Constructive Discussion introductory guide for users

Basics of the Constructive Discussion system

The Constructive Discussion system is an advance on other web-based discussion systems. As in other such systems, users write things to be read by other people. Unlike most other such systems, people can come back and change what they write later. Because of this, the things people write are not called messages but contributions. It is therefore essential that contributors sign in with a username and password, so that only the person who writes a contribution can change it later.

Our starting point is to assume that a community of common interest has a set of core concepts which are key elements of the community's culture. This is worth taking a moment to reflect on. In any communicating community, there will be some things that are more likely to be accepted as topics of collective discussion, and other things that are less likely. If a group were happily discussing music, for instance, and if someone made a comment about the relative merits of football teams, they might well be regarded as having come from an alien place, to which they should perhaps return. While there are no strict dividing lines, on the whole certain concepts will be more central to a particular group's concerns than other concepts. And this makes sense - there is far too much in the world for everyone to discuss everything.

Following on from here, this Constructive Discussion system incorporates several different communities of common interest. Any one person can participate in one or more of them. The whole system has been designed to allow you to do this with the minimum of effort.

For each separate community, there is a list of dimensions of potential interest to the members of that community, which are set by whoever administers the community. These allow you to view your own selection of contributions which relate to your individual interest. To make this possible, when a contribution is written, the contributor decides which dimensions it is relevant to, and so people who have chosen dimensions of interest see only the contributions that match their interests.

Obviously it would be laborious to use a system where there are pages and pages of interests to select from. In each community, the administrators select a number of dimensions which seems appropriate to that community. It may be just a few, or for a community with a lot of important distinctions the system allows up to five sets of up to 30 dimensions in each set - though it is advisable not to use all of those: a couple of dozen should suffice.

To read more of the philosophy and motivation behind Constructive Discussion please see the explanatory essay.

Reading the contributions

Main menu

All users start with a main menu that allows you to go to separate pages for:

• selecting interests in the current community
• listing the contributions matching your selected interests
• other communities

Choosing interests and browsing contributions of interest

Each community decides whether the contributions to that community can be viewed by others or not, either users belonging to other communities on the system, or anyone at all on the Internet. Guests do not fill in the username and password boxes. Instead, they start by clicking on the button to "visit as guest" on the signing in page. They can then go to a page where they can define their interests in terms of dimensions, and when they have checked the appropriate boxes, a button takes them to a list of all the contributions that match their selected interests.

When guest visitors start off in a community, all the dimensions are checked, so that they can quickly scan all the contributions to see if there are ones of interest. Guests can then cut down on what is not of interest.

In practice, if there are only a very small number of contributions, you could keep all the boxes ticked, while if there are a good number of contributions, it is best to try out the various boxes until the most suitable selection of contributions is found.

When contributions are listed, what is shown includes the date of the contribution (if a contribution has been edited, the last date edited); the author; the subject; the number of outward references made from the contribution; and the number of inward references made to the contribution. Readers can select contributions between dates of their own choosing.

Following links from one contribution to another

Some contributions will be linked to others. When a contribution is made in response to an earlier one, a reference will appear under both, enabling the reader to move from one to the other quickly and naturally, by clicking on the link, in exactly the same way as one moves between two linked web pages. It is expected that these reference links will be more helpful and richer than those in normal discussion systems. Beside each link, the type of link is stated. It could be that a question is answered; or that a statement is contradicted; contributions can be added to or challenged. All these, and more, will be found. At present, there could be up to 20 links from any contribution, and any number to any contribution.

As mentioned above, when contributions are listed, the number of outward and inward references are listed alongside the contribution subject.

Changing community

If you are allowed to view contributions from another community, you may switch community to one of those other ones from the main menu. You will then see a new set of dimensions, and you can repeat the process from the beginning as if your starting point had been in that community.

Applying to be a registered user

A link on the signing in page takes you to the registration form, asks you for necessary and useful details. Firstly, you must choose a community you want to apply to. The idea is that all members of the system have to be admitted by someone - you cannot just admit yourself. You might like that, but you wouldn't like it if hordes of other people admitted themselves and took over your community.

