HyperNews Setup

Here are detailed instructions to setup a comments page for your course, using HyperNews. To begin, you must make yourself a member of the Mathematics Department discussion page. With Netsccape, go to the following location:

http://math.ucdenver.edu/www.html

Click on "Our math discussion" link. At the bottom of the messages you will see an Add Message button with five more buttons underneath. Click on the Members button. Follow instructions to add yourself as a member. Be sure to save your password in a safe place.

You enroll only once in your life, and your membership will be good forever. Please give our webmaster a day (maybe 2) to enroll you. After your membership is complete, here is how you setup a discussion page. (Can setup a separate one for each course.)

Step 1. Setup is done in Netscape at location: http://math.ucdenver.edu/cgi-bin/<your name>/SECURED/edit-article.pl

<your name> is of the form First_Last. For example, Bugs Bunny becomes
http://math.ucdenver.edu/cgi-bin/Bugs_Bunny/SECURED/edit-article.pl
(Note the capital first letter in your first and last name, and the underscore between them.)

When you begin, HyperNews prompts for "User Name" and "Password". Your user name is your e-mail address, and your password is what you chose when you enrolled. After entering these into the box, you will enter a form.

Field 1 asks for your User Name, which is your e-mail address (what you gave when you enrolled). This appears as the default, so you can go to the next field (click on entry box, or use down arrow).

Field 2 is the "Title." To avoid conflicts, choose `Math xxxx syr', where xxxx = course number, s=semester (F or S), and yr = year. For example, if you teach Undergraduate Seminar Spring 1999, you would use the Title: Math 3001 S99. (Next year you will have a Y2K problem if you taught in 1900.)

Field 3, entitled "Directory", cannot have embedded blanks; it must be a valid directory name. Continuing with the above convention, you can name it /mathxxxx_syr (note the forward slash). For the example, you would enter /math3001_S99 (note capital S).

Field 4 -- Skip Email List Address.

Field 5 -- Choose Smart Text, which is the default.

Field 6 is the form message, which will appear as a header in your HyperNews page. Here is an example:

Welcome to Math xxxx. This discussion page can be a great asset for your learning experience, so please use it often.

Field 7 -- Skip URL for Forum Header.

Field 8 -- Skip URL for Forum Footer.

Finally, at bottom of form, Click Create (or update) Forum button.

Step 2.Link to your discussion page (anchor in your course html file), using the address:

http://math.ucdenver.edu/cgi-bin/HyperNews/get/<directory of your forum>.html

Example:

<a href="http://math.ucdenver.edu/cgi-bin/HyperNews/get/math3001_S99.html">

Step 3. If you want to update or edit your discussion page, enter Netscape with the url:

http://math.ucdenver.edu/cgi-bin/<your name>/SECURED/edit-article.pl/<directory of your forum>.html

Example:

http://math.ucdenver.edu/cgi-bin/Bugs_Bunny/SECURED/edit-article.pl/math3001_S99.html

This page is maintained by the Web4Teaching Director

Last update: February 4, 1999