What is Monochrome?

This is my attempt to describe in layman's terms just what this thing we call Monochrome is all about.

Monochrome is described by its author as a sophisticated, highly interactive multi-user messaging and conferencing system. This hides the true nature of the beast, so let me try to explain...

Monochrome is a multi-faceted place which brings together about 5000 users from all parts of the world and all walks of life (though UK students form the majority). It's based on a cluster of machines at City University in London, and on software written from scratch by the guy who runs it (David K Brownlee, or "abs").

Monochrome is hard to describe simply because there is so much which makes it what it is. I could tell you that there are about 8000 files, grouped into sections covering every conceivable topic of discussion or information. Even if you used the system 24 hours a day, doing nothing but continually reading, it's doubtful if you could keep up-to-date on every single file because so much would be added in the course of a day by the other users. Fortunately you probably wouldn't want to read all the files anyway...

I could also tell you about the multi-user talker, which is more feature-rich than a lot of dedicated talker services that I've seen. It enables realtime conversation between users either in a public setting or in "rooms" which may be invite-only or completely locked.

Then there's the message (or "u2u") facility. Send a message to someone who's logged on, and it gets transmitted to them straight away. When you receive a message it's automatically shown to you unless you're busy adding to a file. If you send to someone who isn't logged in, it gets deferred and shown to them when they're next on, just like email.

Mono has its own animation language, which is used for writing all sorts of ascii animations including games! Some of the games on Mono are among the best terminal-based ones I have seen.

The Users

Every user on Monochrome can have an infotext, a short page of information about themselves which is viewable by anyone else together with statistics such as what their longest continual login time was (mine is a tad over nine hours), the total time they've spent logged in (almost six weeks :), and what they're doing at the moment if they're currently on. What's more, you can generate these stats for all the 5000 users and find out who's the saddest spod of the moment...

Monochrome is a refreshingly unamerican oasis on an internet which becomes seems to become more yank-centric with every passing AOL spam... That said, obviously we are not xenophobic and welcome users from any country. However, Mono's culture is that of its users, who are mostly British.

The Staff

Mono is run by a hodge-podge group of volunteer staff, each responsible for the care and feeding of one or more sections, with help from people who are called assistants... above the staff are a small group of admin, each of whom is responsible for an entire branch of the Monochrome system (for example, the whole Humour section is administered by tugs...)

The Media Hype

The name tugs may be familiar to you thanks to the Daily Telegraph, Channel 4, and various other media organs; they are going mental over his marriage to pie this August because they are under the (mistaken) impression that this is the first time a couple in different countries have got married after meeting on the internet.

Monochrome alone has already been responsible for several marriages; this is the first where the two people involved have been from different countries, but that has certainly happened before on other internet forums.

Monochrome is not a dating agency. But it is reasonably successful at bringing soulmates together because it allows personalities to shine through.

The Meets

People I've met at MonoMeets have become some of my best friends, and even in one case my girlfriend. Apart from that though, meets are a great way of making friends in far-flung places. Mono meets tend to be different to meets for talkers and MUDs, for the following reasons:
• Most Monoers start within the talker, and stay there until their sad tendancies have at least started to wear off.
• Therefore once they start reading files and discover the meets section, they have matured to some extent.
• There are always exceptions, and always a few people whose social skills are so lacking that they turn up to a meet only to go off to a terminal room together and spod.
• But also, because Mono has been open to externals now for almost five years, there are many "old hands" who tend to be less sad and more accustomed to the use of Monochrome in addition to, rather than as a replacement for, Real Life. This is something that few MUD users grasp very well, because when they do eventually grasp it they are so overcome by the sadness of MUDs that they rarely use them again...

Warning!

However, when all is said and done, I must admit that to some extent I am addicted to Monochrome. A lot of people are. My condition means that I get severe withdrawal symptoms when deprived of Mono access for more than a few days. Other people find that they end up spending more and more time on Mono and failing their degree. Mono, more than almost any other aspect of the internet, is highly addictive. Just as with any drug, there are those who try it once or twice and decide they don't like it. But if you decide you do like it, you generally end up loving it.

If you think you may not have the willpower to tear yourself away in time to avoid failing your degree or losing your job, please don't apply for an account.

To look around Monochrome, telnet to mono.org for a list of machines, or try one of the following: Neutron Proton Electron Muon. Login as mono, then guest.

For details of how to apply for an account, send mail to [email protected] with the subject Help.

Oh, and if you want to find me, look out for quaestor.