You have to give yourself a public name. You will be identified publicly on the system by this name, so if you want to remain anonymous you need to choose an invented name for yourself. You can always change this later if you like.

You have to give yourself an e-mail address that works. If you do this properly, when you have submitted the form an e-mail acknolwedgement will be sent to you - it should be quite quick, a matter of minutes. If you make a mistake at this point, you will of course get no e-mail. In this case go to the signing in page, put in the username and password that you chose, and if the system recorded any of your application it will still be there. Correct your mistake and submit again.

You must choose a username and password - these can be almost anything, but not too long. To help you remember your usernames and passwords, you can use ones you already have from elsewhere, as long as no one has already chosen that username. The security of the username and password are entirely up to you. If you use simply-guessed ones, or ones that someone else may have seen, you are laying yourself open to abuse. A nice feature is that you can change your username and password at any time. Do this if you think anyone else might know or guess yours, and may abuse the system.

You are invited to write a few lines about yourself, who you are and why you want to join the community you are applying for. This serves firstly to introduce yourself to the administrators of the community you apply for, so that they know you are a bona fide interested person. After that, you can choose whether you want to show this same information (which you can change) to other users of the system.

This choice is one of several that you get on registration, and can change later. You can show or hide your e-mail address, your interests, your self-description (who and why). Perhaps the most important preference is whether or not you want contributions e-mailed to you. If you choose the e-mail option, any contribution that is made or revised, and whose dimensions of relevance overlap with your dimensions of interest will be e-mailed to you. You cannot reply to the system by e-mail, but on every e-mail there will be a link which allows you to go straight to the contribution if you wish to reply or record a view. If, however, you prefer to read the contributions in your own time on the Web, and not be sent e-mail, that is perfectly in order.

One other choice you get is whether you want to allow others to send you messages via the system. The reason for this would be if you want to keep your e-mail address completely private. In this case, other users looking at your details will get a form they can fill in to send you a message. Your e-mail address is inserted unseen to the other, and it is sent to you by ordinary e-mail, with the e-mail address of the other on it.

When you submit the registration form, an e-mail is sent to you confirming the details you entered. E-mail is also sent to the community administrators, so they will be alerted to the fact you wish to join. When they approve your application, the system sends you automatically another e-mail informing you that you can now use the system fully.

Setting cookies for automatic signing in

The last option that you are asked on registration is whether you wish to set a "cookie" for automatic signing in. This could make a big difference to the speed and ease of use, as you would no longer have to remember and type in your username and password (though you still have to set them to begin with).

You may or may not be familiar with Web "cookies". There are many web sites which explain what they are in detail. Try, for example, this Google search for "introduction cookies". Briefly, they are small files kept on the computer that you use, by the "browser" (Internet Explorer or whatever) that you use. As used here, they store your username and password, so that you don't have to remember them. However, they are available to anyone using your system. If someone else goes to the Constructive Discussion site using your machine, they will automatically be signed in as you. So you don't want to do this if anyone else who you don't trust completely uses your computer.

If you choose to accept a signing in cookie, the system will attempt to set one at the time of registering. You will get some feedback both on the following screen, and by e-mail, indicating whether or not it has been set.

Facilities for registered users

Signing in

To sign in as a registered user, the normal way is to enter your username and password on the signing in page. This will then take you to the main menu, unless you have come to the signing in page with a special link, in which case after signing in, you will be taken to that page.

If, as above, you have opted for automatic signing in with a cookie, all you have to do is to go to the signing in page, and you will be taken straight to the registered users' main menu. Going to other pages is equally simple. You will be taken directly there.

Registered users' main menu

The registered user can of course do all the things that a guest user can do, and much more. The main menu page for registered users allows access to pages for

• selecting and saving interests in the current community
• listing the contributions matching your selected interests
• listing any contributions you have bookmarked
• listing any contributions you have made to this community
• writing a new contribution for the community
• other communities
• viewing a list of the communities of which you are a member, or which you can read in any case
• changing your personal details and preferences, including whether you want e-mails sent to you of other people's contributions when made, and whether you want to sign in automatically using a cookie
• setting or clearing the cookie for automatic signing in
• signing out

There is a direct link to the main menu from every other page, which can be used with confidence, as it never submits a form or changes anything. Do this if you get lost or don't know what you are doing. The main menu is like your home page on the Constructive Discussion system.

