Confused? .. Here's some 'Help'

Here are some key-points which will improve your snooker text experience:

1. Remember to register within both live chat and chatroom windows

2. Send your questions to the guest within the live chat area

3. Whilst waiting for your question to be answered in the live chat - why not join the real-time conversation with fellow supporters in the chatroom? Remember to keep popping between windows to check whether you're question has been answered ;-)

Should you be experiencing difficulties, follow our in-depth guide and trouble-shooting tips for chat and perhaps this will help solve your problem:

What is Live Chat?
Live chat is like a cross between e-mail and a radio phone-in, where you have the chance to put your questions to guests backstage at the BBC. It couldn't be simpler! When you submit a question for the guest(s) it is sent to the production team in the chat studio. The team then makes a selection from all the questions that have come in, with the best ones are answered by the guest(s). As the questions are answered the responses appear on your PC screen for you to read. You can then carry on asking questions throughout the chat or, if you prefer, just sit back and watch.

What is a Chatroom?
In a chatroom you can talk to other people online and have a real-time conversation on your computer screen. All the people that are taking part are listed to the right-hand side of the chat area. Entering a chatroom is kind of like attending a dinner party: you can see all the guests and there may be more than one conversation going on at once. When you use a chatroom, you should always be considerate and respectful of other users, some of whom may be children. Please don't swear, send your email address to other users or post links to other web sites as doing so may cause the automatic filtering software or the chatroom host to remove you from the chatroom.

Why can't I log in?
BBC chats are best viewable through a browser. This is made possible by a Java interface that automatically loads in your browser when you enter the chat page. Unfortunately, if you are using an older browser you may not be able to run Java applets without updating to version 3.0 or above.

It's possible your company's firewall is getting in the way. If you're chatting from work, check with your network administrator. If they can't do anything to help, you may still access the chat, but you will have to download and install an IRC client program. If you happen to be behind what is called a SOCKS firewall, you can then connect to the chat by going to the server chat.bbc.co.uk and using port 6666-6669, 7777. Once you have connected to the server, you will need to type /list to find out what chat room or live chat area is being used, then type /join followed by the name of that chat (ie. if the event room is being used you would type /join #event. Most IRC client programs can be configured to speak the text of the chat if you are visually impaired. Unfortunately, users of an IRC client will not have access to sounds and text colours sometimes made available to users of the Java interface although they will still be able to take part.

How do I send a question?
Just type your question in the box at the bottom of the live chat screen. e.g. Who was your most memorable snooker opponent? Then just press the [Enter] or [Return] key on your keyboard. In a live chat, the server will tell you that your question has been sent to the moderators for consideration. If you are in a chat room, other users will instantly be able to see what you have typed.

Why isn't my question getting answered in the live chat?
There could be hundreds of other people in the chat asking questions too. There isn't time to answer all the questions. All the questions that are asked are sent to the production team, who select the best ones and pass them on to the host. Try and keep your question(s) short and to the point, this will make it easier for the host to pick the most suitable questions from the shortlist.

Why can't I talk to the other people in the live chat audience?
To keep things organised only the host and the guest are allowed to talk to everyone. If everyone in the audience could chat to each other, chaos would reign. But don't worry. The team can see your questions even though the other people in the audience can't. You can only talk to other people within the open chat room whilst waiting for a response from the live chat window

What's wrong? Nothing is happening in the live chat window!
Sometimes after joining the chat you may find that it takes a few seconds, or even a minute or two, for you to see anything. This is because you will only be able to see questions and responses sent after you have joined. Before you entered we may have announced that the guest is taking a minute long break, or a very long question has been asked which is taking the guest a minute or two to consider before responding. Please be patient.