Firestorm Contact Sets
Material based on 4.6.5
Firestorm provides a way to organize your friends - and other people - into sets or categories, using your own criteria. Thus you can create sets of friends, colleagues, business contacts, and so on.
Such sets can be color-coded, and those colors can then be applied to chat, mini map, and so on.
Avatars can belong to one or more sets - or none at all.
Contact Sets allow you to add new contacts to your list, even if they are not on your friends list.
Adding contacts this way does not grant any rights or abilities that you would not already have. Anyone added this way who is not on your friends list will not be treated as a friend.
Adding people this way is merely a convenience for listing and easily accessing names and for having them stand out with the use of color.
The Contact Sets window is accessed from the top menu bar, Comm > Contact Sets, by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Shift-C, or by opening your Conversations window, Contacts tab, Contact Sets sub-tab.
There is a Contact Sets button.available for the Toolbar and it is also available as a tab in the People panel.
The Contact Sets Window Overview
Note that we will have a "hands on" section in the class to help you set up a "set" a little later in the class.
Set dropdown: Shows the name of the currently selected contact set, if any.
Gear/sprocket Icon: This will only be accessible when a set is selected. Clicking it will open a window with the options for that set.
Contact Set Settings
Set Color: Clicking this brings up a color picker, from which you can select a color to assign to the set. This color will be used, optionally in other parts of the viewer like IMs, and so on.
Show notifications: This check-box will show online/offline notifications for members of the set.
Note that this is is in addition to the global settings in Preferences > Notifications tab > Notifications sub tab > Tell me: Show when my friends log in or out: As toasts / In nearby chat and console / In nearby chat only.
If any of those are enabled, you will still get notifications for all friends; if disabled, then the settings here take precedence. You will choose whether to view the notifications as toast and/or chat in the settings below.
Global Settings:
Default color for friends not in a set: This setting is not presently functional
Online notifications:
- Show Online Notices for ALL friends as toasts (uncheck to only show for certain Sets): Corresponds to Preferences > Notifications tab > Notifications sub tab > Tell me... When my friends log in or out
- Show Online Notices for ALL friends in nearby chat (uncheck to only show for certain Sets): Corresponds to Preferences > Notifications tab > Notifications sub tab > Tell me... Log to nearby chat and console/Only in nearby chat
Note that these are the same settings as in preferences. Changing it here also changes it in preferences.
- Show Online Notices for certain Sets as toast
- Show Online Notices for certain Sets in nearby chat
These two will specify how you want to see notifications for this Set.
Custom colors:
Color a friend's mini map icon based on their Contact Set: If enabled, this will use the color of the set the person belongs to for their mini map icon.
Color a friend's name tag based on their Contact Set: If enabled, this will use the color of the set the person belongs to for their on-screen name tag.
Color a friend's radar list entry based on their Contact Set: If enabled, this will use the color of the set the person belongs to for the radar view.
Color a friend's chat based on their Contact Set: If enabled, this will use the color of the set the person belongs to for their local chat and IMs.
If someone is assigned to more than one set, then the color of the smallest (ie most unique) set is used in the affected functions.
+ Icon: Click this to create a new set of contacts. A window will open, simply type the set name in then click “Create”.
Trash can Icon: Clicking this will delete the currently selected set. You cannot restore a deleted set, you would have to make it all over again.
Add button: Clicking this with a set selected will open a resident chooser that you can use to add people to that set.
This window has three tabs
Search allows you to search by name.
Friends is your friends list.
Near Me will show all avatars within a range of up to 130m.
The List
If you select a name on the list the other buttons to the right will become active.
Remove: Will remove that contact from the Set.
Profile: Opens that contacts profile.
IM: Opens an IM to that contact
Teleport: Offers a teleport to that contact
Set Alias: Allows you to set a "nickname" for that contact, visible only to you. This replaces their display name, only in your view.
Rem Alias: I you removed a contact's display name (see below) or given them an Alias (as described above), this option restores it.
Rem DN: Selecting this will “remove” the contact's display name - for you only. In other words, this affects what you see, not the contact's actual display name. Nor will anyone else notice the change.
If you right-click on any name, you get a menu with several options.
View Profile: Opens the contact's profile.
IM: Opens an IM window for the contact.
Offer Teleport: Offers a teleport to the selected contact.
Request Teleport: Requests a teleport from the selected contact.
View chat transcripts: This is presently not functional.
Add Friend: If you right click on a name that is not on your friends list this option will show, allowing you to offer friendship.
Add to Set: Opens a window where you can select a Set to add the contact to.
Remove Friend: will remove that contact from your friends list.
Invite to group: Opens a window where you can select a group to invite the contact to.
Map: If your friend gave you map rights, this item will be enabled. If clicked, it will open the world map and show the person's current location.
Share: If you click this entry, an IM window opens; you can then drag and drop inventory items into it, to give them to the other person.
Pay: Opens a window, which you can use to pay the other person L$.
Block/Unblock: This mutes the other person, completely blocking them from contacting you. You will not see anything they type in local chat, nor get any IMs they might send, and all inventory offers made will be automatically declined.
How to Define a New Set
Click on the + icon at the top, then type in the name of the set and click Create in the window that opens.
Select the set from the dropdown list.
Now, go through your list of contacts and check each of those whom you wish to add to the new set.
Note that you need to hold down CTRL while selecting multiple people for the same set.
Then right-click any of those selected, and from the menu, select “Add to Set”, this opens a window where you can select a Set to add the contacts to.
Using a Set
Once you have one or more sets created and contacts assigned to them, you can put them to use. Select a set from the drop-down at the top then select the members of the set
At this point if you right-click on one of the selected names, you get the options to
Add Friends
Add to set
Remove Friends
IM
Call
Share
Pay
Offer Teleport
Using the contact sets features just described does not allow you to get around built-in SL limitations.
Therefore, no matter how large a set, you cannot send a mass TP or conference call to more than 20 people at a time, and they must be on your friends list.
Applying Sets
Now that you have at least one Contact Set and a general idea of what they do, let's go back over some of the features.
If you want to view online/offline notifications for only members of certain Sets, then:
1) In the Contact Sets Settings floater, have both of the "Show Online Notices for ALL friends" settings disabled;
2) Just below those, have one or both of the "Show Online Notices for certain Sets" settings enabled; and
3) Make sure that Show Notifications is checked
You can also click the Set Color box to choose or change the color for that set.
This color is used to color-code these contacts in different parts of the UI. If you want, check the boxes in the Settings floater for:
> mini map icon
> name tag
> radar list entry
> chat
Because the colors might go better against some backgrounds than against others, and viewer skins use varying palettes, be prepared to adjust as needed.
You can also use contact sets to send conference calls or mass teleports to a select group of contacts rather than in an all-or-nothing manner. To do this:
1) Choose the Set in the drop-down menu.
2) Select the members of the set.
3) Right-click on one of the selected names and choose "IM" or "Offer Teleport"
Note again that the maximum number of avatars who can receive a conference call or tp from you simultaneously is 20.
It is possible to assign friends to more than one set. Simply right-click on their name and add to as many sets as apply.
Contacts use the color of the smallest set (the one with the fewest members).
One final important note:
Your contact sets are stored locally on your computer as an xml file. Be sure to back them up before doing a clean install of any future release.
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