Thread:Greeneyedlady007/@comment-32544157-20171019224839/@comment-24668482-20171022075326

Hi Boo,

When you enter chat there is a main chat window that everyone posts to and then a navigation panel on the right hand side that contains a list of people online in chat and a list of the chats you currently have open. You can use this right hand panel to see who is there, and to start private chats etc. You can also use this panel to toggle between the main chat window and any private chats you may have started.

When you start a private chat the main chat window is replaced by the private chat window so you can talk to your friend, but you do not actually leave the main chat. It is still there, and you can toggle between that main chat window and any other chat windows that you have open (chats with different friends) using the right hand panel. Since you can only see one chat window at a time, the system uses notifications to let you know when there are posts in the other chat windows that you haven't read yet.

In this case, the red 4 next to the SSHM wiki icon is letting you know that since you started the private chat with your friend 4 new posts were made in the main chat window that you haven't read yet. Clicking on the SSHM wiki icon would bring you back to the main chat window so you can read them. Then you can switch back to your friends chat by selecting it in the right hand panel. If your friend had posted a few messages to you while you were back looking at the main chat window, then you would also see red number next to the friend's chat in the right hand panel to let you know there are un-read messages in that private chat.

The reason your friend saw a different number than you is probably because they had fewer unread posts in the main chat window - e.g. if you have started the private chat with the friend so they had entered the private chat window shortly after you they may have seen more new messages in the main chat window that you did.

If the chat room is particalrly busy or you are talking to multiple people at a time in separate prvate chats you will see the red numbers constantly changing in that right hand side nagivation panel as things can move fast in chat! The notifications become very useful then if you are jumping back and forth between windows and trying to keep on top of all conversations!

Hope this helps,

Foss