Multi-school environmental law discussion list

If this is your first visit, please read the information below.
If you've already read all of this, you can go directly to the list.


1.   Registering: In order to participate on the multi-school discussion list, you must first register to participate on the list.  Registration is simple and easy, and is required merely as a security measure.  When you go to the list for the first time, a small grey "User Login" box will appear in the middle of the Web page that you opened.  It will ask you for a user name and password.  Since this will be your first visit to the list, you will not have a user name or password.  Since you don't have a user name or password, click on the link in the grey box for the "Registration Form."  At that point, you will be asked to enter: When you visit the discussion group site after you have created a username and password, you do not need to register again in the future.  Instead, when you visit the site after you register the first time, you should be able to access a Login page that merely asks you to enter your username and password, instead of entering your full name, e-mail address, username and password.

That's really all you need to know.   If you want to know about some of the more advanced features of the software for the list (Allaire Forums), or quirks with the software, read on.  Otherwise, you can go directly to the list.

Advanced features and software quirks

2.   Attachments:  You can attach files to the messages that you send to the discussion list.  Simply press the "Advanced" button that you will see when you are posting a message or responding to a message.  While the software indicates that users can include HTML in their messages, this merely means that you can include actual HTML code as an attachment.  This will not be very useful for most users.  Unlike many e-mail or discussion list software programs, this software will not convert URLs (i.e. http://www.mercer.edu) into active links that you can click on.  In order to make a URL an active link, you would actually have to include the HTML code as an attachment (i.e.<A HREF = "http://www.mercer.edu/econet/steve.html"> Steve Johnson's Home Page </A>).

3.   Changing the look of the list:  When you enter the discussion list page, you can change the way that you receive messages (i.e. receive e-mail notification of messages, in addition to Web notification) and change many other features of the page (i.e. frames v. no frames) by clicking on the "Options" button at the top of the page.

** E-mail notification feature:  The software includes an e-mail notification feature that allows you to receive messages that are posted to the list in categories (threads) that you choose (mentioned above).  If, however, you wish to respond to a message and you want your response posted to the list, RESPOND FROM THE WEB SITE AND NOT VIA E-MAIL.  When you receive an e-mail notification of a message that has been posted on the Web site, you may instinctively want to respond to that message via e-mail.  However, if you do so, your e-mail will only be sent to the person who sent the message to the list, and not to the whole list.  If you want to send a message to the list, you must send the message from the Web site.  This is due to a quirk in the software.

 4.   Terminology quirk:  When you see references to "threads" in the "options" section of the software and elsewhere, the software is referring to all of the messages in a particular category as a "thread."  This definition may be a bit broader than the traditional definition of a "thread."
 

That's all for now.  If you're ready, you can now go directly to the list.