Saving interests

A registered user can save their choice of dimensions as interests. Buttons for this appear on the page where interests are chosen. This means that you don't have to go through the effort of choosing your same interests over and over again. Reading new contributions that match one's interests can then be just one click after signing in.

Writing and revising contributions

Registered users can write contributions, respond to those of other people, and revise contributions they made earlier. Contributions are in plain text only, with no formatting, 60 character-long lines - a bit like plain text e-mail. At present, the only added feature is that if you put in a whole URL, complete with the http:// at the front, it will be displayed as a link that can be clicked on, and that will take the reader to the relevant page.

If you prefer, you can compose a contribution off-line, using any word processor or text editor, then copy and paste into the text area on the page for writing a contribution. Unbroken paragraphs will be broken into 60-character lines, but please remember to put in double carriage returns to ensure that paragraphs are separated.

The length of contributions is limited, at present to about 8000 characters, that is, something more than 1000 words. (This is not a technical limitation, but a policy to try to keep contributions to a reasonable and readable size) A contributor can always write more than one contribution and link them; alternatively, best to refer in a contribution to an external web page (put the URL) for really long articles. When writing a new contribution, checkboxes appear for marking the dimensions that are relevant to that contribution. Every contribution must be marked with at least one dimension.

Another help to readers is to be clear about the intended function of your contribution. Contributions can be statements or questions. They can serve as introductions to other contributions, or wider bodies of knowledge. The purpose might be to give advice - and that is different from a plain statement. Equally, it is useful to distinguish between statements of fact, and opinions. Another possible use for a contribution is to announce something. And then many contributions exist chiefly to respond to another contribution. When the contribution is being written, the author is asked to choose which of these functions most closely matches that of their new contribution. This is done by means of a drop-down menu right next to the subject line. It can be changed later when the contribution is revised.

After a new contribution has been read by others, the readers will often have recorded their views on the contribution, and these views are averaged and displayed to the original author at the point of possible editing, to help guide the revision process (see below).

After you have written a contribution, you can revise or delete it. To do this, first view the contribution you want to revise or delete. You will see a link, below the references, with the words "Open this contribution for possible revision or deletion". Clicking on that link will bring up the same screen as you used to write the contribution in the first place, and you will be able to edit or delete the contribution.

Follow up one's own or revise the original?

As Constructive Discussion allows one to change contributions, there is a choice of what to do if one has second thoughts, or follow-up thoughts, on a contribution one has already made. One can either write another new contribution, and refer to it from the original, or change the original. The best option depends on a number of other considerations.

The first consideration is whether there is information which is no longer true, or used to be believed but is now recognised as false. If so, you should change the original that so that what is stored is the best understanding of the true position. For example, if one has announced an event, and the event's date is changed, that should be changed on the original.

On the other hand, if it is a matter of opinion, different views, or different aspects of a question, it might be better to leave the original and refer to it with a new contribution stating another side. This is particularly true if several other people have referred to a contribution in the meanwhile. So, for example, if someone posts a contribution about the best way to solve world poverty, and other people respond to that, the first contributor may have second thoughts. In this case, better to post a new contribution which refers to the original one.

Writing a new contribution in response to another one

Sometimes one reads a contribution, and wants to write a response as a direct result. When viewing another person's contribution, a button is provided for this. Clicking on this button opens the same kind of page as writing a new contribution, but some things are filled in to make the process quicker and easier.

Firstly, the subject is copied from the original to the response (with "Re:" in front, as in e-mails). Of course the person responding may want to change this, but at least the original subject is there as a default. Secondly, the dimensions of the original are copied to the response, which means that everyone who sees the original listed will also see the response. Again, the person responding may wish to change those. Thirdly, when the response is saved, a reference is set up from the original contribution to the response, thus short-cutting the process of making a reference. As part of this, the person responding is asked to select the type of reference, in the same way as when a reference is made.

