The Generic Notice Board allows users to add notices to it without having to create new objects for each notice. As a security feature, the owner of the board has the ability to limit who has access to reading and posting notices on the board.
To create a Generic Notice Board, type @create #5266 named <board name>. If you want to create a board named MyBoard, for example, you would type
@create #5266 named MyBoard
Your Generic Notice Board comes equipped with a welcome and instructional guide,. To view this guide type look <board name>. This will show you that there is one note entitled Notice Board Welcome. You can read this first note by using the command read <number> on <board name>. To read the welcome, you would type
read 1 on MyBoard
To see a complete command summary, you can type help <board name> (for example, help MyBoard).
After you have read the first notice on the board, you may want to erase it before you start creating your own notices (although you can choose not to erase it if you want). If you'd like to erase this welcome, you need to type delete <notice number> from <board name>. For example, you would type delete 1 from MyBoard to remove the welcome notice from the board.
There are a few basic commands that allow you to create and post notices on your board. If you want to create your own welcome notice, you would use the post <title> on <board name> command. For example, you could type post Welcome on MyBoard. You will then be instructed to type your lines of input. Since the MOO editor is now in "enter" mode, everything you type will be recorded to the note, although the MOO won't echo anything back to the screen for you. When you are done with your notice, type one line beginning with a period (.), and hit return. Your entry could look something like this:
post Welcome on MyBoard
Welcome to My Room.
There are a number of different objects for you to look at, pick up, and play with. Please feel free to have a seat on any of the furniture or to explore the room.
.
Please note that the final period on its own line (to end your message and get out of "enter" mode) is crucial to completing your posting. Users frequently forget that they are in "enter" mode, in which the computer adds each line they type, but doesn't echo anything back until they have gotten out of "enter" mode. In such circumstances, users tend to wait for the MOO to respond and mistakenly attribute the delay to "net lag." If the MOO isn't responding while you were editing a notice, you may have forgotten to end the notice by typing a period at the beginning of the final line and hitting return.
Another special feature of "enter" mode (unlike the normal editing mode) is that you don't need to precede each of your lines with " or say. Everything you type will be recorded to your note.
When someone reads Notice 1, they would see:
((Welcome))
Welcome to My Room.
There are a number of different objects for you to look at, pick up, and play with.
Please feel free to have a seat on any of the furniture or to explore the room.
((end))
The following is a list of other commands you may want to use when writing and posting your notices.
- post link on <board name>
- This allows linking to text stored on another object. The MOO will ask you for the name or number of the object you want to link to, along with a brief description of that object. You can provide a link only to objects descended from the generic $note or from another notice board.
- qpost <board name> with <text>
- Qpost stands for "quick post"; it adds <text> to the board as a quick notice.
- add <notice> on <board name>
- This allows you to add lines of text to the end of an already existing <notice>. For example, if you wanted to add extra lines to your earlier "Welcome" message, you could type:
The MOO will then return to "enter" mode and ask you to type in lines of input. As before, nothing will echo back to you, but the lines will be appended to the end of the Welcome notice. To finish the notice and get out of "enter" mode, type a single period (.) followed by return.add Welcome on MyBoard - qadd <notice> on <board name>
- This allows you to add one line of text to the end of an already existing <notice>.
Once you have begun creating notices for the board, you will need to use some of the following advanced editing commands. You can remove notices from the board one at a time, with the delete <notice> from <board name> command, or you can clear the entire board by typing del all from <board name>. For example, you could clear notice 5 from your board by typing
delete 5 from MyBoard
You can also edit the existing features of your notices. To change the text of your notices, type @notedit <board name>. If you have posted more than one notice to the board, the MOO will ask you to choose which notice to edit. Type in the number of the note you want to edit, and hit return. You will then be in editing mode. Typing list will allow you to see the lines you have already entered. Typing say followed by your line of text will add that line at the end of your notice. For example:
When you are done, type save to save your changes and q to quit the editor. (For a more complete guide to text editing commands, see Leslie's Guide to @Notedit.)say Don't forget to take off your shoes before entering.
The author of a notice can change its title with the command ch-title <notice> on <board name>. For example, you could type ch-title Welcome on MyBoard and then enter the new title, Welcome to My Room.
The owner of the board can change the author of a notice by typing ch-author <notice> on <board name>. You must then enter the new author's full MOO name. The computer will expect it to be an exact match to an existing character on the MOO.
To reorder the notices on a board, its owner can type ch-order <board name>. After this you enter two numbers on the same line. The first one is the number of the notice you want moved, and the second one is its new location. If you type last instead of the second number, the new location will be at the end of the board. If you wanted to move your fourth notice to the second position, for example, you would type ch-order MyBoard. You would then enter 4 2, followed by return. The MOO would then reorder your notices, which you can confirm by typing look MyBoard.
To search the different notices on a board for a particular topic, type scan <board name> for <text>. You will receive a list of the notices which contain this word. If you want to go directly to a note which contains this word, you can type jump <board name> to <text>. If there is more than one occurrence, jump <board name> to next will take you to the next occurrence of that word.
You are able to set the levels of security on your Generic Notice Board. By changing these levels, you can regulate who has access to and control of the different features of the Board. Security can be set for posting and accessing notices on your board.
You can set the security so that posting can either be public, when anyone may post, or one of two types of private posting. You can allow only registered owners and designated users to post on the board, or you can set security so that only a registered owner may post (the default setting). If you want to change this and other settings, type set-up <board name>. Then choose Posting Security by typing 3. This will toggle the status between three choices: private-users/owners, private-owners only, and public. When you're done changing settings, type q to quit the Set-up Menu.
If you want to designate other people as private users or owners of your board, you
will need to register them. This is useful for allowing a group of other users to collaborate with you on
the creation and configuration of your board. Use set-up <board name>
to enter these new names. For example, you would type set-up MyBoard and
then choose Additional Owner, by entering 6. You can then
add or remove owners with the commands add and rem.
If you wanted to add Kim and Charles to your list, while removing
Dan, you would type,
When you are finished working in the Set-up Menu, type q to quit out of the menu.
To check the registered owners for the board, type
Access security can be either open, when anyone may read the notices on the board, or limited, when only people on the access list may read the notices. Again, you can use set-up <board name> to set this status. If you wanted to limit your board so that only those people you have indicated can read it, you would type set-up notice. You would then choose Read Access Security by typing 7. This toggles the security between "limited" (only people on the access list can read the board) and "open" (anyone can read the notices on the board). If you've set the access security to "limited", you are going to want to list the people who will be allowed to read the board. Once again, you'd type set-up MyBoard to launch the Set-up Menu, then you'd select 8 (for listing users with read access). Use the commands add and rem (on one line), as you did for adding owners for your board.
To check current access restrictions, type
If you would like to receive a copy of notices, you can have them emailed to you. The @mailme <notice> on <board name> command will send the designated notice to you via email. If you would like a copy of every notice on a board, type @mailme all on <board name>.
Remember that you can get additional help text on the Notice Board by typing help <board name> or @examine <board name>, as in help MyBoard.