Topics covered in this page:

• An Overview of COW
• What The Buttons Do
• Managing Your HotList
• The Conference Page
• Reading a Topic
• Reading a Conversation
• Using CowScan to Create A Summary Report
• Replying to a Conversation
• Starting a Conversation
• Posting and Replying in HTML
• Hiding a Response
• User Profiles
• Changing Your Password
• Changing Your Real Name (in COW)

An Overview of COW:

COW is organized into three main levels. The first level is the conference level; each class has its own conference. Each conference is organized into topics, (the second level), where the coursework is contained. (For example, a topic can be a section from a course reader or notes from a lecture.) The third level contains conversations between students and instructors in response to the material presented in each topic.


COW contains many conferences and classes (or it will soon anyway). These are the first level. Conferences can be regular conferences, or they can be classes; they can be public (in which case anyone with a COW account can access them), or they can be private (in which case you must ask permission of the fair witness by mailing her or him). At the bottom of each conference's main page is a list of topics. This is where the bulk of the material for a class would be or the different topics of a conference. If its a class, each topic is like a chapter, or a lecture.

Associated with each topic are conversations, the third level. This is where the actual conferencing goes on. Anyone can start conversations and reply to conversations here. or conversations.

What The Buttons Do:

	Brings you to the help page (this page)		Displays information about the COW software
	Takes you to your HotList, which is where you started. Whenever you are helplessly lost, click this one.		Click this one to edit your password, real name, or profile with respect to the COW system.
	The HotList Editor lets you add or remove conferences from your hotlist.		In a topic page, allows you to mark all new posts and replies as read. Not allowed in some conferences.
	In a topic, click this one to start a new conversation.		In a topic, this button displays the ten most recent conversations (if there are that many).
	In a topic, this button displays the twenty most recent conversations (if there are that many).		In a topic, use this one to show all conversations ever posted to that topic (could be big).

Managing Your HotList:

Your HotList is a list of conferences or classes that you use the most. It is presented to you whenever you first log in to COW along with the number of new posts or replies to each conference. You can change this list at anytime by clicking on the Edit HotList button to bring up the HotList Editor. Here you will see a list of all the conferences or classes that you are authorized to join and a short description of each. Each conference in the list has a box next to it which is checked if the corresponding conference is in your HotList, and not checked otherwise. Add any conferences you want to add by checking the appropriate box. Remove any conferences from your HotList by unchecking the appropriate box. When you are satisfied with your choices, go to the bottom of the page and click the Write New HotList button to effect the changes your have made. Note: If you don't click the Write New HotList button, nothing will happen after you leave the page. p>On the HotList Editor page is also a link to a list of private conferences which you are not authorized to join. Click on this link to bring up the list of such conferences. In order to join a private conference, you must have the permission of the fair witness, which you can request by sending email to her/him. In the list of private conferences each conference is listed with an email link to the fair witness.

Entering a Conference:

When you click on one of the conference or class names in your HotList, the corresponding conference page comes up. This page shows you the name of the conference, the name of the fair witness (who is in charge of the conference), a welcome message which tells about the conference, and a list of topics. The topic list is in the form:

number       new      name

where number is the number of the topic, new is the number of new postings since the last time you checked that topic, and name is the name of the topic.

Reading a Topic:

Once you have found a conference's main page, you'll notice that there is a list of links at the bottom of the page, each one numbered and with a title. Also listed, in the column called "new", is the number of new postings under that topic since you last read the topic. To go to a particular topic, just click the corresponding name. On the topic page you will find some text that descibes the subject of the topic. Below that the fair witness may have listed related topics in the same conference. You can view these topics by clicking on the name of the topic. At the bottom of the topic page is a list of conversations about that topic. This is where actual the conferencing takes place in COW.

Reading a Conversation:

Conversations about a particular topic are listed at the bottom of the topic page. For example:

        Number	Total	New	Conversation

        8       11      4       JAVA JIVE
        9       3       2       TCW has a NEW CATEGORY!!!
        7       4       1       First Post here
        6       4       1       The future of the Web

These four conversations can be found in the Cafe conference under Topic 4: "The Web". A topic may list up to ten conversations at the bottom of the page. Use the Last Ten, Last Twenty, or Show All buttons to see more (and older) conversations on a separate page. The first column of the listing gives the number of the conversation. Notice that they are not listed in numerical order. In fact, they are listed in order of most recently posted or replied to, so that little used conversations will be at the end of the list or they won't appear at all. The second column shows the total number of posts and replies to the conference. It is also a link to the actual listing of all the replies to the conversation. The third column shows the number of posts or replies since you last checked the conversation. The last column is the subject of the conversation. These last two are also a link to a listing of replies to the conversation since you last read it.
The numbers in the "Total" Column are linked to all the posts and replies ever. The numbers in the "New" column are linked only to the posts and replies since you last read the corresponding conversation.

