ICONSnet User Guide: Sending Messages

ICONS Homepage

To Send a Message

To send a message, select the Send Message button. You will be asked to specify whether a message is a response, to whom the message is to be sent, an issue, a subject, and the text of your message.

Entering Message Parameters

Participants must enter several message parameters before actually constructing the text of the simulation message

• Is the message a response?
  Check the "Response" box only if the message you are sending is a response to a message that you received earlier.  (ICONS included this option because you may wish to respond to a message that you have already placed in your archive.  The effect will be that this message will have a link back to the original message.)  You will have to specify the message number you are responding to, and then continue to fill in the appropriate parameters below.

• Choosing Message Recipients
  You will first be asked to enter the intended recipient of your message. You can choose to send the message to all or to some combination of the listed participants. (Recipients listed as a hypertext link are groups of individuals users.  Click on the link to see the members of the group.)  If you would like a copy of the message to be sent to yourself as a new message, be sure to select "self" as a recipient. (You will always have access to all messages that you send in the archive, but you might want to send to yourself if you want a teammate to see your message.  You and your team can set up your "user profile" to automatically copy self on all messages you send.   See Administrative Features for more information.)

• Choosing Issues
  You will then be asked to select an issue from a pre-determined list. You must select at least one issue; you are allowed to select more than one. The purpose of issues is to provide a way of categorizing messages according to the major substantive areas of the simulation. Being able to read new messages according to issue or search the archives by issue is very helpful for teams who have divided their responsibility according to issue areas. Users cannot define new issue areas.

• Choosing a Subject
  You will also have the capability to include an optional subject to further classify your message. This is especially useful if you are presenting a proposal that you will want the other participating teams to be able to refer back to later.

Entering Message in the Text Box

To enter the text of your message, click in the text box and type in your message. If you are using a browser that supports word wrap (see Related Software), your text will be automatically wrapped to the next line when you get to the end of a line. (Your message will be properly formatted when it is sent whether you have word wrap or not.) You may edit anything in the box before you send the message.

See Related Software for information on preparing your message in advance with a word processor. There is no special formatting required to do so.

Sending

When you are finished, click the Send button. You will receive notification that your message has been sent. Please note that if you have experienced delays in connecting to the ICONS URL, it may take more than a few seconds before you receive a delivery notification. Please do not repeatedly click the Send button; if you do, you will send multiple copies of the same message. If you decide not to send a message, hit your browser's "back" button.

Please see Reading New Messages for information about responding directly to new messages that you receive.

http://www.icons.umd.edu/help/net4.html
Last modified: March 2, 2001