Plans v2 FAQ
In the days of old,
Grinnell College had a
Vax computer system.
One of the
standard commands
available on this
system was called
'finger'. This
command gave various
information about a
user, including
showing the
person's .plan file.
Each user had their
own .plan file, which
was
originally meant for
people at companies
and elsewhere to post
what their
work plans were. The
.plan file at Grinnell
College (and many
other
places) gained a
social aspect however.
People started posting
notes to
their friends, writing
stories, or writing
whatever else they
felt like
writing. At Grinnell
College, a small group
of students called the
'VAXGods' wrote and
maintained scripts to
allow users to
automatically
keep track of which of
their friends had
updated their .plan
files.
During the summer of
2000, the Vax at
Grinnell College was
phased out of
operation. There was a
time period in which
no sort of plan system
existed
at Grinnell College.
During this time
period however, older
students felt
a strong dismay over
the loss of the
popular plans system.
Thoughts
floated around about
creating a new
web-based version of
plans, and so
Rachel Heck ('01) was
the first to take the
initiative in creating
a
web-based plan system.
She wrote the original
version (what we
consider Plans v0) of
the Grinnell
web-based plans system
with just a few
friends in mind. The
system grew
very quickly in
popularity. Since this
original system was
designed with
only a few users in
mind, problems started
to arise with the
swelling
numbers of plan users.
So in the spring of
2001, Rachel wrote a
new
version of plans
(Plans v1) that had
certain improvements,
such as being
backed by a database,
with Andrew Kensler ('01)
giving suggestions and
writing the search
page. In the spring of
2001 Rachel turned
control of
plans over to the
current maintainers of
plans. The current
maintainers
then significantly
altered Plans v1,
adding on certain
customization
abilities, and other
abilities. By autumn
2001, it was apparent
that the
plan user base was
becomming too large
for the program to
handle well, and
so Plans v2 was
introduced in the
spring of 2002. During
the
summer of 2003, events
occured which led to
Plans being hosted by
a commercial web host
instead of being
hosted by Grinnell
College.
Plans is not, nor ever
was a class project
(although we know of
at least
one class project that
tried to come up with
a better version of
plans
which failed). Running
the plans system has
very much been an
educational
experience to say the
least. Anyway, plans
are not a commercial
project,
but simply a student
run um... something or
other.
Email
grinnellplans@gmail.com
The Plans system uses
what are known as
cookies, so that while
you are
logged into Plans you
get the
style/interface/etc.
of your choosing, as
well as giving you
your autofinger list.
However you can set
your internet
browser to not accept
cookies. Normally the
cookie takes effect
after you
receive the first page
after you log in. If
your browser is set to
not
accept cookies, then
you can log in and get
the first page as
normal, but
then if you click to
receive any other
page, Plans does not
know who you
are and so considers
you a guest (you will
see that the style
reverts back
to the default pastel
color scheme).
So what you need to do
is check the settings
on your browser and
check the
option to allow
cookies. In some
browsers if the
security setting is
set
to the most protective
you may need to lower
the security a notch.
Just
remember to switch it
back afterwards if you
are wanting to keep
that more
protective setting
while surfing the
general internet.
[More specific
instructions for each
of the main browsers
will eventually
be put here.]
Plans
CVS
(Click on the
'Browse CVS' link near
the bottom, and then
select
'grinnellplans').
- Have previously
or currently
attended college
in Grinnell, Iowa
- Are a faculty
member or staff
worker at a
Grinnell, Iowa
college
- Are
recognized as
a group by a
student
government of
a college in
Grinnell, Iowa
We do
however,
reserve the
right to
refuse a
person or
group an
account,
for any reason
regardless of
whether or not
they meet
these
criteria.
We also
reserve the
right to
remove an
account at any
time, for any
reason.
Yes, however we
have no interest
in determining
who or what
should be a
group, and so we
defer the
determining of
groups to SGA.
To prove to us
that you are an
SGA recognized
group, when
requesting a
plan, you must
send the request
e-mail from the
group's email
account (i.e.
instead of
sending the
request from
your personal
email account,
doejohn@grinnell.edu,
you must send it
from your group's
email account,
mygroup@grinnell.edu).