Recording views on other people's contributions

When reading other contributions, a registered user may form a view on that contribution, which is worth recording. The view consists of an attitude, running from very positive to very negative, and an evaluation running from very useful to useless. Radio buttons are provided to record these views on each contribution read, and alongside the radio buttons numbers are given of how many other people had that view. Thus readers can flag which of the contributions they have read are most important to them, and at the same time give feedback to the contributor about how important you rate that contribution.

The face graphics, for attitude, and the stars, for usefulness, are intended to help people in the process of recording views and also understanding the views of others. It is perfectly possible to feel very negative about a contribution, while at the same time finding it very useful and important - e.g. the announcement of something unpleasant. Equally, a joke could be very pleasant, but completely useless! So take care to treat these two aspects of a view separately.

Your attitude:	very negative negative neutral positive very positive
Your valuation:	useless little use of some use useful very useful

In the same page, readers are given the opportunity to tick a checkbox to bookmark a contribution, and also to add private notes (perhaps about how to respond, relevance to other contributions, etc.) These private notes are not displayed to any other user, ever.

Referring from one's own contribution to any other contribution

The process of referring from one contribution to another is important and deserves careful explanation.

After writing a contribution, and reading others, it may appear to you that one of your contributions relates to another contribution on the system. An important question is, how does it relate? There are several ways in which two contributions can be related. Recognised at present in the system is the possibility that one contribution

• refers
• answers
• supports
• refines
• questions
• adds to
• alters
• cancels
• contradicts
• appreciates
• criticises

There is one further option that is relevant only to this system. A contributor may have written something and marked its relevance in terms of dimensions, but other users may disagree about the relevance. The disagreement may not be about the content (thus a response might not contradict or challenge) but about its categorisation within the system. This is important to people as it affects what shows up on the list when they choose their interests, and so it is a legitimate matter to comment on. As it is about ticking boxes, it is named here as ticking, so that one contribution so to speak "ticks" another if it differs in opinion on the matter of which relevance boxes should be ticked.

So how is referring carried out? It depends where you start from.

If you are looking at another person's contribution, and you think you may want to refer to that from one of yours, immediately, there is a link for you to click on that says "You can make a new reference to here in from one of your contributions". Clicking on that takes you to a page to select which of your contributions you want to make the reference from. Once this is done, the next page shows the two contributions and asks you to select what kind of reference it is. Once this is selected and the appropriate button clicked, the reference is made.

Perhaps you look at another person's contribution and think that you may want to refer to it in the future. In this case, tick the "bookmark" checkbox, and that contribution will be in your list of bookmarks to be referred to later.

The other approach to making a reference is when you are writing or revising one of your own contributions. In this case, you may want to make a reference either to someone else's, or another of your own contributions. To refer to another of your own is a process quite like the one above. However, to refer to another person's contribution, one has to select the contribution one wants to refer to. This would be laborious if one had then to look through all the different contributions to find it.

The solution is to use the bookmarking facility. If you have not already bookmarked the contribution you want to refer to, go and find that contribution, and as you view it, bookmark it by ticking the bookmark checkbox and saving the view. Then, when you are next at your own contribution that you want to make the reference from, click on the link "You can make a new reference from here out to a bookmarked contribution". The next screen is like your bookmark screen, except it has radio buttons down the left to select which of the bookmarked contributions to refer to. That leads to the same screen as before, where the two contributions are laid out, and you have to select what kind of reference it is. That done, the reference is made, and it will appear on the list of references from your contribution, and the list of references to the other one.

If you want to remove a bookmark later, this will not affect any references you have made.

Outdating of references and views

Because people can revise their contributions, clearly references and views can become out of date. One may write a response indicating major problems with a certain contribution, and the author of that contribution may agree and change theirs. In that case, the reference, and all the views on the old version, need to be changed if they are to be valid again. It is the responsibility of each participant in the system to keep references and views up to date as far as possible, to help all other contributors. The system helps this by giving an off-colour background.

When looking at one's own contributions, a column marked "old" lists the number of references from that contribution which are outdated. Usually this will be 0. When there are some outdated, the number is highlighted with the outdated colour.

Deleting references

When viewing a contribution either which you have referred to, or referred from, next to the reference there will be a link which allows you to check the reference. Following that link, you will get the option of deleting the reference. Doing that does not affect either contribution, but simply removes the reference which will no longer appear when people view the contributions. You can only remove references which you have made, and you cannot prevent any other community member from referring to any of your contributions, nor can you delete them.

