We'll do all of our real-time discussions on a MOO. MOO stands for "Multi-object oriented." A MOO is a text-based environment which simulates a real-life physical space. Once you connect to the MOO, you will find rooms you can enter with objects you can manipulate and people you can chat with. Everywhere in the MOO you're given a description of what the rooms, objects, and people look like. The MOO is much more than a chat room since it is designed to give us a virtual reality environment, a feeling as if we are actually visiting a physical place and interacting with its contents and populace.
We will be using a MOO called Connections, which is managed by Tari Fanderclai. To connect to the MOO, you'll need client software loaded on your computer. Windows users will connect with a program called Phoca; Mac users will load a program called MacMush. Both programs are provided free of charge by the authors (freeware) and fit on one floppy disk (virus free, of course!) which you can pick up from the Distance Learning Office. Please sign the release form before being given your disk. At the end of the quarter, please return the disk to the DL Office.
Windows users should follow these steps:
Macintosh users please follow these steps:
After completing step 8, you will see the following "Welcome to Connections" message on your screen:
Connections is a virtual learning environment. Classes of all kinds and all levels can make arrangements to use this space; so can those wishing to set up or participate in other kinds of learning projects. Information on Connections, as well as various kinds of help for both guests and regular users, is available at http://www.nwe.ufl.edu/~tari/connections
You are now ready to log in to the MOO with your character name and password.
You should have received from Tari an email with your character name and temporary password. To connect to the MOO, type: connect [character name] [your password] with spaces in between each command. Here's an example: connect Snoopy xjy123
When done, hit your enter key. You will know you've successfully signed on because you will get a "Connected" message and a description of the place where everyone on the MOO starts out: The Top of the Big Hill
Changing your password
To change your password to one of your choosing, type the following:
@password [your old password] [your new password]
Here's an example: @password xjy123 beejeesfan
The next time Snoopy logs in, he'll need to type: connect Snoopy beejeesfan
Changing your character name
If you decide to change your character name, you can type:
@rename me to [newname]
So, if Snoopy wants to become Peppermint Patty, he would type:
@rename me to PeppermintPatty
Notice that you cannot have spaces in your character name
Describing Who You Are
In the MOO, we can get descriptions of objects, rooms, and people, so you'll have to provide a description of yourself. To do so, type this:
@describe me as [your description]
Peppermint Patty might have typed the following: @describe me as the world's greatest fan of the Bee Gees. I love the whole disco decade, shake-my-booty nightly at local dance clubs, and watch Nick-at-Night for my favorite 70's shows like The Brady Bunch and Partridge Family. When I'm not having fun, I work as an engineer for a missile defense contractor in Silicon Valley.
Just hit your Enter key when done to set your description.
To see your description of yourself, type: look me
Others who want to see PeppermintPatty's description would type: look PeppermintPatty
Assigning Your Gender
You need to set your gender so that the pronouns which refer to you in the MOO will be correct. To set gender, type: @gender male OR @gender female
Looking at People, Rooms, and Objects
To see a description of the room you're in, type: look here
To see a description of an object or person in the room type either: look [character name] or look [name of object]. So, if PeppermintPatty is in the room and we want a description, we can type: look PeppermintPatty. If there is a coffee mug in the room and we want a description of it, we type: look coffee mug
To receive even more information, use the exam command. This will tell you if the object has some verbs associated with it. For instance, let's say you type: exam coffee mug. You may see that the verb "drink" is associated with that object. So, if you wanted to have a drink of coffee, you'd type: drink coffee mug. A text description would display on your screen informing you, for example, that you'd taken a strong sip of hot, delicious, caffeine charged Mocha Java.
Finding Who Is in the MOO and Joining Them
To see who is in the MOO, type: @who. You'll get a list of character names and the rooms the people are in. You may also see a description of what they are doing. If a do not disturb message is there, you won't want to join that person. Otherwise, you can join someone by typing: join [character name]. So, if Peppermint Patty is in the American Literature room and I want to join her there, I can type: join PeppermintPatty
Moving From Room to Room
To visit a place in the MOO, you would type: walk to [name of place]. For example, let's say you want to visit me at my virtual office. My office was built in the Chaos realm, in a room adjacent to the little blue hut. So, you would type: walk to chaos
To get to my office, you'll use directional commands such as north, south, east, west. Before you can get to the little blue hut, you'll need to go down the long, dirt road. do this by typing: north
You will find that you are now travelling down the long, dirt road. You'll see a little blue hut there. To enter the hut, type: walk to little blue hut
You'll discover that you are now inside the blue hut.
Try typing: @exits
This will let you know for any room you're in where the exits from the room are
Again, type: north
You'll find that you are now in my office.
If at any time you get stuck in a room and can't find your way out, type: home
This will return you to the MOO starting point, the Top of the Big Hill
Talking to Your MOO-Mates
To speak to everyone in the room, type: say [message]
So, let's say I want to greet everyone in my office. I'd type: say welcome to my office everyone
If I want to direct my remarks to a specific person but still have everyone else hear, I would use this command: to [character name] [message]
Let's say five people are in my office and I want PeppermintPatty to share with us one of the fabulous sentences from her draft. I'd type: to PeppermintPatty please type in that great topic sentence you wrote for paragraph three of the Bosmajian paper
Getting MOO-emotional
Let's say you want some body language to come through. You'd use this command: emote [action]
If I want to wave to PeppermintPatty, I'd type: emote waves to PeppermintPatty
Everyone would see: Profdave waves to PeppermintPatty
If I want to have a private conversation with one person, I'd use: mu [character name] [message]
So, if I only want PeppermintPatty to hear what I have to say, and I want her to speak with me about some comment I'd made on her paper, I'd type: mu PeppermintPatty did that comment I made about Orwell's conflict between his public and private self make any sense?
You can page an individual anywhere in the MOO, so that only he or she sees your message. Type: page [character name] [message]
Let's say you're in my office and I want a classmate, PeppermintPatty, to join us there. I'd type: page PeppermintPatty please come join us in my office.
Leaving the MOO
When you're done MOOing for the day, type: @quit
You'll see a message telling you you're disconnected.