Help & Support

Your Cbox embed code is available at your control panel. You need this code to install your Cbox on your website.

Also on that page is your Quick Link — a URL which you can use to access your Cbox directly in your browser or on your mobile device.

Once you have created your Cbox account, go to the Publish page of your control panel. The code and steps for embedding your Cbox are provided there for a number of common platforms.

If you install your Cbox and all you see is code, or nothing at all, your web host may be removing or otherwise interfering with the HTML iframe tags that Cbox uses. Your Cbox code needs to be pasted into an area of your site that accepts HTML without modification. This may mean switching your editor from "rich text" or "WYSIWYG" mode into HTML-editing or "raw" mode, or you may need to open your template files in a plain-text editor like Notepad.

Remember that you always have the option of posting or sharing your Cbox Quick Link — this gives visitors direct access to your Cbox in a full-screen layout, so it's perfect as a mobile option or for stand-alone use.

Go to the Theme editor in your control panel. There you can specify the fonts and colours of your Cbox, using a point-and-click editor. You can always reset your theme to one of the preset defaults there, if you would like to start again.

If you have a Premium or Pro Cbox you can edit CSS, which gives you complete control over presentation.

If you have a Premium or Pro Cbox, you can create a moderator name for yourself at your Users page, and then log in on your Cbox using the "profile" link. You will see a delete icon [x] next to each message in your Cbox, and you will not have to log in at your control panel at all to delete messages.

Alternatively, visit your Messages page to delete messages individually or in bulk. Deleted messages are removed from your public Cbox history, but are preserved in your Archives.

Yes. In the Theme editor, simply delete the colour codes for the main and form background ("BG") elements. This will make the Cbox transparent, allowing whatever is behind the Cbox to show through.

Note that any pop-ups generated by a transparent Cbox will have the default background colour — usually white. If your font colour is light, it may be invisible in popups. You can fix this by editing the CSS to introduce a background-color rule for popups.

If you have lost your username or password, visit this page, enter your email address, and you will be sent an email with a link that you can follow to reset your login.

If you do not receive the login details you expect via email, or if you have lost access to your email address, you can contact us. Under some circumstances we are able to recover a lost account.

Cbox supports private messaging to and from mod and admin users. You can enable PM for your Cbox at your Settings page.

You can also type out the PM command: enter //pm username message..., where username is the name of the person you want to send your message to. This method works if the username conforms to Cbox "strict name" or "ASCII name" policy, i.e. comprises alphanumeric characters only and includes no spaces. Otherwise, you will have to refer to the user by ID.

By default, ordinary users cannot send PMs to other ordinary users. One of the two participants in any private conversation must be a mod or admin.

Opting in and out

Registered users can opt in to sending and receiving private messages from other registered (non-mod) users, by entering //pm on. The command //pm off revokes this availability.

Errors on sending

Private messages can fail to send for a number of reasons. If you get an error, it will likely either be due to the target user not being online (see below) or due to policy regarding who can send and receive private messages (see above). If the target user is not online, you may need to wait just a few seconds before retrying. Refer to the onliners list to confirm whether Cbox recognizes the user as present.

Message delivery

Private messages are sent via the streaming interfaces. The target user must be viewing and connected. Users on old browsers or restricted networks may not be able to receive PMs. When your message has been accepted by our servers for relaying, you will see an indicator (by default, a tick symbol). When the message has been received by the target user, the indicator will change (double-tick symbol). If that doesn't happen, your message probably wasn't received. Note that Cbox does not know that a message has been read, only that it has been delivered.

Persistence

Cbox does not store private messages for future delivery. New messages are relayed only if the user has an active connection. If the user has gone offline or is otherwise unable to receive your message, it will not be sent again, and nor will it be seen by that user when he reconnects. If you do not see the two-tick "received" indicator within a few seconds of sending a message, you will need to re-send your message later.

You need to have cookies enabled in your browser in order to use the control panel. Your browser may be configured not to accept cookies, or it may be in a "private browsing" mode, or you may have a plugin or extension that is restricting them. Test in another browser if possible.

You can set your preferred language at your control panel. This will change the language that your Cbox is displayed in, providing that we have a translation for that language. The Cbox website and control panel is only available in English.

If you would like to provide a translation for Cbox for your language, please contact us.

When you ban a user, they are not able to post to your Cbox for the duration of the ban. They will also not be able to use any other features, such as private messaging. The default ban duration is one day.

Kicking a user, by contrast, simply disconnects them from your Cbox. Their view of your Cbox will go blank, and they won't be able to see any new messages, nor post.

Unlike a ban however, a kick is not continuously enforced. A kicked user can re-load your Cbox to re-join and resume viewing and posting. For this reason, kicking can be useful as a deterrent or warning — or simply to drop idle users — but it cannot prevent a user from returning to your Cbox.