Chat together: turns, the queue, and notes to people
In a shared chat one person asks Dropstone at a time. A message sent during someone else's turn waits in a queue and goes next. A message can also go to the people in the chat, or to the whole room as a standing announcement that Dropstone follows.
Several people can be in a chat, but Dropstone answers one question at a time. Everything else about chatting together follows from that.
One person asks at a time
When someone sends a message to Dropstone, that is their turn. Everyone else in the chat watches the reply stream in, with a line under it saying who is asking. When the reply finishes, the next turn can start.
Every message shows who sent it: a name above the bubble and a face beside it. Dropstone is told the same thing, so it answers the person who spoke and does not treat one person's instruction as everyone's. See What Dropstone knows in a shared chat.
The queue
If you send a message while someone else's turn is running, it does not interrupt them. It waits.
- Your message appears under the running turn in an Up next list, with how many are queued and a note that it sends when this reply finishes. Press Enter to queue, the same as sending.
- Queued messages go in the order they arrived, one turn each.
- To take one back, click the Remove from queue control beside it. Once nothing is running, Send now sends the queue without waiting.
Say something to the people, not to Dropstone
The composer in a shared chat has a target. To Dropstone is a turn. To people is a note in the flow of the chat, quiet and without a bubble, for things like "taking the migration myself". It goes out at once, even while a turn is running, and costs nobody a turn.
A note to people is not seen by Dropstone unless its author, or the chat's owner, makes it visible with one click, after which it carries a cyan mark and Dropstone sees it from the next turn on.
A viewer's messages always go to people, since a viewer cannot ask Dropstone.
Announcements: a rule for the room
An Announcement is a standing notice: "sends are frozen until Tuesday", "use British spelling in everything". It is pinned under the header as a small island until its author takes it down, opens on hover to show the whole notice, and, unlike a note to people, Dropstone sees it by default, as a rule for the chat. Dropstone follows it on every turn.
The author, or the owner, can delete an announcement from the island or from its line in the chat. Deleting it also tells Dropstone it no longer applies.
A reply that ends, ends for everyone
When a turn finishes, it finishes on every screen at once, whether the person who asked is still there or not. If you ever see a reply that seems stuck with someone still "asking", reload; the chat will show its real state.
Related articles
- Work on a chat with other peopleA Dropstone chat can have several people in it at once. Invite them as editors or viewers, take turns asking Dropstone, talk to each other alongside it, comment on replies, mention someone, highlight what matters, and Dropstone keeps the whole thing in view.
- Invite people to a chatInvite people into a live Dropstone chat as editors, who can ask Dropstone, or viewers, who can read and talk to people. One invite link per chat, a People button that shows who is in it and who is online, and an activity log for the owner.
- Comments, mentions, and asking Dropstone in a threadComment on any Dropstone reply in a thread, mention a person with @name so they are told, and name @dropstone in a comment to get an answer in the margin without taking a turn. Comments render markdown and formulas, and Dropstone's own comments carry a verified tick.
- What Dropstone knows in a shared chatIn a shared chat Dropstone reads the whole conversation with who said each part, every announcement, and any highlight, note or comment that has been made visible to it. It remembers all of it for the length of the chat. Your memory stays yours.