<!doctype linuxdoc system>
<ARTICLE>
<!--------------- FRONT MATTER -------------------- -->
<title>
daCode User's Guide
<Author>Jean-Baptiste Combes
<date>v 0.2.1, 2001/06/15
<abstract>
This document describes how to use, moderate and
administrate a forum powered by daCode.
 
</abstract>
<!--******** Section 1: Features ********-->
<sect>
Features
<p>
The features of daCode are:
<itemize>
<item>
a complete news system
<item>
possibility to comment on articles and to reply to comments
 
<item>
scoring of comments and selection by score
<item>
theme switching
<item>
moderation system for news and comments
<item>
filtering of articles by topic
<item>...
</itemize>
<!--******** Section 2: description of front page ********-->
<sect>
Front page
<!---------- Sec. 2.1: page layout ---------->
<sect1>
Page layout
<P>
<!-- To adapt according to your own needs -->
The front page is divided up into three columns. Each column is divided up
into boxes. The three columns are:
<itemize>
<item>
Left column: general links
<item>
Middle : the news
<item>
Right : links to other features of daCode
</itemize>
<!---------- Sec. 2.2: the role of each element ---------->
<sect1>
What does each element do?
<sect2>
First column (on the left)
<p>
Here you will find general links. Below is a description of the
boxes:
<itemize>
<item>
daCode: the "submit a news" link allows users to submit an article for
moderation.
<item>
Local links: links to other areas of the website
 
<item>
Topics: click on a topic to limit the news displayed to the
corresponding topic.
</itemize>
<sect2>
Second column (in the middle)
<p> 
This is where all the news articles appear. Click on the poster's name
to send him an email (if he has given a public email adress). Click on "[M]"
to see who moderated the news. Click on the picture beside the news to see
all news relative to this topic. The links below the news allow you to get
more informations. To view attachments, click on the picture on the right
under the news. To comment the news or view other's comments, click on the
link below the news labeled "x comment(s)", where x is a number. 
<sect2>
Third column (on the right)
<p>
Here you will find links to specific functions of daCode.
<sect3>
Editorial
<p>
This is a space for site specific messages.
<sect3>
Authentication
<p>
This is where you log in.  You can also create a new account, if you do
not already have one, by clicking on "new account".  If you forget your
password, click on "forgot your password?" and it will be mailed to you.
<!-- fixme : add cross references -->
<sect3>
Your name
<p>
This box replaces the authentication box once you have logged in. To
change your password or your preferences, click on "Preferences". To
logout and become an anonymous user, click on "Close your session".  You
should always do this if you are using a computer or browser that may be
used by others.
</sect>
<!--******** Section 3: The comments page ********-->
<sect>
View an article and any comments: the comments page.
<p>
To get to this page, click on the link "x comments" below the news on
the front page. 
<sect1>
Commenting on an article and replying to comments
<p>
<itemize>
<item>
To reply to a comment, click on the link "reply" below the
comment. Be sure to have read all comments posted before to avoid
redundancy. 
<item>
To comment on an article, click on the "Reply" button beneath the news.
Do not use it to reply to a specific comment.
</itemize>
<sect1>
Limiting the comments to display
<sect2>
The scoring of comments
<p>
Each comment is scored. Its score is a value between -1 and
five. -1 is for comments which are rude, defamatory, or otherwise
inapropriate to the forum. Comments posted anonymously get scored 0 value by
default.  <!-- Comments posted from a normal user get scored 1 by default
n'est-ce pas? On devrait le dire non? --> 
<sect2>
Filtering comments
<p>
You can set the minimal score for the comments displayed.  For this,
use the pulldown menu below the news. This menu displays the scores
available and the number of comments for each level. Select the one you
want, then click on the button "Change" beside the menu.
<sect1>
Viewing hidden comments 
<p>
All the comments under your currently selected score are hidden. That
means only the title and score of the comment are displayed, along
with a "+" on the left. To view one of them without changing your
score, click on the "+" sign.
<sect><!-- Submitting news : the news submission form. -->
Submitting news: the news submission form
<!-- Old version, for ISF in french, Q'n'D HTML  --> 
<sect1>
First stage
<p><!-- To be modified according to your needs -->
Click on "Submit a news" in the daCode box on the front page, upper
left.
<p>
Type your name, (fake) email and the subject (title) of the news. You
have to choose the most relevant option from the list of topics and the list
of sections. <Bf/Please choose an appropriate topic and section./  The
department is free space,  you can put anything there, or just leave it
empty. You have then to choose the formatting you want from the pull-down
menu on the next line. This can be text or html.  If you choose text the
news will appear exactly as you typed it.  If you choose html you are
allowed a limited selection of html tags in your news.  You should specify
line breaks and paragraphs with &lt;br&gt; and &lt;p&gt;.
Then type in your text. If you want to attach a file to your news,
then check the «&nbsp;Attached file&nbsp;» checkbox.
<sect1>
The HTML links section 
<P>
If you want to add some links to pages related to your news, this
is where to do it! Type the name (what will appear on the news) in the left
column. Type the address of the page you are linking to on the
right. This adress should begin with http://;
<Bf/You must also always set the language!/ (pull-down menu on the far
right). If you don't tell daCode what language a link is your link will
be silently erased.
<sect1>
Second stage: verification
<P>
You can view how the news will be displayed. If it's ok, then
click on the «&nbsp;Submit&nbsp;» button. You will be taken to stage 3
if you checked the «&nbsp;Attached file&nbsp;» checkbox, or stage 4 if
you didn't. If you forgot to do that in the first stage, you can still
do it here.
 
