may
be in operation at once with the onsave handler.
expunge Deleted mails will be removed altogether. [DEFAULT]
move <folder> Any other mails in INBOX will be moved to a folder.
keep Neither of these will happen.
See also: mail, mailcomms
Room Commands
lock lock the room you are in.
connect_room sets the room you will attempt to connect to.
boot boots people out of your rooms.
room do a room command, or enter room mode.
Via the room command, or whilst in room mode (on your own rooms only!):
[+-]auto Add or remove an automessage (+ to add a message, - to
remove one).
autos Check automessages, or turn them on or off.
bolt Close the room to all but you.
check Info about all your rooms.
create Create a room.
delete delete a room.
edit Edit the description for the room. Read 'help edit'.
entrance Opens a room so people can arrive there when they login.
entermsg Set the message that other people will see when someone
leaves a room to enter this room.
[+-]exit Add or remove an exit to another room (+ to add, - to remove)
id Set the id of the room.
info give some info about the room.
link Link your rooms to another.
linkable Make it so other people can link to a room of yours.
lock Lock a room so only those with keys can get in.
open Make it so anybody can enter a room.
name Set the name of the room.
notify You get told when someone enters a room of yours.
sethome Make this room your home.
speed Change the speed of the automessages.
commands Lists commands available in this mode.
end End sub command mode.
See also: ghome
The Editor
Lines not starting with / or . are inserted into the text.
.del Delete the current line.
.- Go back a line.
.+ Go forward a line.
.view See what you've written.
.l View the current line.
.g Goto a line.
.top Goto the top.
.bot Goto the bottom.
.wipe Completely clear the buffer.
.stats Show some stats about the buffer.
.quiet toggle whether you go into 'quiet' mode when editing.
.end Quit the editor and KEEP the changes.
.quit Quit the editor and THROW AWAY any changes.
Miscellaneous
blocktells Ignore any tells to you.
earmuffs Ignore any shouts.
linewrap Turn off, or set the width of your terminal.
wordwrap Turn off, or set the largest word that will trigger wrapping.
show Show what sort of command some text has originated from.
hitells Hi-lights any personal messages for you.
quit Leave the program.
lsu List the penguins currently connected.
Flags
This is a list of the flags you can set for someone in your list, also for
everyone:
noisy Person can defeat blocktells and earmuffs.
ignore You will not see anything person does, and if they try a tell
they will get your ignoremsg if set.
inform You will see a message when person connects.
grabme Person can grab you.
friend Person is a friend.
bar Blocks person from entering your rooms, even if they are open.
beep Your terminal will beep when person connects.
block Blocks tells from person.
key Gives person the key to your rooms, they can enter locked.
rooms and lock and unlock any room.
find Person can find you even when hidden.
mailblock Stops person from sending you mail.
See also: help <flag>
*** The Rules ***
The name of the game is to enjoy yourself.
What you do on your own is private, but, should anything you do be abusive
or annoying to other users (this includes "spamming" or "piping"), or at
all offensive, then be prepared to bear the full brunt of the consequences.
Drug related conversation is in ALL WAYS banned from public rooms or
channels (see 'help drugs' for more information on the rule). Similarly, no
exchange or discussion of "where to get" pirated software is permitted.
You must set a valid email address or your user will not save.
Please stick to one resident user per person, it saves on disk space.
Anybody found having multiple characters, may have ALL their characters
brutally removed.
The decisions of any Penguin are final. However, please note that NO-ONE on
Snowplains has the power to snoop, or intercept anything that happens in
private.
Disclaimer
Here, the term "administrators" refers to Jarel, Berry, Marble and Pling.
In no event will the administrators of this program be liable to you or
anybody else for any damages, including any general, special, incidental, or
consequential damages, arising out of use or inability to use the program,
or arising from the actions of you or other users of the program.This
includes, but is by no means limited to, the fact that any statement made
by any user of the program is not necessarily the view of the
administrators, nor supported by them.
By using this program you are explicitly accepting the above terms, for
this and any future uses of the program, and that you indemnify the
administrators against any damages arising in any way to do with your, or
anybody elses, use or misuse of the program.
The Credits!
92-94 - Simon Marsh wrote the original EW-too code. Chris Hughes added more
code with it running as Foothills, then Athanasius added even more while it
was running as Surfers. Between Athanasius stopping coding for Surfers, and
releasing "Summink", more code was added by Grim (Michael Simms), Fox
(Jeremy Doran) and Nicolai (Nicolai Plum). In 1994, Athanas