Pistachio Backtalk Help:
Conference Home Page

Read this first: Introduction to Pistachio Backtalk

The Conference Home Page:

Every Backtalk conference has a home page which provides the basic commands for reading and posting to that conference. You can reach the conference home page from the entrance page by selecting a conference to read and you may return to it using the

on many other pages.

The conference home page starts with a display of the conference login file, which includes introductory text and images. This can be changed by the fairwitness. After this, it tells how many new items and items with new responses there are in the conference.

Reading the Conference:

If the conference has any new material in it, you can read it simply by clicking the

button. This will put you into the read item pages.

If you know the item numbers you want to see, just type them into the ``Read item numbers'' box. You can type a single number, multiple numbers separated by spaces or commas, or ranges of numbers separated by dashes. A ``$'' may be used to indicate the last item, so if you type ``$,4-6'' you will be shown the last item, followed by items 4, 5 and 6.

There is a large collection of other item reading commands available if you first press the button.

You can search the conference for items with particular words in their titles or response text, or for postings by particular users, by using the button labeled ``Search the conference.''

Posting to a Conference:

To post responses to an item you should first read the item, as above, but you can post new items directly from the conference home page using the ``Enter a new item'' button. When you enter an item or a response, your name will be set by default to the one shown on theconference home page. You can change this default name by typing in a new name, and pressing the adjacent ``change it'' button.

Editting Your Conference Settings:

You can edit your conference settings by clicking on the button. Currently this allows you to control the colors used for text and backgrounds, the button style, and the default order in which items are read.

Resigning from a Conference:

You join a conference automatically just by going to the conference home page. If you decide you never want to go there again, you can use the ``resign from this conference'' button to do so. When you resign, the system will recover a little disk space by forgetting which items and responses you have already seen.

Fairwitness Commands:

If you are a fairwitness in this conference, you will be supplied with several additional bright red fairwitness buttons. There is a button for linking items in from other conferences, and if the conference is closed, there is a button to edit the user list for the conference.

There are also some important fairwitness commands on the item list page.