Step 1 : Join

First thing to do is to register with Clouwd. It's completely free, takes just moments and you can close at any time.

Then, visit the homepage and find a topic or event that interests you. All topics have a discussion stream where you can add your own message or reply to others. Many have additional Apps such as polls, surveys, top links, opinion trends, mood graphs and other things.

Step 2 : Live Chat

As a registered user you can add messages on any topic or event as live chat. Simply type something and click 'say'.

Your message will be public and can be read by anyone. You can delete your message (roll over your message and click delete) but cannot modify it.

If you want to reply to someone else's message, then rollover their message and click reply. This will highlight the message to that user and associate your message with theirs. If you roll over a message and see a 'thread' link at the bottom, then that's a reply message. Click on 'thread' to see what the message was in reply to.

To send a message to someone on the topic, simply start with @username, where 'username' is the user you wish to message.

Step 3 : Your Account & Profile

Your account is available from the 'My Account' link at the top right. From here you can change your image, add a few notes about yourself, change your account settings and see replies to any messages you have posted.

Step 4 : Creating Topics / Events

From your account, you can create your own Topics. You can create a Topic about anything you like and it can be a 'standalone' topic or a 'linked' topic that's associated with another web page. Your topic will appear on the 'new' list after a few minutes.

You can select which Apps you want with your Topic, such as a poll or an opinion cloud. Well selected and well set up Apps help create the most popular Topics.

Step 5 : Following People

You can follow users by either visiting their profile or by clicking the 'follow' link by rolling over any message. Once you are following someone, their live messages will appear on your personal message stream which is available from your account.

You can restrict who can follow you and can block and remove followers if you wish.