NextATC Unicom

NextATC guideNextATC Help & FAQ

Unicom

How Unicom works, and how to write in it

How Unicom works, and how to write in it

Getting started#

What Unicom is#

Unicom is the community space of NextATC: news, discussions between pilots, private messages and reports, all in one place. Its name comes from the radio frequency where pilots talk to each other when there is no controller.

Where things are#

  • Latest: what is new for you, in one place.
  • Announcements: news about builds and plans, from Antonello.
  • Public forum: pilots talking to each other about NextATC.
  • AI ChatBot: answers about NextATC from the plugin guide and from what you can read here.
  • Private messages: conversations between you and one other member, like a chat. Nobody else reads them.
  • My bug reports: your private bug reports, sent from the reporter inside NextATC or with New report. Only you and Antonello read them.
  • My feature requests: what you asked NextATC to do, sent from the reporter inside NextATC or with New request. Only you and Antonello read them.
  • My support requests: your questions to Antonello about setting up or using NextATC, sent with New support request. Only you and Antonello read them.
  • NextATC guide: the plugin's user guide and FAQ, the same as Help & FAQ inside X-Plane, on pages of their own.

Who can do what#

  • Everyone reads the announcements and the Public forum, also without logging in. A few announcements are for paid supporters: everyone else reads only their title.
  • With a NextATC Patreon membership, a free one is enough, you write in the Public forum, answer announcements, use the AI ChatBot and answer private messages.
  • Paid supporters, and donors and testers who have the perk on their Patreon account, also start private conversations, send Antonello bug reports, feature requests and support requests, and read every announcement.
  • Beside a name, a role stands in brackets: (Admin) is Antonello, (Moderator) a member who helps him, (Bot) the AI assistant that moderates for him and signs as Moderator.

Your profile#

Your name#

Before you write for the first time, you choose the name others see. Your Patreon name and email stay hidden.

Settings#

Settings, in your account menu, changes your name, and all your posts show the new one, the old ones too. There you also choose whether other members see you while you are online and typing, and what reaches you by email: Antonello's answers on your reports, replies, private messages and announcements.

What others see#

A click on a name opens that member's profile: the type of member, since when they are on Unicom and how many messages they wrote. If you can write to them privately, Message is there too.

Writing#

Writing a message#

Press Reply in a thread, or New thread in Public forum. ⌘ Enter on a Mac, Ctrl Enter on Windows and Linux, sends it. What you write stays as a draft in this browser until you send it, even if you close the page.

Messages understand Markdown, a few signs that turn into formatting:

You write   You get
**bold**    bold
*italic*    italic
`code`      code
- item      a list
> words     a quote
[the guide](https://nextatc.matacchieri.eu/docs/)    words that are a link

Paste an address, like https://nextatc.matacchieri.eu, and it becomes a link by itself. A new line stays a new line. HTML shows as plain text.

Images and files#

In threads you can add PNG or JPEG images with the paperclip, or by pasting or dropping them on the box. Private messages carry text only. Reports also take logs and ZIP files.

Quotes, edits and deletes#

Point at a message and press Quote: it goes into your reply with the name of who wrote it. Select some words first to quote only those. On your own messages Edit and Delete appear the same way. A deleted message disappears for everyone, and Antonello can still read it.

What is new#

A line marked New shows where you stopped reading. The bell counts the replies, private messages and announcements for you. Mark as read and Mark as unread keep a thread among the news or take it out, and in Settings you choose which of these also reach you by email.

⌘ K or Ctrl K searches titles, names, every text you can read and the NextATC guide.

AI ChatBot#

What it reads#

The AI ChatBot answers questions about NextATC, in the language you write in. Every member can use it: a free Patreon membership is enough. For each question it reads:

  • The NextATC guide: the user guide and the FAQ, the same as Help & FAQ inside the plugin. It links the parts it used, so you can read them there.
  • Unicom: it searches every thread you can read, and knows the titles of the latest ones. It sees only what you see: of a Paid announcement the title alone, nothing hidden, never a report and never a private message. It links the threads it used, and says when it relies on another pilot rather than on Antonello.

On the pages#

  • Ask AI, at the top of a thread: a summary of it in your language, or the answer to a question about it.
  • Explain, beside Quote on a message: what it means. Select some words first to have only those explained.
  • Ask the AI first, when you open a new thread in Public forum: the threads and the parts of the guide that may already answer it. While you write, Similar threads shows the threads and your reports with the same words.

These answers are for you alone: they are not saved, and they are gone when you close the window. They count in the same daily limit as the ChatBot.

Logs and screenshots#

With the paperclip a question carries up to three files: logs and other text files up to 30 MB, and at most two PNG or JPEG images up to 8 MB. Of a log it reads a short excerpt, with addresses, keys and home folders taken out. An image is read by an AI model that describes it in words. The files are not kept: what the ChatBot read of the last two stays until the conversation ends, so you can ask more about them.

Conversations#

On a computer Enter sends and Shift Enter starts a new line. Under an answer you may find up to three follow-up questions: a click sends one.

A chat is not saved unless you press Save chat: it lives only in its page, and it ends when you close the page or after two hours without questions. A saved chat stays in the tree, under AI ChatBot, for 7 days, with its words but never its files, and only you can open it. The plus beside AI ChatBot starts a new one.

What it cannot do#

  • It only reads and answers: it does not post, send reports or write to anyone for you, and it does not search the web.
  • It answers only about NextATC, and it can be wrong. The sources it names show where it looked, not that the answer is right. For a bug, paid supporters send a report, and everyone can ask in Public forum.
  • Each account has a limit of questions and images a day.

Rules#

Be kind, stay on NextATC and flight simulation, and do not post anything private about others. Antonello and the Moderator working for him can rename, move, close or hide what is posted, and stop an account from writing. More in the privacy page.