What is Otterchat?

Otterchat is a message board all about a fascinating subfamily of animals called otters. Otters are semi-aquatic mammals of the Mustelid family, which also includes badgers, martens and weasels. With the exception of Australia and Antarctica, otters inhabit every continent of the world and are found on lakes, rivers and shores in both saltwater and freshwater environments. Their diet is usually fish, crabs and seafood, but they may occasionally hunt land animals. Some species are foragers. Otters have long slim bodies, short limbs with webbed feet used to swim, and extremely dense, soft fur to keep them warm. There are 14 known species of otters around the world, out of which many are at risk of extinction.

otterchat started in 2021 as a home for otter lovers, a place to celebrate and cultivate appreciation of otters. Please enjoy your time here, have a look through the topics or start one of your own, any contribution is welcome!

How to use Otterchat?

Browsing topics

Otterchat consists of topics (also called threads), each made of one parent post and a thread of reply posts. The landing page of otterchat will present you with a paginated index of all topics, with the last five replies on each topic shown as a preview. The topics with the most recent replies are shown first. If you want a more compact overview of all topics, select the "Catalog" view. To click into a topic and read all replies, you can click on its title or on the post number.

Creating a topic

If you want to create a new topic, navigate to the index page. The "Create a topic" form is found at the top of the page. Fill out this form and hit "Submit".

Replying & Referring to Posts

If you have an existing post you'd like to reply to, click the "Reply" button on that post. This will open the "Post a reply" form with the reference to that post filled in to the text box.

When you click "Reply", the post number is inserted into the reply box like this:

>>1234

This is called a "reference" because it points to the post you're replying to. The reference link will show up as a clickable link with a preview. Because there is one thread of replies per topic, you may reply to multiple posts at once. To do that, just hit "Reply" on as many posts as you'd like to reply to. A reference to each post will be added to the reply form.

You may use this feature for replying specifically or pointing at another post in general. You can also refer to posts oustide the current topic. If you just want to reply to the topic without referencing any other post, click the "Post a reply" box at the bottom of the page to expand the reply form. You don't need to reference another post to write a reply.

Viewing References

A post that has a reference to another post looks like this:

You can click on the "eye" icon to view the referred post.

Opening files

Files that are attached to a post are displayed as thumbnails or icons. To view the full contents of a file click on the thumbnail or icon.

Attaching files

You may attach up to 10 files per post. The total size of your files mustn't exceed 32 megabytes. The following file types are allowed:

Images	.jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif, .webp
Videos	.webm, .mp4, .ogv
Audio	.mp3, .ogg
Documents	.pdf

What are the rules?

You're kindly asked to follow these rules when you contribute to otterchat:

1. This is a site about otters specifically, please stay on topic
2. Before submitting a new topic, please check if a similar topic already exists
3. Please attribute any content you post that isn't yours, especially photos
4. Please don't promote "pet" otters, "otter cafés" or otters being otherwise held in unsuitable conditions
5. Please don't disclose exact locations of wild otters or otter holts

Do I need an account?

You may optionally register a user account through the "Log in" link on the top right. Anonymous posting is allowed, so you don't need an account to browse or contribute to otterchat freely. However, registering an account gives you a few benefits that makes it worth considering:

• Your name will be protected from other people using it
• You'll see fewer CAPTCHA prompts
• You'll still have the option to post anonymously

You only need a name and a password for registration. No email or phone number is required.

I still have questions!

If you have further questions please leave a reply in the support thread.

For other inquiries please write directly to otter@mail.ee.