YiffChat

YiffChat is a popular web-based furry VOChat hosted by Yiffstar. Unlike many other chats or MUCKs, YiffChat is primarily aimed at yiff and sexual role-play.

Some users also argue that while it is named "YIFFchat," it's also "yiffCHAT," a place to talk to a group of people at once. However, as Yiffchat evolved over the years, the environment adapted to both adult-themed and general discussions.


 * Address: http://chat.yiffstar.com
 * Current Moderators: Toumal, Graeme, Maah, Ryu Wolf, Alex Cross, Kokusho, Rincewind, Kiroki, Tux_The_Penguin, Cinaed, Efrath, Telorance, Kar Caligari, PhrostDragon, Professor Bob, Jeeves and GangrStallion (temp)

Unlike other chat mediums such as IRC, members of the chat are allowed to have customized profiles with HTML and images.

Rooms such as Twilight Den, Evergreen Forest and Bierce Castle are all used for gatherings and role-playing. The site recently made the use of private rooms created by the user for private chats and activity, called Room Booking.

Averaging at 62 users daily as of January 2009, the Lobby, which is the most popular room in terms of user traffic, is for general conversation, but the room often has users behaving suggestively. Most consent to that behavior. At times, users would engage in descriptive role-playing with each other to the chagrin of users having basic conversations.

In 2006, Yiffchat crashed, causing the chat to be completely erased, though it was quickly put back online. Many users, however, needed to create new usernames and restore their profiles.

Yiffchat is occasionally plagued by Internal 500 errors and server timeouts, but the chat is ultimately restored shortly after the errors occur. Toumal, the webmaster of Yiffstar, has vowed to reduce the amount of errors in hopes of making the chat more stable. He has provided several performance tweaks that has made Yiffchat run more efficiently.

Yiffchat has become so popular that chat moderators would often remove idlers from the chat so returning, active users can chat. Currently, Yiffchat has a cap on the amount of users online due to performance issues that occur after users go over that cap.

=Louvre - MALE and Controversy=

Replacing the Tirade Cafe, The second most popular Louvre MALE room was one of several -- typically unused -- Louvre rooms that included the ability to post pictures in-chat. However, some contend that the pictures posted, which appeared instead of actual links to the picture source, would cause lag and it would disrupt conversations happening in the chat.

The Male Louvre was intended for posting male-only furry artwork. The room would later become the hang-out spot for mostly homosexual male users. Occasionally, female users would join and interact with users.

Some members feared that members of the Lobby would not accept them socially, so they gathered in the Male Louvre as a means of establishing more intimate relationships. However, drama would often erupt. Sometimes, drama would erupt between new and old members. Other times, drama would involve petty arguments between users who were banned previously for similar misconduct.

Many users violated room policy and uploaded pictures that did not comply with the male furry-only art, which ultimately led to the revocation of the picture posting ability in early May 2009.

After a spike of complaints and instances of drama, the Yiffstar staff decided to remove the Louvre sections entirely to the dismay of several prominent, outspoken members as shown in a ticket posted in Mantis, appealing the removal of the Louvre MALE.

After moderators discussed and debated with users over reinstating the Male Louvre, in June 2009, a new room was made called the "The Court of Sheherazhade," which was the brainchild of GothWulfe, a former member of the Male Louvre.

=PUB=

Private User Board (PUB) is a function of the chat that allows members to send and receive messages.

PUBs are sometimes used maliciously as users have sent messages to others who put them on IGN. Doing so results in a warning, alert or a ban depending on the repetitiveness of their actions.

=IGN=

The Ignore Button is located next to the profile and gender symbols. The function is used to block out disruptive chatter or remarks. Clicking "vis" will take a member off of ignore. Moderators urge members to use the function so that they don't engage in potential drama and become part of the problem.

=Profiles=

A profile in Yiffchat is a way for people to know who you are and what you are. Profiles can be coded with HTML, though only a basic sense of HTML is needed to do it correctly. Images are popular, as are lengthy descriptions. Many users like to decorate them according to their personality, but mainly people like to keep them simple and clean for the best effect.

Profiles that can invoke drama will be subjected to content removal.

Profiles that are visually damaging, such as "shock images" and seizure-inducing animations, will also be subject to content removal.

=Moderation=

Moderators administer a system akin to the "three-strike rule."

If a member shows signs of breaking the rules, they receive a verbal warning.

If a member continues to be defiant, they receive an alert, which is a message directed to them set entirely in bold.

If a member does not comply with the alert, they will be banned for a minimum of a day.

=Order of Bans=


 * First (1 day)
 * Second (1 week)
 * Third (2 weeks)
 * Fourth (1 month)
 * Fifth (2 months)
 * Sixth (6 months)
 * Seventh (1 year)

Any users banned beyond the seventh recurring ban will be considered for permanent ban.

Members can qualify for a permanent ban if they repeat serious offenses such as site tampering, hacking or engage in several instances of social engineering.

=Other chat functions=


 * Avatars
 * Status - Can be set as Online, Away or Do Not Disturb (DND)
 * Whisper - Members can send quick private messages to each other by clicking the ">>" arrows next to the username of the desired recipient
 * Who's In Rooms function
 * Search User function
 * Room Booking - The ability to create private rooms and assign members to join those rooms. This feature is used for private role-playing purposes
 * Help
 * Admin Contact - The function is defunct. It is best to use Mantis

Past chat functions include:


 * Idle-kick. Any users idle for more than 30 minutes automatically stopped chat flow.
 * Mod hats, to identify moderators.