Chapter 17 - The messaging system

[Heddryin]

To be taken to a specific post in this chapter, click on the blue link describing what it is you want to know about messaging:

For details on the new icons in messages and how to us them to send a Neighbour or Buddy Request click on this link: http://r1.slashkey.com/forum/showthr...14#post6548314

• What is the envelope in the game?
• Why is there this function on my farm?
• How do I keep messages?
• Where are my sent messages?
• How do I know if I have a new message? What is Read All?
• How do I send messages?
• What is the little green man and red icons at the bottom of messages?
• Why some of my neighbours did not receiving my messages?
• Can I write my messages in full screen mode?
• [Important] I get messages asking me to forward information. What should I do?
• How to Copy and Paste in chat and messages.
  

Should you need to get back to this post to look for other information:
Each post has a Table of Contents link bottom right of the post, which when you click, will bring you right back here.

How to easily tell which version of the game you are using when viewing
either the WEB Guide or the regular Game Guide

Look above your game screen Top Left.

Seeing this Logo means you are playing the Website Version of Farm Town.



Seeing the Pig means you are playing the Facebook Version of Farm Town.

[Heddryin]

This little envelope which can be found to the left of your XP (progress) bar is the internal mailing system on Farm Town.

It lets you read messages that others have sent you.
If there is a number in red on the message envelope that means you have a message you have not read. Click on the envelope and will show your Inbox.

This is an example of the Inbox:

Mouseover a message and it will highlight in yellow.
Click on the message you want to read to open it.

The message box will show you the avatar name of the sender and in brackets their first name, the date and time of the message, profile picture if they have one and a few brief details on game information like their level and xp and the message they sent. The coloured dots are explained in Chapter 5, which can indicate things like, if they are on line in the game, have active co-operative quests, are your super neighbour.

If you receive a long message that is longer than what can display in the box, there will be a scroll bar to the right you can use to scroll the message to see the rest.

• If you have a mouse with a wheel you can just use the mouse wheel to scroll the message down to see more of it.
• If you don't have a mouse with wheel to scroll, click your mouse pointer on the message in the box and the scroll bar will paper to the right and you can then click and drag that scroll bar down to see the rest of the message.

This is an example of a message box, the message has been removed for privacy and the scroll bar is indicated with a red arrow.

To Reply to the message:

• Click on Reply.
  
• Click in the white box and type your message.
  
  
• Click Send at the bottom of the box and your message will be sent.
  

For details on the new icons and how to us them to send a Neighbour or Buddy Request click on this link: http://r1.slashkey.com/forum/showthr...14#post6548314

Table of contents

[Heddryin]

Why not?

In fact, internal messaging lets you communicate with farmers who are not online. You can visit their farms and leave a message by using the "Send Message" option on the neighbour bar or from your "buddy list". This is how you can send a message to people rather than using the reply option detailed above.

You can simply click on an avatar and select "Send Message" from the menu that appears.

Table of contents

[Heddryin]

There is no known limit for the amount of new messages you can receive in your inbox. The red counter, on the message envelope, will not go above 99 and if you have more unread messages than that, it will just show a + sign on the envelope. As you read the messages and they get below 99 the counter will start counting up again as new messages come in. We recommend you read your messages when you get them and don't let them build up as you can only open them one at a time.

You can not save the messages directly to your inbox. Older messages will be replaced by newer ones. You can view a brief version of the conversations you had with a user who has sent you a message by opening the message and clicking the "Show History" button. This will show you the last 50 messages you had with them, however it is limited on how much of each message it can show in the history as it can only show 300 characters, including spaces, so you may only see a small part of the older messages.

Table of contents

[Heddryin]

In the person's inbox to whom you have sent!

In fact, you can not keep a copy of your sent messages. You can view a brief version of the conversations you had with a user who has sent you a message by opening the message they sent you and clicking the "Show History" button. This will show you the last 50 messages you had with them, however it is limited on how much of each message it can show in the history as it can only show 300 characters, including spaces, so you may only see a small part of the older messages.

