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The following bits of advice will help you get the most out of your Talkitover experience.
If you include HTML text in a Talkitover message, it will be displayed to your readers in its exact original form; in other words, their browsers will not interpret it. For example if one of your messages contains the text
then the text will appear on the Web page of your Talkitover group exactly as shown above.
This may be what you wanted, but most likely is not -- that is to say, you wanted to include a link to http://www.mygreatpage.com (the <A HREF=... code); you wanted it in boldface (<B>); and you wanted it bigger.
To include a link to a Web page in your message, simply write its URL in the form http://some-address or ftp://some-address. It will then appear as a link in the message as seen by the reader. For example if when typing your message you include a comment of the form
then readers will see it under the form
where they can click on the link to go to the stated URL.
Make sure in such a case to include the http:// or ftp:// part. If you only write something like
then the text will appear exactly as you typed it, with no link.
Talkitover currently does not recognize attachments in messages. If you include an attachment it will probably appear as gibberish in the message page.
If you want message readers to be able to access a document, do not include it as an attachment but instead include a link to a Web or FTP page containing the document. As explained above it suffices to include a line of the form
which will automatically appear as a link in the Talkitover message page.
For individual messages on a certain topic, the first line of the message will serve as its title for the topic's table of messages and answers. (If the title has more than 40 characters it will be truncated to 40 characters followed by three dots "...".)
So you should pay attention to the first line, since it will be given some prominence!
Again, remember that if you want to refer to a long document you can always include its URL in your message.
Always use plain text -- not a MIME attachment.
Do not change the automatically generated line in the message body,
which must end with the "message code" given in the group page.
If you don't see a mailing window come up, or it doesn't show an automatically generated line with the given code, your mailer does not support mail or its set-up is not appropriate for Talkitover. You can still send a reply through any mailer to tlkmes@talkitover.com with the code word as the last word of the Subject. See troubleshooting tips for Netscape 4 or Internet Explorer.)
As with e-mail and newsgroups, it is a good idea to observe the standard rules of "netiquette": even if you strongly disagree, be considerate to other posters. It is well known that electronic communication can sharpen differences, make people angry with or without a good reason, and turn otherwise pleasant citizens into unhappy campers. Also remember the general rule that, if you are really mad at someone else's message, it never hurts to let a good night's sleep pass before you decide what (and whether) to respond.
Because all messages on a topic of a Talkitover group are stored together, with a convenient hierarchical structure making it particularly easy for readers to find out who said what and to reconstruct the flow of questions, answers and counter-answers, it is generally not necessary to quote other messages at length. Just make it clear whose message you are answering.
