How to create a Watercooler Account

Go to the Watercooler Opinion page (click on the link 'McAlester Watercooler' on the

main page at http://www.mccooler.net).

In the upper right is a 'Create/Modify Account' Button -- click on it.

Make required entries for:

             Display Name

             Password (twice)

             Real Name

             Email Address

             Address

             Phone1

The other entries are optional.  Note, in the lower right, entering a Username

for Username@mccooler.net will create a FREE web-based email account for

entry.  You can access this email by clicking on McAlesterMail link at the bottom

of the main page.

When you have made your entries, click on 'Create User Account'.

The page will refresh with a 'Successful' message or give an error if

something is wrong.

Important:  You will have to reply to the email sent to the provided Email Address

                  in order to activate your account.  After doing so it may take 10 minutes

                  or more before the activation occurs.

Modifying Your Account Information

You can modify your Account information by entering your Display Name (for

Login Name) and password and click the 'Create/Modify' button located on the

Opinion page.  If you change your email, you will have to re-verify.

Entering an Opinion or Comment

To enter a new Opinion, click on the red 'Enter Your Opinion'.  To make a Comment

on someoneelse' opinion, first click on the Opinion number.  This will bring up the

full text and provide a summary of the other comments.  Click on any

'Make a Comment' button

For both Opinions and Comments, enter them in the white area on the entry screen.

Make sure you type in your Display Name and password before clicking on the

Submit button.  Double-check your entry before hitting 'Submit', at the moment

we don't have an Edit option -- so all typos, etc will be permanent.

This is a brand new system, so if it doesn't behave well it may be a BUG --

let me know.

UPDATE

I've been reviewing the Watercooler code, trying to cleanup loose-ends 
   and bugs.  
 
   One I have been looking at is the character limit input into the Opinion/ 
   Comment section -- looks now like it has been set to about 2000 characters 
   by the browser and server code.  Since the browser code is Microsoft 
   I can't do much about it.  What I'm considering, but have not yet got 
   working, it to provide a text-editor (written in Java) that can be used to 
   enter much longer Blogs.  Since this would run on the users PC, simple 
   cut/paste would also be supported.   Until this is available, the work- 
   around is to continue Blogs longer than 2000 characters into the next 
   Comment, etc. 
 
   Another problem I know you have seen is formating.  The way it 
   functions at the moment is to honor the format ONLY IF the number 
   of characters on a line is <=80.  Otherwise, it starts breaking up the 
   lines at word breaks, forcing lines to be no longer than 80 characters. 
   This will scramble the presentation in some cases.  So when putting in 
   in Opinions/Comments that need formating to be readable, keep lines 
   to less than 80 characters. 
 
  Also just implemented, is a modification to the Comments listing screen. 
  Now it lists the first 20 Comments in full, you will only need to request 
  the full text for Comment numbers >20.  This will hopefully also present 
  the overflow length Opinions and Comments in a more readable style. 
 
  Remember this is very new code -- there will be problems.  All suggestions 
  are welcome.