Yes.
Our first
request is that
you read this
faq, and browse
Plans using the
guest feature to
get an idea of
what Plans are
about (currently
disabled).
Then if you want
a plan, simply
send an email
with a brief
message
indicating that
you'd like a
plan to
grinnellplans@gmail.com.
If you
are requesting a
group account,
please be sure
to send the
request from
your groups
email account.
Simply put the
person's
username inside
of brackets on
your plan. i.e.
to
put a link to
the plans plan,
you would put
[plans]
somewhere on
your
plan.
When you view
the messages
within a thread,
the number to
the far left
just under the
title
of the message
is the id number
of the message.
To make a link
that
message, simply
enclose
the id number
between square
brackets. For
example:
[1]
There are
several ways of
making such a
link. The first
way is as
such:
[http://www.grinnellplans.com|Grinnell
Plans
Homepage]
which will give
you this: Grinnell
Plans
Homepage
The second way
is as such:
[http://www.grinnellplans.com]
Which will give
you: http://www.grinnellplans.com
The final way is
as such:
<a href="http://www.grinnellplans.com">Grinnell
Plans</a>
which
will give you:
Grinnell
Plans
No, however to
let you know the
cause of the
rumor you heard:
in the
distant past
there had been
ways, but these
ways were never
intended to be
available for
plan users to
use.
No. We want to
encourage people
to read other
people's plans
without fear
of other people
knowing which
plans they read,
and to encourage
people to
write plans
without
censuring
themselves based
upon the
knowledge of who
reads their
plan. Although
in reality a
public forum,
plans tend to
give
people a sense
of false
secrecy, in
which a plan
writer is aware
of the
public nature of
plans, but yet
is allowed to,
under the veil
of false
secrecy, to
communicate
things publicly
which they would
like to
communicate, but
which in regular
public
discourse, they
may shy away
from. Thus plans
at times can
reflect a very
interesting side
of Grinnell
which otherwise
might not be
seen. As such,
to allow the
public to see
who
is on their
autoread lists
would is essence
destroy plans.
Therefor, we
will never
provide a way to
see who is on
your autoread
list.
The autoread
list is a
mechanism
whereby a plan
person can
select which
plans of other
users interest
them, and know
if those plans
have been
updated since
the person last
read the users
plan. For
example, if you
put
me on your
autoread list,
and read my
plan, then if
afterwards I
update my
plan, you will
see my username
on your autoread
list as having a
new plan.
In a way, the
three tiered
autoread list is
almost like
having three
seperate
autoread lists.
It allows you to
put the people
in which you are
most interested
in keeping up
with their plans
in level 1, and
the
people that you
are less
interest in
keeping up with
in level 2, etc.
This means that
if you have only
a limited amount
of time to read
plans,
you can easily
read the new
plans of just
those who you
are most
interested in.
Please note that
this is just one
potential
hierarchy that
can be attached
to the three
tiered autoread
list, and that
you are free
to use whatever
categorization
you wish. Also,
remember that
you can
simply set
everyone on your
list to level 1
and hence not
have to bother
with the three
tiered system.
When there is a
new plan that
you haven't
read, it will
appear under the
title of the
level that you
have selected.
For instance if
you have me
on level 1, and
I've updated my
plan, when you
click on level
1, the
title level 1
will no longer
be a link, but
will now be a
colored text,
and under where
it says level 1,
you will see my
username as a
link
that you can
click to read my
plan.
To see what new
plans there are
for people on
level 2, click
on the
level 2, and if
there are any
new plans, links
to the new plans
will
appear under the
colored text
that says level
2.
There is now a
small meter
displayed below
your plan on the
edit page. If
you have a
Javascript
enabled browser
it will show you
approximately
how close you
are to the
maximum plan
size. If you
exceed 100%, the
bottom of your
plan may be cut
off. (Patch
submitted by
Andrew Kensler).