Different communities

On the main menu page, a list of communities which you can visit is given. These are ones either that you are a member of, or that are open to non-members to read. Below that is a link to a page where you can review your membership of communities - this allows you to leave if you no longer want to participate in a particular community, or to apply to join a community which you are not currently a member of. Also shown are whether you are a administrator of each community listed.

Personal preferences and e-mailing contributions

The system allows you to store just a few things about yourself. You can change username and password at any time, but if you try to create a username that is already taken, it will be disallowed. Your username is not seen by anyone else. You can change your public name at any time. This can either be your real name, which would be helpful to other users, or an invented name if you need to remain anonymous. Your e-mail address is vital to the operation of the system. You can change it; but in future new e-mail addresses will be confirmed only when a code sent to that e-mail address is entered into the system. That will ensure that e-mail is getting through.

Preferences include a choice of what you want showing to other users. You can show or hide your e-mail address, your interests, your self-description (who and why). Perhaps the most important preference is whether or not you want contributions e-mailed to you. If you choose the e-mail option, any contribution that is made or revised, and whose dimensions of relevance overlap with your dimensions of interest will be e-mailed to you. You cannot reply to the system by e-mail, but on every e-mail there will be a link which allows you to go straight to the contribution if you wish to reply or record a view. If, however, you prefer to read the contributions in your own time on the Web, and not be sent e-mail, that is perfectly in order.

Then there is the text that you may have filled in when you registered, a self-description of who you are and why you belong to this community. You can change this at any time, and choose whether or not it is shown to other members. It is always available to owners and clerks of communities you belong to.

A final little point is that you can choose to have dates displayed in international standard format - as in 2002-07-14, rather than the European norm 14 / 7 / 2002. It is envisaged that Americans not used to European ways will prefer the international format.

More on cookies for automatic signing in

If you always use the same computer system for Constructive Discussion, and no one else does, you can choose, as explained above, to sign in automatically with a cookie. But if you use another different system, your cookie will not be set on that other machine. If you have opted to sign in automatically and you start on another machine, you will have to use your username and password (which is why you need to set, and remember, your username and password in the first place), but then on the main menu you will get an option for setting a cookie on your new machine. As before, only do this if you are confident that no one else will try to use the system you are on for Constructive Discussion.

Maybe you have a cookie set, and someone else does now want to use your current machine? In this case, you can clear the cookie off your machine from the main menu. Obviously from then on you will need to use your username and password to sign in. If you want to be even more thorough, go also to the personal details and preferences, and uncheck that box for signing in automatically.

Moving through the system

In common with most database-driven sites, users must be careful if they use the 'back' button on the browser. If you go back to a page before you made some change, the page will still appear as if you had not made the change. This is sometimes risky and you may end up mistakenly trying to change things twice, or changing them back to a previous state. In all cases, it is safer to move forward - links are provided on every page to go to the main menu and all the main functionality of the system can be reached within 3 clicks of the main menu (though to complete making a reference takes a couple of extra ones).

Facilities for community administrators

How community administration works

As in Yahoo groups, every community has an owner and other administrators. In many other discussion group systems these are called moderators - here, the Quaker term clerk is used. Communities are started with one owner. Owners are the only users who may appoint or release clerks. An owner can also choose one or more other owners, but cannot resign from ownership until another owner has been appointed. Clerks can perform all other administrative functions along with owners, including setting preferences for the operation of the community, admitting, removing or barring members, and changing the community dimensions.

The main community administration page

If you are a clerk or owner, the option to go to this page will appear on your main menu, with the label "administer this community". It contains a summary of all the things that can be changed in the community, and allows certain things to be changed directly.

