Lookinglass Babble Discussions

Lookinglass Babble Help

Lookinglass Babble Discussions

Lookinglass Babble discussions allow a group of users to discuss a topic in detail by posting articles to the discussion. Articles can remain on the server from anything from 1 day or forever depending on how the group is set up. Discussions are similar to Usenet (NNTP) news groups, and can be linked to such news groups it the creator of the discussion desires. Any user is free to create new discussions. Discussions can optionally be restricted to allow only certain users to have access to them.

Finding a Discussion
Using a Discussion in a Web Browser
Using a Discussion in Windows
Creating or Modifying a Discussion

Finding a Discussion
Discussions that you have visited before are listed in your subscribed group list. Just click on one of these to go to the discussion. To find a discussion you haven't visited before, see finding discussions and chat rooms
Using a Discussion in a Web Browser
1. Overview
  When you first go to discussion, it lists the sender and subject of the most recent articles in the discussion. Articles with a plus to the left indicate that there is one or more replies to this article. Click on the plus to expand it and see a list of replies. To view the content of an article, just click on the title of it.
2. Pages
  When you first view the discussion, it lists the most recent articles in the discussion. On this Lookinglass Babble server, it is the 50 most recent items, but this may differ on other servers. You can browse through older items by using the page down and page up buttons. Since articles are ordered by date, replies posted to articles may not be on the same page as the original article. In order to view all article headers for a single thread of replies, you can choose the View Entire Thread link which is available when viewing the content of an article.
3. Files
  Any article posted in a discussion can optionally have a file attached to it. You can download or view an attachment from the bottom of the article content page. However, you can find specific attachments more quickly by clicking on the files link in the discussion window. This will list all attachments posted to the discussion rather than articles, with links to download the file, or to view the article it is attached to.
4. Posting Articles
  You can post a new article to a discussion by clicking on the Post link at the top of the discussion window. However, if you are wanting to reply to an existing article, you should instead click on the Reply button available from the article content window.
5. Finding Articles
  Lookinglass Babble provides the ability to search for article with a particular subject within a discussion. Just enter a list of words to find and click the Search button. Articles that contain the specified words in the subject or senders name will be matched. If the Match All Words checkbox is selected, only articles that contain all the specified words will be found. If it is not selected, articles containing one or more of the specified words will be found. You can also choose to search through the list of files where in addition to the subject and sender, the search also looks at the filename when matching.
Using a Discussion in Windows
1. Overview
  When you first go to discussion, it lists the sender and subject of the most recent articles in the discussion. Articles with a plus to the left indicate that there is one or more replies to this article. Click on the plus to expand it and see a list of replies. To view the content of an article, just click on it. Alternatively you can double click on an article to open in another window.
2. Pages
  When you first view the discussion, it lists the most recent articles in the discussion. On this Lookinglass Babble server, it is the 50 most recent items, but this may differ on other servers. To see older items, click on the Get More Articles button. Every time you press this button, it will download the headers for 50more articles. Since articles are ordered by date, replies posted to articles may not be near the original article, and you would have to press the Get More Article many times before the original would be available. Instead, you can right-click on the article title and choose Download Entire Thread Headers to get a full list of articles in that thread.
3. Files
  Any article posted in a discussion can optionally have a file attached to it. If you are reading such an article, the attachment name will be listed in red at the top of the article. Right click on the attachment name to view or save it to disk. By clicking on the Files tab in the discussion window, a list of articles that have attachments is listed. In this way you can find articles with attachments more quickly.
4. Posting Articles
  You can post a new article to a discussion by selected New Post from the Post menu in the discussion window. If you are wanting to reply to an existing article, you should click on the Reply menu option instead.
5. Finding Articles
  Lookinglass Babble provides the ability to search for article with a particular subject within a discussion. Just enter a list of words to find and click the Search button. Articles that contain the specified words in the subject or senders name will be matched. If the Match All Words checkbox is selected, only articles that contain all the specified words will be found. If it is not selected, articles containing one or more of the specified words will be found. You can also choose to search through the list of files where in addition to the subject and sender, the search also looks at the filename when matching.
Creating or Modifying a Discussion
1. Creating a New Discussion
  In Windows, to create a new discussion, either click on the button in the Groups Panel in the Main Window, or the option in the Create menu. In the web version, click on the Create Discussion link at the top of the main window.
  The only thing you have to enter is the name of the discussion. After entering any of the other optional values (which are described below), click on the Create button and the discussion is created. It will be automatically added to your list of subscribed discussions and chat rooms.
2. Modifying a Discussion
  You can only modify a discussion if you are the creator of it, or the creator has given you permission to modify it. In Windows, from in the Discussion window, choose Modify Group from the Group menu. In the Web Browser click on the Modify Group Link in the Discussion window.
3. NNTP news group name - This value is only necessary if you choose to link to a NNTP news group. This value is only necessary if you choose to make visible to NNTP news protocol. This is what the discussion will be called when seen by other news-reading programs. Unlike the discussion name, it can not contain spaces and must be all lowercase. Names usually look like rec.humor, or rec.puzzles.crosswords
4. Introduction - This is a few lines of text that users can choose to see whenever they read the discussion. It can say anything you want.
5. Make visible to NNTP news protocol - If this option is enabled, the discussion is made visible to external news-reading programs. After creating the discussion, you can set up your favorite news-reader to see this discussion, by specifying it's news-host to be chat.lookinglass-sales.com. If you specify this option, you must also supply a NNTP news group name.
6. Private - This makes the discussion only accessible by specified users. If this is not selected, all users will have access to the discussion. For information on specifying the users who are allowed to access that discussion see Specifying Chat Room and Discussion Members.
7. Worldwide - This option is only available to users who are allowed to create global discussions. Most users on this Lookinglass Babble Server are not allowed to. When a discussion is selected as global, users on other Lookinglass Babble servers will be able to access it. Note that a discussion can be both private and worldwide, in which case only specified users will still be able to access it, but those other users will be allowed to be on other Lookinglass Babble servers.
8. Adult - This option indicates that this discussion is intended to be used only by adults.
9. Default users can Post to Discussion - This option is normally enabled, but if you disable it, only specified users will be able post new messages to the discussion, but any user will still be able to read messages.
10. Automatically Subscribe New Users - This option is only available to administrators. If enabled, all newly created users will automatically be subscribed to this discussion.
11. Categories - The categories selected only apply if a user searching for the group specifies group categories to search for.
12. Moderated - If a discussion is moderated, any articles posted by users who are not moderators for this discussion will not be visible to other users until a moderator has accepted the article. If the discussion is available via NNTP, each article will not be visible to NNTP users until all prior articles have either been accepted or deleted by a moderator.
13. Store Items for x Days - Items will be deleted from the discussion after this many days. Items are deleted in batches, so some items may last longer before being deleted. Items more recent than this value may also be deleted if the server is running low on disk space. Items will never be deleted before they are 30.0 days old.