Campfire

Chat casually with the group, ask random questions, and share stuff without ceremony.

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Sometimes posting a message isn't necessary, and you want to chat in real time. Campfire is the place to be!

Every project, team, and HQ has its own Campfire room. To enter a Campfire, open the project (or team or HQ) and click on the Campfire tool.

Scroll up in a chat window to view what you missed. When you want to add a comment, type your text at the bottom of the window and hit enter.

Campfire Features

Click the A icon in chat to reveal a formatting toolbar you can use to add some spice, clarity, and emphasis to your message:

Bold
Italic
Strikethrough
Colors
Headings
Hyperlinks
Quote block
Code block
Bulleted & numbered lists

Right alongside it, there's a quick emoji picker! 🚀 To use the full emoji picker, try control + command + space bar on a Mac. On Windows 10, use the Windows key + ; to pull up all the options. Older versions of Windows will work too.

You can also drag and drop saved images, use the attachment option to instantly post what you attach, or you can paste image URLs into a chat line — perfect for all the essential cat GIFs you need to share with the team.

To grab someone’s attention in Campfire, you can @mention them by typing the @ symbol followed by their name. They’ll receive a notification for the mention.

To see all the files posted in a Campfire, look for the ••• menu in the upper right corner of that Campfire.

You'll then be able to browse everything uploaded to that particular Campfire!

Delete and Edit a Campfire Post

If you need to delete or edit a message you posted, click on "•••" next to the time stamp above your post.

Click on the little red trash can to delete what you've posted or click on the pencil to edit what you've written:

Note: Admins and account owners can delete messages posted by someone else, not edit. Only you can edit your own posts. More about that here.

Add Sounds to Campfire or Pings

Campfire supports sounds! All the sound commands begin with /play. Here's an example of /play greatjob

All Campfire sounds are listed out here at the bottom of the page, along with a preview of each sound. They work in Pings as well!

It's a fun way to comment on situation, support your peers, greet them, or bid them adieu. Here's a round of /play honk to send Merissa off into the weekend:

Add Code to a Campfire or Ping

Click on the A icon to bring up the code option that looks like < > then paste whatever code you'd like to share with folks:

Alternatively, you could also add code in a chat by writing your message in this format: /code log | <content>

Here's how it will look when you post your message:

Campfire Notifications

Click on the Campfire tool and you'll see right away if you're set up to be notified. Click on the 🔔 to turn off notifications or toggle them back on.

You can expect to be notified within Basecamp when someone starts chatting in a Campfire that you're getting notifications for. However, you won't receive a notification for every single new line item in the chat.

Say 5 people started chatting while you were on lunch. When you come back to Basecamp, you'll see just one notification:

Push Notifications

If you have push notifications enabled, you'll only receive push notifications if:

You are @mentioned
The chat has been idle for 6+ hours

You can read more on our philosophy around chat notifications in our piece on Group Chat, Group Stress.

No Notifications

What if you don't need campfire notifications or maybe, any notifications from this project? Change your participation type to "Just following"!

Remove the Campfire tool

You can hide a tool from a Project, Team, or HQ if it's not needed. See if a clear space really does organize the mind!
Here's how: Changing Tools

Next up: Message Board →

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