PRELUDE: REGISTERING A FUNCTIONAL AIM SCREENNAME IN PREPARATION FOR PARTICIPATION [Note: skip this part if you have already registered an AH-appropriate AIM screenname] Primarily in order to facilitate communication flow and minimize "noise", but also for certain other reasons too complex to discuss here (they have to do with highly technical considerations in cybertechnology and the social psychology involved in its use), there is an AIM screenname formula which must be observed by all visitors to the AH Travel Tips Chat chatroom (CR) who would like to input text there. (You can "lurk", i.e., observe without contributing, under any screenname at all, but in order to contribute you MUST be in the CR under a screenname conforming to the following format and content: it must consist of your first and last name as they appear on your passport, or, if you don't have a passport yet, as they WILL appear on your passport when you eventually get one. (If your name is a very common name, someone may have already taken it; in which case, you can insert your middle initial, which probably won't be taken. In the highly unlikely event THIS name is taken, then you should write us in email and report that fact, and we'll help you register another acceptable name.)) ***IMPORTANT NOTE***: Your screenname MUST be formatted in standard upper/ lower-case typographical format, i.e., it must be of the form JohnJSmith or JaneCDoe, NOT johnjsmith or janecdoe or JOHNJSMITH or JANECDOE. Once you have registered this sn, you can proceed to familiarize yourself with the other aspects of protocol as enumerated below. One place on the Web where you can register an AIM screenname is http://aimexpress.aim.com. Another good place is at www.meebo.com. On either of these sites you can log directly into AIM under your new sn immediately after registering it. (If you find any other good places for sn registration, let us know!) A GUIDE TO AIRHITCH® CHATROOM PROTOCOL The general purpose of the AH CR on AIM, Travel Tips Chat, is to have a "place" where active AHers as well as potential and/or "inactive" AHers can share information on an interactive and instant-feedback basis. [One major SPECIFIC purpose of the chatroom is to host FLIGHT-BRIEFINGS (FBs), so that active Airhitchers® who are "ready2roll" (r2r) can obtain the specific info necessary for making their first Airhitch® flight attempt (which is usually their last: the vast majority of AHers get on flights on their FIRST TRY, and this is the EXPECTED OUTCOME of any AHing endeavor). However, the elements of this protocol apply to ALL communication in the CR, not just FBs.] [ABUSE AND HARASSMENT ALERT: unfortunately, there has recently been an upswing in misrepresentation, abuse, harassment, and other nefarious verbal behavior among visitors to the chatroom, so if you encounter any of this, your wisest course of action would be to simply exit the chatroom by closing your chatroom window and finding one of the AOS subunits online in private 2wayIM chat to report the problem, and receive instrux on how to proceed to AVOID the problem. Note especially that if you see one or both of the two screennames "AimbanServers" and/or "Michael Pwn You" in the chatroom namelist, you might as well leave the chatroom immediately as these are our "pet" abusers, and their presence virtually GUARANTEES that abuse and harassment will follow shortly. One additional name to avoid is "feelin chill", who, though (s)he doesn't always appear to be abusive or harassing, in fact has proven him/herself to be on numerous occasions. Yes, we probably agree with you that it's a sad world where this kind of stuff happens... but we all have to live with it, and just do our best to adapt to it.] Because the CR can often be chaotic if the participants do not discipline themselves somewhat (think of a classroom in a school, though it's more informal than that), we hereby provide for you a set of guidelines for CR behavior designed to FACILITATE and EXPEDITE the process, and get us all going with a MINIMUM of confusion, delay, and "ado": 1. THINK before you type, don't "just type anything" into the CR. 2. Don't type novels before hitting "enter". Keep your lines short, and if you need more than one or two lines to express a thought, chop them up into several "chunks" by ending each line with ellipses (...) to signify "more to follow". If you see others using ellipses, WAIT UNTIL THEY FINISH THEIR THOUGHT BEFORE YOU RESPOND. 3. Watch your screen while you are typing, not your fingers; or, if you abso- lutely HAVE TO watch your fingers, at least glance at your chatroom window from time to time to check for information which may be arriving there; at the VERY least, just before you hit "enter" to input each line, check your CR window for what has arrived there SINCE THE LAST TIME YOU hit "enter"! 4. Answer all questions asked as briefly as possible. If the question calls for a "yes/no" answer, simply type "y" or "n" or, if absolutely necessary, "I don't know", and do not "ramble on" about this and that. Nobody needs to hear "the story of your life"...and the questions are not asked randomly: they are carefully chosen to help you move as quickly, smoothly, and ef- ficently as possible into a position of MINIMIZING YOUR COST and MAXIMIZING YOUR FREEDOM for your upcoming trip. Also note, that despite article 12a below, the AOS may occasionally have to ask you certain "Why...?" questions so as to ascertain whether you really understand the process, and "what's good for you". Note that the bonafide legitimate answer to a "Why...?" question can only start with "Because" and must contain at least one verb. 5. Ask only RELEVANT questions, i.e., questions the answers to which MATTER. For example, if told there is a flight to Germany, don't ask "Where in Germany?", because IT DOESN'T MATTER, as Germany is a small country, about the size of Texas, and getting from one part of it to another is no big deal, it can be accomplished for "pennies" and within a few hours. This kind of info will EMERGE NATURALLY from the process of the FB, and you don't have to slow up the process by asking this type of question. 