Note: if you are a new to the conference, the number of unread replies to a topic's conversations may be a bit larger than your appetite for reading. In that case, you may want to click the Mark All As Read button at the bottom of the topic page. This will update your "last read" list and change the third column of the listing to all 0's.

To read a conversation, decide whether or not you want to read all the replies, or just the ones since you last checked the conversation and click the appropriate link. You can also read a conversation since a certain date using the little form under the list of conversations. Enter the number of the conversation, the number of days back you want to check and click Read.

Using CowScan to Create A Summary Report:

You can create a summary report of conversation activity for all or some of the conferences in your HotList by first going to your HotList, and then clicking on the [COWScan] button. There you will find a listing of the conferences in your HotList and a box for you to enter the number of days back for which you want a report. Click the checkboxes of the conferences in which you are interested and then enter a number from .1 to 99 in the box. Finally click Continue to generate the report. A page will come up with a list of links to active conversations that you can click on to read the conversation.

Replying to a Conversation:

When you read a conversation, you get a listing of posts and replies and at the bottom there is a textbox for you to reply yourself. You may enter your reply, whatever it may be, in this box and click submit reply when you are done. You may also wish to reply in HTML if you know the language. If you submit a reply with the box labeled "Check here to have your post interpreted as HTML", then whatever you type in the box will be interpreted as HTML formatting and text (see the section on HTML below). If you don't know HTML, don't worry about this. Forget about it. pretend it does't exist: it's not important!

Note that you must click the submit reply button in order for your reply to be processed. Simply typing in the box and leaving the page for elsewhere doesn't do anything.

Also note that most browsers do not at this time support automatic line wrapping in the text box for your reply. This means that, when typing, you must hit the or key at the end of each line you type.

Starting a Conversation:

Starting a conversation is similar to replying to an existing one except that you begin from the topic page and then click the Start New button. Fill out the form the same way as for a reply but also provide a short and descriptive title for the new conversation in the appropriate input box.

Posting and Replying in HTML

When starting a new conversation, or replying to an existing one, notice that there is a checkbox labeled Check here to have your post interpreted as HTML under the text box for your post. If you check this box then any HTML tags in your post will be interpreted by COW. This is the real reason for the preview reply button: hardly anyone writes perfect HTML the first time, and this gives you the opportunity to see what your post will look like before you submit it to the world.

There is also a built in HTML checker in COW that makes sure you don't have any mistakes in your post. If you press the preview or submit buttons (with the HTML checkbox checked) and COW finds an error in your HTML code, then an error message shows up telling you about your error. If this happens, use the BACK button in your browser to go back and fix the error. Then re-submit.

COW checks for three kinds of errors in your HTML code:

1. It scans your code for <html>, <body>, <title> and <head> tags and asks you to remove them if any are present.
2. It checks that all <'s have closing >'s.
3. It makes sure that all tags that need to be balanced are balanced (ie. <xxx> must have a </xxx>) and that / tags appear only after an opening tag.

Hiding a Response

You can hide (and unhide) your posts and responses to COW. Take a look at a conversation listing that you posted to in the past. After where it lists the date there will be a [hide/unhide] link. Just click it and follow the instructions. Note: you can only use this tool on your own responses! We wouldn't want people hide othere people's responses willy-nilly now would we? (The exception to this is that a fair witness may hide/unhide any post or response in her own conference - in case something gross or disgusting is posted).

User Profiles:

Clicking the Profile button brings you to a page where you can edit your password, effective real name, and your profile, that is, your own personal web page within COW. In all topic pages and conference pages, you'll notice that the byline of each posting has, in parentheses, a COW username that is a link. This link takes you to that user's profile page.

To edit your profile, simply enter what you want to say in the text box and click the Change Profile button. Nothing gets changed when you preview your profile or when you leave the page without clicking the Change Profile button.

By checking the Check here to have your profile interpreted as HTML checkbox, your can have COW interpret the HTML tags in your profile so that you can personalize your profile to a high degree. See the section on Posting and Replying in HTML for more information. Note that COW does not check for HTML errors in your profile.

You may peruse other people profiles in the Lobby.

Changing Your Real Name (in COW):

To change what COW thinks your real name is (if you should suddenly become a Mrs. instead of a Ms. - or a Dr. instead of a Mr. - or a Ms. instead of a Mr. [who knows?]), go to the Profile page by clicking on the Profile button at the bottom of any COW page. Then enter the appropriate name in the Real Name: box and click Change Real Name. This name will show at the top of all your new posts and replies.

Changing Your Password:

To change your password , go to the Profile page by clicking on the Profile button at the bottom of any COW page. Then enter what you want your new password to be in the New Password box and click the Change Password button. COW will check to make sure you didn't enter a bad password (like your login name, for example. People actually do this! For shame!) If its an okay password, the next time you load a COW page, you will be prompted for your user name and your new password.

Copyright 1996 by Eric Klavins and San Francisco State University