WebBoard Basics

WebBoard is a tool for online conferencing. Sometimes referred to as forums or discussion groups, online conferencing allows you to share information with others quickly and easily. You may use WebBoard at work to track projects or discuss ideas. You may use WebBoard in your community to encourage participation in community events such as school volunteer opportunities or summer recreation programs. Or you may use WebBoard to promote conversation on topics of personal interest with other like-minded folks from around the world.

Whatever your need or desire for communicating with others, WebBoard has many features and options that make conferencing across the Internet or within an intranet efficient and effective. You can share information by posting messages directly to WebBoard conferences (and reading responses). When you need to make a file available to your conference-mates, simply attach the file to a message. If you or others in your group travel, WebBoard lets you participate by email, both reading and responding to posted messages. And, if you need or want to discuss something in real time, WebBoard's chat provides instant interaction.

Since WebBoard is a Web-based application, you work with it through a browser-an interface with which you are already familiar. For email participation, your favorite email client is your interface. Chat sessions use either one of the built-in chat clients or, for IRC chat, an IRC chat client of your choice. With familiar interfaces and something to share, you can be up and working with WebBoard in no time.

WebBoard is a collection of messages posted by various participants. To keep track of those messages and foster meaningful information exchange, WebBoard messages are organized in a hierarchy with four levels:

Board (also called virtual board)

Conference

Topic

Message (new topic or response)

You can liken this hierarchy to the relationship of pages in books to the bookcase that houses the book. The bookcase is the board, which houses multiple books, or conferences, on similar or varying subjects. Each book contains chapters with numbers or titles, just as conferences contain topics, with more focused subjects. Each chapter in a book has specific content that relates to the chapter title, just as topics have messages discussing that topic. One additional twist: a WebBoard site can have multiple boards, each having its own set of conferences, topics, and messages. So, you might think of the entire WebBoard system as a library! In essence, boards are the most general, while messages are the most specific.

WebBoard boards are set up by the WebBoard administrator while conferences are set up by the administrator and board managers. They decide how to arrange the subject matter of boards and conferences. However, you create the topics and messages by posting and replying in conferences that interest you. In essence you help to write the books. Keep in mind that topics should be relevant to the conference and messages should be specific to each topic. You can start a new topic in a conference any time you want to change the subject. As your conference develops with more topics, it begins to resemble a book on a particular subject. The challenge you face as an author is keeping responses to messages on the same topic and knowing when to start a new topic.

The WebBoard organization not only lets you help write the book, it also provides a logical means for you to find information easily-you can zero in on a subject that interests you For example, if your board has a conference on Great Local Eateries, you can look under the topic Breakfast Spots to find a good place for your early morning java and scones. Or say you want to find a great restaurant for dinner. Simply scroll through the topics until you find one that sounds interesting. You can avoid any unnecessary searches through the entire list of conferences and topics.

WebBoard is a web-based application. Most likely you will come to WebBoard through your web browser from a link on a site you are visiting. The link may be a button marked Forums or Discussion Groups. Or it may be a text link that asks for you to state your opinion. If your company is using WebBoard, there will be links from other pages in your intranet to specific boards and conference groups.

If you know you want to participate in a specific WebBoard board, you can reach it by entering the board's URL (or web address) directly in your browser. You will need to know the name of the server, the port (if any), and the name of the board to construct the URL. In general, the URL for reaching a board is in this format:

http://name-of-server.com:port-number/~board-name

In general, you won't need to know these URLs, but this information is handy if you want to go to a board more directly or add its address to your bookmark or favorites list. Once you reach a board, the next step is to join the conversation, as described in the following sections.

The goal of WebBoard is to foster communication among groups of people with similar interests or common goals. One way of achieving this goal is to have known people in the group. With WebBoard that means registering as a user on a board and providing some amount of information for others on the board to see. The WebBoard user registration process is accomplished when you log in to a board.

On most boards, you can be a guest and simply look at conferences and messages. If you like what you see, you can log in as a new user and create an account by providing some information about yourself and selecting a user name and password. Once you have an account, you can join in the discussion as a full-fledged member of the community. You can think of this as similar to becoming part of a new group of acquaintances, colleagues, or friends. You listen for a while and then join in. Once you are a member of a board, you still log in, but it's only to let others know you are there and to identify your postings.

The WebBoard administrator has three choices for determining who are valid members of a board, a process called authentication. Depending on what authentication method he or she chose to use, your login procedure and choices may differ. The three methods are as follows:

Cookie Authentication

This method is most common and allows you to enter a board as a guest, a new user, or an existing user. You can have WebBoard remember your login name and password (with a cookie, a bit of information stored safely on your own computer) to make subsequent logins quicker by bypassing the login page. The cookie is valid for up to six months.