<P>
If you want to change the news, you can edit it and verifiy it as many
times as you want. You will remain at stage 2 as long as you modify your
news.
<sect1>
Third stage: specifying attached files 
<p>
Just type in the complete paths to the files you want to attach,
or use the «&nbsp;Browse&nbsp;» button; then click on
«&nbsp;Next&nbsp;»  
<sect1>
Fourth stage: confirmation 
<p>
If all went well, you should see a page saying your message has been
added to the moderation queue. If not, something went wrong, so please
retry.  If there were any problems you should contact the webmaster of the
news site with any error messages.
<!--******** Section5: New user page ********-->
<sect>
Register as am user: the "New account" page
 
<p> 
This page allows you to create a new account. We use cookies for
authentication and so you do not need to type your password every time.  The
drawbacks are:
<itemize>
<item>
Your browser has to accept cookies for this to work.
<item>
If you use a computer that can be used by other people, always
logout. Just closing the browser won't do it.
</itemize>
<p>
Once the form has been submitted, the server will send you an email
with your password, and will redirect you to the page you come
from. The system will tell you if you made mistakes or forgot to fill
a mandatory field.
<p>
The login must consist of 3 to 20 normal characters. No special
characters please!
<P>
The email field must contain your real email address or you will never
get your password.
<p><label id="fake-email">
The fake email is the one that will be displayed when you post
something on the site.  This facility exists because some people scan web
pages to create lists for spamming.
This is free space, but it should be easy (for a human being) to
derive your real email adress from this one. For exemple, my mail is 
"jbcombes@netscape.net". A fake email would be something like
"jbcombes@ANTISPAM.netscape.net". If you leave this field blank,
daCode will create a fake email for you.
  
<!--******** Section 6: The preferences page ********-->
<sect>
Changing your preferences and password: the preferences page
<p>
This page is for setting your preferences. You can set:
<itemize>
<item>
your fake email. To learn what it is, look there
<ref id="fake-email" name="Fake email">
<item>
your first and last names
<item>
your web page
<item>
you can set a signature. This signature will be appended at the
end of each comment you post
<item>
last but not least, you can change your password
</itemize>
</article>