Opening tags go
inside of angle
brackets, like
this:
<tag>
For every
opening tag,
there must be a
closing tag to
match it, with
the exception of
the <hr>
tag which will
get replaced
with a
horizontal line.
You close a
tag by starting
it with a slash:
</tag>
There are
three formatting
tags available:
bold
<b>,
underline
<u>, and
italics
<i>.
You can also use
more than one
tag at a time as
I have done with
the
header of this
section.
<b><i>This
text is bold and
italicized</i></b>
becomes This
text is bold
and
italicized.
If there are
any questions
about using the
HTML tags for
formatting
your
plan, please
feel free to
contact us at grinnellplans@gmail.com
and
we'll be happy
to
answer them.
Yes, currently
you can put
[date] on your
plan and then
when you press
the
submit button it
will get
converted to the
date and time at
which you
pressed the
submit button.
When you edit
your plan again,
the date and
time will not
be converted
back to [date].
At this time
there are no
plans to do so.
Although we
change the
interface of
plans, the
central focus of
plans remains
the same in that
it
is about the
text message
that users wish
to send out. The
few html tags
currently
allowed seem
adequate for
allowing plan
users to
communicate in
text.
Furthermore, to
be quite honest,
disallowing html
tags is quite
easy, it is
harder (and adds
on significantly
to processing
power needed)
to then allow
html tags back
in. So we want
to keep the
processing
required to a
reasonable
amount (while at
the same time
not allowing
people to put in
whatever html
they want), and
so we are
content with
what
is currently
allowed.
Reg. Exp. is
short for
regular
expressions. It's
a way of
describing a
pattern in text.
This gives you a
much more
flexible search.
What follows
is Andrew
Kensler's
explanation of
how to use Reg.
Exp.:
A . matches any
character. For
example, b.t
will match "bit",
"bat",
"bot", "but",
"bet", etc.
Putting a
series of
characters in
square brackets
means that it
will
match any one of
those letters.
Thus you can
write b[iaoe]t
which will
match "bit",
"bat", "bot",
"bet", etc., but
not "but". You
can also write
a range using a
hyphen, e.g.
[0-9] will match
any digit. If
you put a ^
right after the
opening bracket,
that means any
character except
those. So
[^0-9a-z] means
any character
that's not a
number or a
letter.
A ? after
something means
that whatever is
just before it
is optional
and may or may
not be there.
Thus bo?at will
match will match
either
"boat" or "bat".
If you want to
make more than
one character
optional,
you can put it
in parenthesis.
Thus mount(ain)?
matches either
"mount" or
"mountain.
A * works
similiarly
except that it
means that it
matches
something
zero or more
times. So ba*h
will match "bh",
"bah", "baah",
"baaah",
etc. Again, you
can use
parenthesis so
b(an)*a will
match "ba",
"bana",
"banana",
"bananana", etc.
If you want
something like
that but where
it must appear
at least
once, use a +
sign. Thus
bana(na)+ will
match "banana",
"bananana",
"banananana",
etc. like above
but not "banan"
or "bana" or
anything
shorter.
You can also
give multiple
possibilities
and seperate
them with a |
Thus if you had
a thing for
fruit, you could
search for
banana|apple|pear|peach
to find any of
them.
You can
combine all of
these however
you like. You're
welcome to
search for
(captain
[0-9]+)|(b(an)*a)
or something
like that.
One last
little gotcha,
though: if you
want to search
for any of these
characters
litterally, put
a backslash, \,
before the
character. So if
you really want
to search for a
question mark,
use \? as the
regular
expression.
If this
doesn't make
sense, then just
leave the Reg.
Exp. box
unchecked and it
will search for
whatever you
typed literally.
Plans is
intended to be a
private forum
and anything
said within
Plans should, by
default, be
considered to be
in confidence.
We strongly
discourage
distributing any
material outside
of Plans without
first gettting
permission from
the author.
The outside
world can only
view your plan
if you set it to
be
guest-readable
in the
preferences.
However, Plans
is only as
secret as the
least-trusted
user and the
administrators
have no way to
detect or
intervene when
someone does
leak personal
information.