Basic Authentication

This method requires that you give your login name and password each time you want to enter the board. Basic authentication boards have a slightly different procedure for logging in, including a login page that looks different from a cookie authentication page. In addition, some basic authentication boards do not allow guest access. Basic authentication boards provide the tightest security.

No Authentication

This method requires no login or registration. Participants to a no authentication board can come and go without having to join or provide a login name or password. On a no authentication board, you are welcomed by the IP address your browser sends. To identify your postings or join a chat session, you must give a name and email address. No authentication boards are most common for large, public forums where subjects change frequently.

As noted above, Cookie Authentication is the most common method for logging in to WebBoard. When you point your browser at a board with Cookie Authentication, WebBoard displays a login page. From this page, you can log in as a Guest, a New User, or an Existing User, as described in the following sections.

Logging in as a Guest

If you just want to browse the conferences without posting messages or participating in chat, you should log in as a guest. To do so, click Guest on the login page. The main WebBoard page appears with the Conferences list and a welcome message.

Logging in as a New User

If you want to participate in a board either by posting messages or chatting, you must be a registered user and have your own WebBoard account. In some instances, the WebBoard administrator has already set up an account for you with a login name and password. If so, go to the section on "Logging in as an Existing User." If you do not yet have an account, you can self-register and create your own accout by selecting a login name and password and providing some additional information such as your real name and email address.

When selecting your login name and password, keep in mind the following:

your login name and real name should be different

some boards use the login name while others use the real name to identify users and their postings (so be careful what you use for a login name)

your password should be different from your login name and you should keep it secure

your login name must be unique so you may be asked to use a different login name.

To log in as a new user, follow these steps:

Logging in as an Existing User

If you already have an account, you simply enter your login name and password in the textbox on the login page. Click Enter to complete the login. To have WebBoard remember you on future visits, check the Remember my password box. As long as you enter the board from the same browser, WebBoard recognizes you, skips the login page and immediately displays the board's conference list. Note that saving your login information is security risk. If your WebBoard contains sensitive information, you should not have your password remembered.

If the WebBoard administrator has set up WebBoard to use Basic Authentication for logins, you will have to enter your login name and password each time you visit this WebBoard. Typically, a WebBoard using Basic Authentication has a login page, but with only two or three buttons: New Users and Existing Users; or Guest, New Users, and Existing Users.

Some boards using Basic Authentication do not display a login page. Rather, the Basic Authentication dialog box appears when you point your browser at the board's URL. If this is the case, enter your existing or a new login name and continue.

Logging in as a Guest

If this board allows guest access, the login page includes a Guest button. To login as a guest, click Guest. WebBoard displays the board's main page with the conference list. You may browse conferences and read messages but not post messages or participate in chat sessions. If there is no Guest button, you must create a new account to work with this board.

Logging in as a New User

If you are a new user, click New Users. WebBoard displays the New User Information form for you to complete. Follow the steps in that section to complete this form and create a new user account on this board.

Logging in as an Existing User

Before you start posting messages and participating in chat sessions, you'll want to take a few minutes to become familiar with WebBoard's layout and basic operation, including navigation and functionality. Once you've successfully logged in, either as an existing user, new user, or guest, you will see the board's main page, where most WebBoard activity occurs.

If you selected frames mode (recommended), you will see a page similar to that shown in Figure 1. Typically, a board's main page has three main activity areas, which are listed below and descibed in the next sections:

You can accomplish many WebBoard tasks quickly by using WebBoard's menubar, located at the top of your browser window. This section describes each of the functions you can perform from the menubar.

Post

opens a form in the message window to compose and post a new topic to a conference (note, you must select a conference first).

updates the Conferences list. In general, WebBoard refreshes the list when new messages are posted, but you may want to manually refresh the list on occasion.

Chat

displays the Available Chat Rooms list, which gives links to each chat room and tells how many active users are in each. If chat is not available for this board (the WebBoard administrator's perogative), this button does not appear.

displays a list of all conferences and allows you to mark messages as read in one or all of them. Marking messages as read eliminates the NEW icon next to the message and changes the title of the message from italic to regular font. WebBoard does not automatically mark messages read; you must do it manually.

opens the More Options menu from which you can select the features and functions listed below.

Edit Your Profile

displays your user profile information and allows you update it.

Email Notify

displays a list of conferences from which you can select which conferences should let you know by email that a new message has been posted.