6. Allow each question (yours or someone else's) to be answered by the AOS (Airhitch® Online Staff) before proceeding to ask the next question. Do NOT machine-gun the CR with multiple questions. 7. Do not leave the CR abruptly without first checking if everyone present has said all they need to say to you. Abrupt CR exits are taken normally as signs of tech problems, so if you are leaving because of something OTHER THAN a tech problem, don't do it abruptly. 8. If you do not understand any acronym used in discourse by the AOS or anyone else present, simply type the word "ahacrobot" (it must be in all lower-case) followed by a colon (:) followed by a space, followed by the acronym you want decoded followed by the 2-char. string "=?", and our AHAcroBot, which is almost always present in the CR when any AHstaff unit are present, will decode it for you. For example if you don't know what the acronym "CR" means, just type ahacrobot: CR=? and the bot will come back and say "ChatRoom", perhaps with a line or two of explanation/elaboration/clarification. [Note that, depending on how your own AIM background and font colors are configured, what the bot says the first time you query it MAY be "invisible", i.e., the same color text as your back- ground color configuration. To view the bot's response, which will appear under such conditions as a blank space after the bot's name, immediately, just hold down on your left mouseclick button and sweep your mouse-cursor across the blank space. For a more permanent fix, to avoid having to do this tediously each time you query the bot, reconfigure your text color and maybe background color so that all the bot's text displays.] 9. If you have answers to other people's questions, feel free to interject them into the discussion, but KEEP THEM BRIEF. Do not interject answers which apply only to the person asking the question, if such a question occurs, answer it in PRIVATE 2wayIM chat. 10. Remember that the CR is not a forum for socializing -- you can do that in 2wayIM. Although a certain amount of socializing is helpful because it allows AHers to find and ally common interests in getting where they are going, oversocializing can be disruptive to the main purpose the CR serves: getting people moving! 11. Refrain from ANY SORT of "metalinguistic" remark. What is a metalinguistic remark? It is remark about LANGUAGE or RELATIONSHIP or an expression of a SUBJECTIVE OPINION, as opposed to a remark about objective reality. An example of a metalinguistic remark is "What? There's no flight directly from Boise to Belgium? That sucks!" Metalinguistic remarks can often disintegrate into ABUSE, and ABUSE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED IN THE CR. 12. Types of questions to avoid: a. "Why...?" questions, especially, "Why can't I do such and such?" or "Why do I have to do such and such?". These normally eat up great quantities of time/energy/effort/bandwidth and thus BADLY SLOW UP THE PROCESS, usually with no satisfactory answer forthcoming anyway. If you are interested in the "why" of things, you'd be wise to seriously consider entering the online training program for becoming an AOStaffer, and also, we discuss a lot about the "why" of things on our website. You can also ask us about them in email, or, if we have the time, in private 2wayIMchat, although under ordinary CR conditions, this latter practice is discouraged, and you may not get a reply. b. "Should I...?" questions. Decisions about what you "should" do are entirely yours, as we do not consider it part of our role/function to try to run people's lives for them or even influence their decisions about how to run their lives. Rather, our role/function is to provide you with enough valid data and logic that you have not already been exposed to, so that you can intelligently formulate your OWN decisions, with due consideration of the various cost/risk/benefit factors involved, and especially, to GOOD EFFECT! c. Questions about whether flight opportunities exist that have not been announced by the AOS. Remember that the AOS KNOWS WHAT YOUR NEEDS ARE, and will be bringing its entire decades'-worth of collective flight-finding ex- perience, knowledge, and skills into play in order to address them, that's why you registered for Airhitch® or submitted a Target Flight® request in the first place, to tell the AOS what those needs are and to get them addressed, and you will not be getting briefed in the CR before the AOS knows what you need. Therefore, assume that the AOS has told you about ALL AHable flights meeting your needs that we know about. To keep asking, "Isn't there anything closer to Oshkosh?", when you've been told all the availabilities the AOS is aware of, is NOT productive in the chatroom. As long as you observe the above guidelines, you are free to talk about ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING RELATED TO AIRHITCHING OR TARGET-FLYING, and encouraged to share openly any information you think might help anyone else present. But, if you DON'T observe and respect the guidelines, the following will happen: first, you'll be advised that you're violating protocol. Second, if you have questions about how you violated protocol, you can ask them and they will be answered. Third, if another violation occurs, you will be warned that if you violate protocol again, that will result in us invoking the "three strikes you're out" monitor. Fourth, once the monitor is invoked, three more violations of protocol will result in you being asked to leave the CR, which means, that you will have effectively DISQUALIFIED YOURSELF from Airhitching unless you can demonstrate, and fairly quickly, a MARKED CHANGE OF ATTITUDE AND APPROACH.