Philosophy Forum

The Philosophy Forum is an important part of obtaining help in real time from your classmates and your instructor. You are encouraged to post questions, problems, or answers on any topic relating to the course policies, procedures, or homework of our philosophy class. Your post is placed directly on the Philosophy Web and can be immediately accessed by anyone in the world. The Ethics Board on the Philosophy Forum is a good place to obtain a pre-evaluation of your homework, to seek answers to homework problems, solve procedural questions, and get help on your paper.

The purpose of the Philosophy Forum is to discuss the daily class activities of our ethics course: critical comments, position papers, homework questions, homework answers, housekeeping matters, class procedures, assignments, test dates, and class policies. (Cookies must be enabled on your computer for you to be able to use the Philosophy Forum--normally, this is the default configuration of most computers.)

Registering on the Philosophy Forum

1. From the Philosophy Homepage, click on the ``Philosophy Forum'' link.
2. From the Philosophy Forum page, click on the ``Register'' tab at the top of the page.
3. Fill in a username and your email address--taking care to remember the username you have chosen. Click on the ``Register'' button. See Figure 1 for a screenshot. (The Captcha's, whereby you type a distorted word, are to prevent Spam Bots from entering the site.)

4. In a few moments, a password will be sent to your email address.

   Figure 1: How to Register for Philosophy Forum

   
   

5. From now on, when you go to the Philosophy Forum, click on the ``Login'' link at the top of the screen, and a login page will load. Log in with your username and the password you have just received via email. Be sure to take note of your password--perhaps, by saving the email message or writing it in the blank spaces below.
   

   Username:
   Password:
   

   Next, click the ``Login'' button. See Figure 2.

   Figure 2: How to Login to Philosophy Forum

   
   

6. When the PHILOSOPHY FORUM page loads, click on the Philosophy Forum of interest.
7. Lost Passwords: If you lose or forget your password to the Philosophy Forum, click on the ``Login'' link on the upper-right of the Philosophy Forum homepage:
   http://philosophy.lander.edu/cgi-bin/mwf/forum.pl
   

8. At the bottom of the LOGIN page in a box labeled ``Request Password,'' fill in your username in the username bar and click the ``Request'' button. Your password will be sent to you via email. (If you have forgotten your username also and you have posted to the Message Board at least once in the past, then find your message on the Message Board and record your username.)
9. (You need to log in to the Philosophy Forum in order to post messages, comments, or papers, but you need not log in just to read the messages.)

   Figure 3: How to Post to the Philosophy Forum

   
   

Posting to Philosophy Forum

1. If you wish to submit a message or a post, click on the blue hyperlink ``Ethics Discussion/Post'' under the boldface ``Philosophy 302: Ethics'' heading. Or if you wish to post your paper, click on ``Ethics Position Papers'' under the ``Philosophy 302: Ethics'' heading. When the ``Ethics Position Papers'' page loads, click on the ``Post Topic'' link. See Figures 3 and 4.

   Figure 4: How to Submit the Post or the Paper

   
   

2. Type in the spaces provided the title of your post in the ``Subject'' bar and the text of the post in the ``Message Body'' area. You can ``copy and paste'' your post into the ``Message Body'' area from a word-processing program such as Microsoft Word^TMor Notepad, if you wish. To copy and paste, with your mouse, highlight the text in your word-processing program, and for the Copy, press the Control Key and at the same time the letter ``C.'' For the Paste, click the mouse anywhere in the Message Body area, and press the Control Key and at the same time the letter ``V.''

Filling In PROFILE Page and ``Friendly Passwords''

When you log in to the Philosophy Forum for the first time, you should enter personal information on the PROFILE page. Login and click on the ``Options'' link at the top of the FORUM page. On the PROFILE page, you can type in a more easily remembered password if you wish to do so. Also, be sure to enter your real name so that you can be credited for your posts. If you wish to hide your email address, check the appropriate box.

Important: Unless you enter your real name on your PROFILE page your posts cannot be tabulated, and your posts cannot be credited. Any information entered here is available to the anyone in the class or, for that matter, anyone in the world. You need not give out any personal information if you choose not to do so.

If you click ``Options'' at the top of any page after you have logged in, you can find out how many times you have posted as well as find out about other personal data. To do so, click ``Info'' on the same line as your username on your PROFILE page. See the composite screenshot in Figure 5. Next, click on the ``Posts'' link for a list of all your messages. Also, if you wish, as noted above, you can type in a different, more friendly password. Remember to scroll way-down to the bottom of the page and click ``Change'' or your changes will not permanent.

Figure 5: How to Find a Record of Your Posts