The CHAT option from the menu bar at the top of the page will drop you into our chat room. You need to be logged in to the site to use this feature.

The really cool part about the chatroom is that you can now use a webcam and microphone to show your face to the world! Just click "Video and Audio Settings" on the top right of the chat room, and select "Allow" to let your camera connect with PartyFlirt. Then click the "Open Video Console" button on the left to get started. Then use the Video and Audio buttons to start your camera and microphone broadcasting. You don't have to do both, you can just use Audio or Video.

Go to your control panel (click MY STUFF on the menu bar at the top of this page to get there if you can't find it). Then, on the left of the screen, click "My Uploads".

From this page, you can choose pictures on the right, but also sound and video. Clicking the "add" will present you with a browse button and space to write a description for the file to upload.

Once you've sorted that, click "Submit" and your item will upload. If it was a photo, you'll see it at the bottom of the page, along with any others you've uploaded. People will be able to see all of these by clicking your profile picture. All you need to do is choose one of them to be displayed as that profile picture. Just click one, then click the star button just above.

You've got a whole section to fill with stuff about you, aside from the usual profile stuff. Go to your control panel (click MY STUFF on the menu bar at the top of this page to get there if you can't find it) and then choose "My Pages". You'll see a bunch of links appear for a guestbook, blog, gallery and polls. Other people will be able to see things that you add here, and read and interact with them. For example, you can keep photo albums in the gallery section, and choose if everyone or just your PartyFlirt friends can see them (you can choose that for each album, so some can be friends only, and some can be for everyone). You can keep a diary in the blog section, and let everyone know what you've been up to.

Internet Dating/Friendship can be as safe (if not safer) than meeting people elsewhere (clubs, bars etc), if a few simple guidelines are followed. On PartyFlirt you get to vet members before meeting them; this is something you can't do in a club!

• Be careful what information you give out on the site. Do not give out personal details such as your full name, telephone number or email address until you have spent time chatting online, and feel completely comfortable with the other member.
• Don't rush to meet members in real life. Get to know other members well before agreeing to meet them. Consider arranging to talk on the phone before agreeing to meet up. Don't give your address to anyone you haven't already met in person and only then when you feel completely comfortable with them.
• If you do decide to meet someone, meet in a safe public place and tell a friend where you are going.
• Don't allow your emotions to get the better of you online. It's perfectly possible to become infatuated with someone and perhaps even feel that you are falling in love without ever having met a person. However you feel, take your time when you get around to meeting the person.

The best start to using PartyFlirt is to have a full profile, with lots of information about you and what you want, and with a picture. It's a fact that members with a picture receive much more interest than those without. Without a picture, the first reply you'll receive to your emails will often be "where's your picture".

Once your profile is complete, use the Search facility to find people that match your criteria. Once you have some search results and have found a few people you think you might be interested in talking to, send them a message or chat if they're online. It's important to be positive and friendly in your first email, and to remember that there are hundreds of thousands of other members of PartyFlirt, so if the first few don't reply or indicate that they aren't interested, just contact a few more.

PartyFlirt is like any large group of people: not everyone is going to like or be interested in everyone else, but unlike a club that might only have a few hundred members, you'll find thousands of people at PartyFlirt, so there's always someone else to get in contact with if the last one didn't work out for you.

Make sure the e-mail hasn't gone into your spam or junk mail folder. You may also need to add partyflirt.co.uk to your 'not spam' list, so that in future your e-mail program doesn't mistake PartyFlirt e-mail as spam.

Don't worry, we sometimes get users spamming hundreds or thousands of users at a time, and as soon as we spot them we get them out of your inbox. Unfortunately, this means that occasionally you'll be told that you have a new message, and it will have been removed as spam by the time you get to your PartyFlirt account.