Mailing Lists

displays a list of conferences from which you can select which conferences you want to receive all postings via email.

Current Users

lists the users who are currently logged on (updates every 60 seconds).

Today's Users

lists the names of people who have logged in today.

Search Users

displays a form for finding active WebBoard users by first or last name. From the search results you can look at any user's profile information.

Top 10 Users

lists the top 10 users by the number of logins.

Top 10 Posters

lists the top 10 message posters.

New Messages

lists all messages that are marked New. The new messages are listed in the Conferences list frame.

Today's Messages

lists conferences that have messages posted today.

Conference Profiles

lists each conference with a brief description of its purpose.

List Boards

lists each virtual board on this site that you have visited. Each board name is a link to that board, which lets you move easily among boards.

Login as a Different User

lets you to log in as a different user to the current board. If the board uses Basic Authentication, you will have to close and reopen your browser to log in as a different user.

Help

displays Help for WebBoard features (these pages).

Logoff

Before you start posting messages, take a few minutes to browse through the conferences, just as you would browse through several books before selecting one for complete reading. Looking through the conferences, topics, and messages gives you a good idea of what information is on this board, as well as how others are presenting information.

Conferences are the idea starters for the board. Topics and messages provide the content for conferences. A conference is created by a WebBoard administrator or manager but the real discussion begins when someone posts a topic to it. Other users can reply to the topic by posting reply messages at any time. All messages in a topic may have the same name as the original topic or a different name; however, reply messages are indented under the topic message-a visual clue to show the relationships. For instance, a conference called "Places to Travel" has African Adventures as the first topic. Several people reply to that topic about their travels in Africa. Someone else started the topic Frolicking in Liechtenstein, to which others reply, and so forth. In essence, a topic message starts a discussion, and any replies continue it.

WebBoard's ability to let you browse by conference or topic from the Conferences list means you can either follow a subject exhaustively or pick and choose just the messages you want. The Conferences list shows all the conferences on this board. An expansion box (+ icon) to the left of a conference name indicates that the conference has topics and messages. The numbers in parentheses to the right of the conference name tells how many total and how many new messages are in it. Conferences with new messages have a NEW icon to the right of the conference name.

To display the topics in a conference, click the conference name or the expansion box. You can expand one conference at time. When you expand another conference, the previous topic list collapses. Or, you can close the conference list by clicking the expansion box again

An expansion box to the left of the topic name indicates that this topic contains more than one message. Topics and messages both have hyperlinks that you can click to open them in the right frame. To the right of each topic and message is the poster's name and date. The poster's name is also a hyperlink to that person's profile.

WebBoard's messages are arranged logically with the earliest (original topic) message at the top of each topic list. You can follow a thread from its beginning if you desire, or jump in at a later point. When you click a message on the Conferences list, the message appears in the right frame (unless you are using non-frames mode). By default, all subsequent messages in the topic are displayed so you can read them in order. This viewing mode is called the Full topic view, which you can change to a one-message-at-a-time mode by editing your user profile. Note that you cannot see messages earlier in the list; however, you can click the Previous hyperlink in the Message menu.

Follow these steps to read specific messages:

WebBoard gives you several ways to see and read new messages quickly. Conferences that have new messages are marked with a NEW icon to the right of the conference name. The numbers in parentheses following a conference name tell you how many total messages there are in the conference as well as how many new messages. When you expand a conference, you can quickly identify new topics and messages by their italic titles.

However, looking for NEW icons and italic titles can be a bit tedious, especially in a large conference. Instead, WebBoard has three ways you can get to new messages instantly:

New Messages Link: Welcome Page

Each time you log in to WebBoard, the Welcome page in the right frame includes a link indicating how many new messages you have. Click on the link and a list of conferences with new messages appears in the Conferences list frame (to the left). Expanding any conference listed displays only the new messages in that conference.

New Messages Link: Conferences List

At the top of the Conferences list are two links: Conferences and New Messages. Clicking on these two links toggles between the full conference list and a list of conferences with new messages. To see the new messages, click the New Messages link and expand any conference listed.

New Messages Link: More Options Menu

The More Options menu (available from the More button on the menubar) includes a link labeled New Messages. Click on this link and a list of conferences with new messages appears in the Conferences list frame (to the left). Expanding any conference listed displays only the new messages in that conference.

WebBoard considers all messages to be new until you update their status. That means even if you have read a message, WebBoard thinks it is new until you manually mark it as read. Although probably more desirable from a user perspective, automatically updating message status adds huge computing overhead and has not been practical for a Web-based application like WebBoard. Automatic updates are on the list to implement when feasible.

