📖 Note: This article explains how users participating in a competition on the platform can view and post messages in the competition Chat Forum.
What is a Competition Chat Forum?
The Chat Forum is a page where organisers and participants of a competition can write messages to socialise and connect with each other during the competition.
The Chat Forum differs from the Announcements channel, which allows organisers to deliver competition-specific information to participants. The Chat Forum also differs from Challenge Chats, as the Chat Forum allows for social communication across teams (and even to event organisers), whereas Challenge Chats only allow for communication within a team.
📖 Note: the Chat Forum is a feature that was introduced in March 2024, and is available to all competitions (both individual and team-based).
Navigating to a Competition's Chat Forum
You can find the Chat Forum for a competition on the sidebar when you are within the competition. Simply click Chat Forum to open the Chat Forum page.
Viewing Chat Forum Messages
Once you're on the Chat Forum page within a competition, you'll be able to see all messages posted by competition organisers and participants. For each message, you'll be able to see the name/alias [1] of the poster, a badge [2] (if applicable) next to their name, and the time and date [3] that the message was posted.
Organisers will have an 'Event Organiser' badge next to their name. In team-based competitions, participants will have a badge showing their team name and avatar. In individual-based competitions, participants will not have a badge next to their name.
You will be able to see the name of event organisers who post. For participants however, you will see their user alias instead.
Posting Messages in the Chat Forum
To post a message in the Chat Forum, simply type in the message input box. Each message has a limit of 500 characters.
You can also paste images into the message input box if you wish. Image file types that are accepted are JPEG, JPG, PNG, and GIF. Note that only one image can be added to a message at a time.
When you are ready to post your message, click 'Send'.
Messages that are posted in the Chat Forum are visible to everyone with access to the competition (event organisers and participants). You cannot choose a specific user or group of users to message.
📖 Note: the Chat Forum does not have functionality to notify users of new messages being posted. This is because the Chat Forum aims to provide an avenue for non-urgent and informal messages to be written.
Editing Existing Announcement Messages
You can edit any of your own messages in the Chat Forum. To edit a message, click the pen icon underneath the message you wish to edit. Once you do this, you will be able to freely edit the message.
The same rules for posting new messages apply to editing existing messages. Each message has a maximum character limit of 500 characters, and you can add one image at a time to each message (with only JPEG, JPG, PNG, and GIF image file formats being accepted).
Once you are happy with the edits you have made, click the tick icon [1] to save your changes. Once you do this, '(edited)' will be added to the end of your message to show that your message has been edited.
If you want to discard your edits, click the cross icon [2] to cancel editing.
📖 Note: you can't delete your messages in the Chat Forum. Only event organisers can delete messages. As a participant, you can only edit messages.
When you wish to view Chat Forum messages, simply navigate to the Chat Forum page at any time during your competition. Once a competition has ended, as a participant, you will only be able to see the competition scoreboard, so you'll lose access to a competition's Chat Forum page once it is over.