A: Unfortunately, you cannot change your name since we provided gather.town with the names of the registered participants.

A: At the bottom of the screen, you can see your avatar (like a video game character). Simply press on the avatar and you can choose between different design options.

A: You press the arrow keys or the <w,a,s,d> keys on your keyboard.

A: You don’t need to. Simply press <g> and walk through them like a ghost.

A: Go into an AG-room and press [x] on your keyboard.

A: We have reserved the gather.town space for a maximum of 500 people (more is not possible). If your space is very slow, it is very likely that there are more than 500 people in the space. Check the number on the “participant” icon on the right panel. If yes, leave the space and return some time later.

A: Please wait some time until the system loads everything.

A: It is very likely that you are using an older operation system or an older browser. Please update the system/browser and try again.

A: These are interactive objects. Press [x] on your keyboard to interact with it.

A: Go to an object. Once it is highlighted in yellow, press [x] on your keyboard.

A: Go to a poster. Once it is highlighted in yellow, press [x] on your keyboard.

A: Click on the [X] symbol in the top right corner.

A: Each AG room has a “spotlight” tile for a speaker. Once you step on this tile, everyone in the room can hear you and your shared screen. While you can see other people, you cannot hear them. People can ask questions by going to the “spotlight” for questions.

A: On the frame with your video, there is a microphone icon. When it is red, try clicking on it to turn it on. If it still does not work, try changing your audio settings on your operation system.

A: On the frame with your video, there is a camera icon. When it is red, you do not share your camera. Click on it to turn it on. If it still does not work, see next point.

A: There are several potential reasons.

1) Very likely the private settings of your browser or operation system do not allow sharing your camera. Either reload gather.town and gather.town will ask you what camera you want to use.

2) Another possibility is to go to the preferences of your operation system and allow screen sharing. This is very often the case on Mac systems.

3) You are using your camera on zoom. Turn off your camera on zoom and turn it on on gather.town.

A: Very likely, you are using your camera on gather.town. Turn off your camera on gather.town and turn it on on zoom.

A: Very likely someone has turned on the microphone on gather.town and on zoom. Shout out (of course kindly) to tell everybody to check that they use the microphone only on one system.

A: Very likely your discussion partner is listening to you over loud speakers. Ask your discussion partner to be so kind and use headphones instead.

A: Very likely you are using loud speakers. Be so kind and use headphones instead.

A: Of course. In the bottom panel, select the “screen” symbol.

A: Very likely the private settings of your browser or operation system do not allow sharing your screen. Either reload gather.town, select screen sharing and tell your browser to allow screen sharing. Another possibility is to go to the preferences of your operation system and allow screen sharing. This is very often the case on Mac systems.

A: On the left panel, you see a “participant” symbol at the bottom with a number showing the number of participants present. Click on that symbol and a new panel with names will appear. In the top, you search for the name of your friend and see whether they are present.

A: Select the name in the “participant” tab. A new window appears with different selections. One of these is the possibility to send a private message. The message will appear in the “chat” tab and the name of the receiver will appear in YELLOW at the bottom.

A: Yes. In the “chat” tab you either select the name of the receiver. You may also send messages to who ever is nearby you by selecting “nearby”.

A: Select the name in the “participant” tab. A new window appears with different selections. One of these is the possibility to “Locate on map”. Click on this button and follow the black line.

A: Private spaces are areas where connections are blocked to and from the outside. Once you step into a private space, your space will be highlighted and everything else is darkened. Now, you can only talk to those within that private space. Also, messages sent to “nearby” are only send to those in the private space. In other words: whatever you say in the private space, stays in the private space.

A: You can reduce the quality of the videos. Click on the gearwheel on the left side (top symbol). A new window pops up. Select the tab “user” in the top panel, then select the tab “Audio & Video” in the left panel. Scroll down and deselect “Use HD Video Quality”.

A: It is very likely that your internet bandwidth is too low. This is why, try reducing the quality of the videos. Click on the gearwheel on the left side (top symbol). A new window pops up. Select the tab “user” in the top panel, then select the tab “Audio & Video” in the left panel. Scroll down and deselect “Use HD Video Quality”.

A: Yes, you can. In the top right corner, there is an “enlarge” symbol. Click on it. You may also select one speakers video by clicking on it.

A: Sorry, there’s nothing we can do about it. Some websites do not allow being opened in gather. So just go along and click on the button to open the website in another tab.

A: As stated above, some websites allow being opened only in another tab. If you see a black screen, this means that your browser does not allow this message to be displayed. Try using another browser.