On that page you can change:

the name of the community

This might confuse members, but otherwise everything will continue working as before. It should be done when there is a consensus among the community that the name is wrong.

the community description

This is your community's self-description, which (if you allow it) is shown to people thinking about applying to join.

the community rule

This is the place to put the rules, or code of conduct, which are generally agreed as the standard to which the community aspires. For instance, are commercial proposals acceptable? What degree of personal comment about other members is OK? Is it OK to reply immediately, or are members expected to sleep on it?

the community settings

Here is where you set whether the community is open (anyone can read), whether free (anyone can join themselves - otherwise people have to apply), and you can in emergencies suspend the community, in which case only owners and clerks can use it while they sort out what is troubling them. There could be a flag for moderation, but the current thinking is that communities are encouraged to find ways other than moderation to regulate the discussion. This system being more flexible and powerful than most, moderation should not be needed.

Administrators are responsible for the dimensions of discussion of their community. On the main admin page you can choose names for the collections, or groupings, of your dimensions. These collection names serve only as a guide to your members or readers, and are used only to name the collections. The collections appear as columns when they are being chosen, as when a contribution is made or edited, but for convenience of size as rows when they are just being displayed, as when a contribution is viewed.

Links from this page take you to

• a page where you can see the full details of any member of, or person who has applied to join, your community
• a page to administer members, admit, exclude etc.
• details of any dimension of discussion, that is, core concept of the community culture
• pages to select or create a new dimension of discussion

Member details

When someone applies for membership of your community, or if there is a problem with any member, you may want to see details of that member. Click on the member's name on the administration page and you will see member details. From that page you can admit a user into membership. (Or, in rare cases, if the need arises, reject them.)

Member management

This page is linked from the administration screen, and allow you as clerk or owner to admit or exclude members. If you are an owner, it allows you to appoint or release members as clerks or other owners. All of these operations are performed simply by clicking on the link in the body of the members table, which changes the word clicked on.

Managing dimensions

Each dimension can be placed in any order in any column. You can change this freely, and it will not affect how the dimensions are associated with contribution relevance or member interests. You also can change the label which is used for that dimension in your community, and the definition which you give to it. Also, the dimension can be deleted from your community. If there are any contributions with only that dimension marked, they will not be viewable any more. However, deleted dimensions will not be removed from members interests, in case that dimension may be used in another community.

As a general guide, you should not have dimensions that are not used at all. They serve only to add to the load of people using the community. Nor should you have two dimensions when one would be better: this would happen if two dimensions were always used together, either for the same contributions, or for the same personal interests.

Adding dimensions

At some point, perhaps right at the beginning, you will want to add dimensions to your community. You should do this if it seems that the current dimensions are not enough for contributors to distinguish their contributions properly. The dimensions should reflect the main concepts or issues that are discussed, or are likely to be discussed, in your community.

When you ask to create a new dimension, the important thing is to find out whether it has been created already for some other community. If you find another dimension that already exists, and looks reasonably similar in meaning, please use that one and do not create a brand new one.

There are two main ways you will be offered to find existing ones: look through a list; enter a term to search for.

1. You can look through the whole dimension hierarchy, to find where the dimension you want should be. If it is not there, at that point you should create a new one: select the "parent" dimension to the one you want to create, and then click on the link to create a new one.

2. You can search: put the term you want in the search box, and you will get a list of all dimensions that have been already defined using that phrase, word, or part of word. Again, if you are sure there are none matching, go ahead and create a new one.

Once a dimension has been selected or created, it is edited as if it was already in your community. You can change the name or the definition of the dimension for your community, and this will not affect the basic name or definition with which the dimension was created. This is obviously useful e.g. when holding discussions in languages other than English. But please be careful not to redefine a dimension too far away from the original definition. Remember that if a community member ticks one of your dimensions of interest, when he or she visits another community having the same dimension, that will also be ticked as of interest.

The dimension hierarchy

So that they can be found by other people, all dimensions in the system are stored in a hierarchy, a bit like a small version of the categories in a Web directory like Yahoo or whatever. Community owners and clerks can create new dimensions on this hierarchy (see above) but they cannot delete or change dimensions when created. That is important to ensure that any changes are made only with the greatest care, as they might interfere with community discussions.

Security - or the lack of it

The Constructive Discussion system is currently under development. Please do not put anything of a sensitive nature on the system until security is properly addressed. If you write anything of any value to you, be sure to keep a copy in your own files. It makes a great deal of sense to compose a contribution on your own computer, using whatever word processor or text editor you choose, and then to copy and paste it into the box for the contribution.