Particles .. out of hand

As well as building in S.L. using prims (usually small cubes) it is also possible to build objects and have effects using 'particles' which I know absolutely nothing about .... except they can be very colourful and can also be designed to look like, e.g., a plant or a cloud.
Takeme was designing a particle cloud to work as an indicator on the island teleport boards (poles) and it seems to have got out of hand ... or she was just winding me up .... it seems to have gotten out of hand.