Sometimes you may need to find messages with specific content or titles from one or more conferences. WebBoard lets you search for content in topic titles or in both titles and message bodies. You can also request varying counts of search results and whether search results are shown in a detailed or short (standard) format. When WebBoard finds messages that match your search criteria, it lists them by date order, grouped by conference. Each entry in the list is a hyperlink, so you can click on any message and view it.

Your search request can be for a single word, part of a word, or a group of words. So, if you search for the word "boil" in topics only and standard format results, you enter the word boil and WebBoard returns the match of How to Boil Water from the Cooking conference. If you search for "spring flowers" in topics and messages detailed format results, WebBoard find matches including "lovely pink spring flowers," "buying small spring flowers," "daffodils are spring flowers," and so forth.

To search for words within topics and/or message bodies, follow these steps:

On a board with registered users, each user has a profile, which contains information WebBoard uses in various ways. The most important way is that it stores your login name and password which WebBoard uses to give you access to a board. It also contains personal information about you that other WebBoard users can view, such as your address, professional information, hobbies, and other interests.

Your user profile is also a place for selecting how you will work with WebBoard, such as using frames or non-frames mode. When you first log in as a new user, WebBoard asks you to fill out a New User Information form. This information is part of what makes up your user profile. This section tells you how to change that information and what else makes up your user profile.

Boards with no authentication do not have user profiles and the Edit Your Profile does not appear on the More Options menu.

You can edit your user profile at any time. In fact, you should review your user profile shortly after logging in the first time, to ensure that all the information is complete and correct. To edit your user profile, follow these steps:

Select More from the WebBorad menubar. The More Options menu appears.

Click Edit Your Profile from the More Options menu. the User Profile page appears.

Make any changes necessary (see the rest of this section for descriptions of items on the profile). Note that you cannot leave a required field blank.

Click Save to update your profile. WebBoard responds with an Edits Saved message.

Continue with your WebBoard session.

The information you can change in your user profile includes:

Login Name (required)

This name is your unique key for entering WebBoard. You were either assigned this name or created it when you registered on WebBoard the first time you logged in as a new user. In general, this name is not displayed to other users unless the WebBoard administrator has chosen to use login names instead of real names.

First Name (required)

This name is normally your real first name. Of course, you can choose to use a pseudonym or even have more than one account under different names on the same board (you'll have to log in as a new user to create the second account). We'll tell you why a second account may be useful a bit later.

Last Name (required)

This name is normally your real last name. As with your first name, you can use a pseudonym or have a second account under a different name.

Password (required)

This entry is masked (shown as *s) for security. You can change your password to protect your postings and user information. If you do, you must enter it twice on the form to ensure you typed it correctly. The password is never shown to other users.

Email Address (required)

This address is used for WebBoard's email notification and mailing list features. It is also included with each message you post to make it easy for other board members to respond to you directly.

City/Town

Your city or town can be of interest to other members of this board. It is often fun to see how widely scattered-or how close by-WebBoard participants are. In a corporate setting, the city field may be used to identify your building location or department.

State/Province

Your state may be either the two-letter abbreviation or the full name. If you are an international user, put your province or locality in this field.

Country

Again, the country where you live can be an opportunity for more discussion on WebBoard. You can use either the two-letter country code or spell out the country name in full.

Home Page

The URL you put in this field is displayed when someone looks at your user information. If you do not have a personal home page, you can enter one that you find interesting or useful.

Hobbies

This field can hold up to 2,000 characters (about 400 words) describing interesting things about yourself. You can include information about your profession, family, hobbies, or other interests and activities. If this WebBoard focuses on a specific topic area (say, for instance, model trains), you might want to write about that topic and your involvement in it (for example, listing some of the most special trains you own). In a business setting, you may want to use this area to help your colleagues understand your goals, vision, and qualifications. You can include HTML in the description, which is displayed whenever a user clicks on your name.

Signature

Use Frames

This option allows you to switch between viewing WebBoard in frames mode or non-frames mode. The default is Yes, use frames, which means WebBoard displays both the Conferences list and the message window at the same time. If your browser does not support frames or you find frames too slow for your connection, choose No for this option.

Full Topic View

This option allows you switch between viewing messages in full topic mode or single message mode. The default is Yes, full topic mode, which means that all subsequent messages posted to a topic are displayed in the message window. In single message mode, only one message is shown at a time and you must click a link to show the next message in the topic. We recommend using full topic view.

Mailing List Format