Table of contents

[Heddryin]

On the envelope you can sometimes see a red dot with a white number inside. This number indicates that you have a certain corresponding amount of unread messages. (Click the envelope to view the messages)

However the red counter will not go above 99 and if you have more than that will just show a + sign on the envelope. As you read the messages and they get below 99 the counter will start counting up again as new messages come in.

If you have been away from the game for a while or have a lot of messages building up that you don't want to read every single on. There is the Read All button that will be green when you open a message that will clear the red number from the message envelope.



When there are no more messages to read the Read All button will be grey.

Table of contents

[Heddryin]

1. By visiting the farm of one of your friends and clicking on the message icon (above the neighbours bar).
2. Using the same icon in your "buddy list".
3. By clicking in the neighbour bar and selecting "Send Message".
4. By clicking on an avatar and choosing "Send Message" from the pop-up menu.

Table of contents

[Heddryin]

The Green Man

In the bottom right hand corner of messages you receive you'll find that there is a little green man.

If you click it, it will take you to the farm of the person who sent you the message.

Ignore user icon

You click this icon if you wish to stop the sender from sending you any more messages. This will send them to your blocked users list and you will no longer see their avatar in the game.

Report user icon ONLY use Report IF:

• someone is being abusive or sending abusive messages perhaps of a sexual nature
• advertising
• hacking
• other bad language or bad behaviour that does not come under irritating or annoying or argumentative.
• Do NOT use report for complaining about someone not completing work on farms!!

When you report someone make sure that you do it at the time the problem occurred. The report will include what was sent to you via messages and will show on their account. You need to do that before the message no longer shows up in your in game messages.

NEVER reply to any offensive messages. If you have not blocked them, they can use the message you sent to them, to reply back to you and the cycle will continue. By not responding those messages will disappear as you get new messages to replace them.

You only need to send ONE report!
If other farmers are having the same problem with the same user, they must also report the offender themselves.

If a user has been reported enough times over the past few months they will be penalised by not been able to send offline messages or chat messages to others for a period of time, the more times a user has been reported the longer they will be banned.


NOTE: Reporting users for no valid reason can get the reporting user a ban.



You can also use the ignore/report icons to the left of the chat box wherever you are OR if you can see them you can click on their avatar and use the block and report options in the avatar menu.



To unblock a friend: click on the Account tab at the top of your game screen, then click on "Blocked Users" where you will see their first profile picture and over on the far right a button to click.... Unblock User.
Facebook occasionally allows a first name to show but not always, this changes from time to time.


If you have any questions or problems with being able to ignore/report/unblock you can click on this link to take you to the Help and Support section for that subject. Please read the 1st post on page 1 before posting in that thread:
http://r1.slashkey.com/forum/showthread.php?t=594714

Table of contents

[Heddryin]

They may have accidentally ignored/blocked you in-game which would prevent this.

Ask them to verify that you are not in their list of blocked users in Farm Town.

There are several ways to unblock a user.
You need to be logged into your account on Facebook to do this:

Method 1:

• If you have ignored/blocked someone you can click on this link to be taken to your blocked user list:
  https://apps.facebook.com/farmtown/s.../blockedusers/
  
  
• Look for the profile picture of the user you want to unblock.
  
  
• Then click on Unblock User to the right.

Method 2:

• Click on the Account tab at the top of the game screen
  
  
  
• Then click on Blocked Users.
  
  
  A Blocked users profile picture will be showing, no names will show.
  
  
  To unblock a user click on Unblock User to the right of the profile picture you want to unblock.
  

Method 2:

• Click on the message envelope at the top of your game screen
  
  you will see this icon is showing at the top left of the message list.
  
  
• Click on the Undo Ignore icon and it will show you a pop up asking if you want to modify your ignored user list.
  
  
  
• Click on the green check mark and that will also take you to your list of blocked users.
  
  
  
• To unblock a user click on Unblock User to the right of the profile picture you want to unblock.

Once a user has been removed from this list, you will be able to send messages and see each other in the game again.

Table of contents

[Heddryin]

YES you can now do this in the new version as Unity supports it.

During the flash days, Adobe (which developed and distributed Flash support for games had blocked access to the keyboard in full screen mode for security reasons.

Unity which we use now allows you to chat and send messages in full screen mode.

Table of contents