Gordis

USING A CUBBOARD

Course bulletin boards are quite easy to use, but some users (student, faculty, and even help-desk personnel) have found them tricky on their first attempts.   Here's some basic information that may make the process less mysterious.

Before you begin, you must know your University Network ID, or UNI.  This is usually the same as the first part of your Columbia e-mail address, and for students it's often the same as the first part of your Barnard e-mail address.  (By "the first part," I mean the part of the address before the @--the abc12 part, rather than the full address.)  This is also the sequence of letters and numbers that you enter when you're using a restricted resource on CLIO+ and the system asks you for kerberos authentication.

If you don't know your UNI, you can look it up by clicking here and entering your name.   You should then see your directory listing on the screen, with your UNI and your e-mail address.  The help desk at ACIS recommends that you create a cunix account if you don't already have one.  Some of my students have reported that they've been able to use bulletin boards without having cunix accounts, but the help desk staff is skeptical about this.  Once you've created your account, you should be able to use the bulletin board immediately.

Once you know your UNI, try to browse to the course bulletin board.   To do this, click on "Bulletin Board" in the contents bar at the left side of your screen. 

The system will ask you to "Enter username for Kerberos at www1.columbia.edu."  Below this request will be two white boxes.   In the top one, you will be asked for your "User name."   This is your UNI.  Enter your UNI here, then use the tab key to move to the line below. 

On the next line, you will be asked for your password.   If you've used your UNI before, either for Columbia e-mail or for kerberos authentication in CLIO+, you should already know your password. 

Type your password and hit Enter or click on the button that says "OK."

You will receive a message about system security.  Click on the button that says "Continue."

You should now be at the index page of the bulletin board.  Click on "Information" in the upper right-hand corner of the screen for details about the bulletin board.

You can display the list of messages in two formats.  The default configuration (what you'll see when you first arrive at the bulletin board) is a date index, which lists messages in the order that they have been posted.  The second format is a threaded index, which indicates which messages were posted in response to other messages by creating an outline-like form.  To see a threaded index, click on "Threaded index" in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.

To read a message, click on the subject listing in the date or threaded index.  You will see a screen that looks something like this:

To continue to the next message in chronological sequence, click on "Next msg" in the line that says "Prev msg | Date Index | Next msg."  To continue to the next message in a thread,  click on "Next msg" in the line that says "Prev msg | Threaded Index | Next msg."

To return to the index, click on either "Date Index" or "Threaded Index."

To post a new message, click "New posting" at the top of the index page.  You will be asked for your UNI and your password again.  Enter them as you did earlier.  You will reach a screen with a posting form.  Enter your e-mail address in the box marked "cc."  This will send a copy of your message to your e-mail account, offering you some insurance in case of technical glitches.

Click twice with the left mouse button in the box marked "Subject," and enter the subject of your posting. 

Then type your message in the large box.  Be sure to include your name at the end of your message, so people know who is writing.  When you're finished, click on the button marked "Send Msg."

Wait a moment or two, then click on "Reload" in your browser toolbar to see if your message has been posted.

Other ways to post a message:

• To post a long message, you may want to compose your message in a word processor, then copy it using Ctrl-C and paste it into the message window using Ctrl-V.
• To respond to someone's posting, click on "Post a Follow-Up Message" at the top of his or her message header.  This will post your message to the bulletin board.   You can also click on the person's e-mail address in the third line of the message header to reply to him or her individually.
• You can also post to the bulletin board by sending e-mail to the e-mail alias for the bulletin board.   For ENG BC3180y, the alias is [email protected], and for  ENG BC3193y, sec. 1, the alias is [email protected].   As I understand the system, you can only use these aliases from within the Columbia system.