CoSy Conferencing Features

Hierarchical

Text messages in CoSy are organized into a hierarchical structure that has two main physical layers and two virtual or logical layers above and below that. The hierarchy is:

Group - Conference - Topic - Thread - Message

A message can be identified uniquely within a given CoSy system by just its conference name, topic name and message number (conf/topic/#).

Conferences

Conferences are the main unit of organization within CoSy. Each conference has one or more moderators, a unique name, description, and one more more topics.

A conference may be open, joinable by anybody and listing in the conference directory; closed, listed but joinable only with the cooperation of the moderator; or confidential (private), closed and not listed in any public directory.

Conference Moderators

A conference's moderator (there may be more than one) has certain privileges within that conference: they may admit or expel members, they may add or modify topics, and they may withdraw users' messages. (A withdrawn message can display a "tombstone" indicating its withdrawal, and may be restored.)

A moderator with sufficient user privileges (based on configuration) may create new conferences.

Topics

Topics are the actual message containers within a conference. Other systems may use the term "room" or "forum". L:ike a conference, a topic also has a name and a description.

Users may selectively join or resign from individual topics within a conference.

Searches for a word or string may be performed on all the messages within a topic, or within a range (by number or date) of messages.

Messages

The body of a CoSy message may be, in theory, an arbitrary sequence of bytes. In practise this can cause problems for e.g. communication channels outside of CoSy itself, so the contents are usually restricted to text. (Some experimental versions of CoSy have supported graphics too, but no client software exists for this.)

Each message is identified by an ID number (and the enclosing conference/topic), its author, and the time and date entered into the system. It may also contain a subject or title field (particularly if it is the root of a new message thread), and the ID of the message to which it refers (the "parent"), plus the ID of the first message that refers to it, if any (and the ID of the first "sibling" message that refers to the same parent).

Messages may not be edited or altered once they have entered the system, however the original author may withdraw it at any time (as may the conference moderator or system administrator). A withdrawn message appears to contain the text "Withdrawn by author" (or "moderator", etc) if viewed. A withdrawn message may be restored by the person who withdrew it.

Other Features

Classic CoSy supports a shared conference "workfile" that may be edited by any conference member.

Users may view and search a directory of all listed (non-confidential) conferences in the system, as well as view the details (topics, moderators etc) of a given conference, and list its members.

CoSy also provides special conferences, which are not really conferences at all but links to external services or programs. By "joining" one of these, the user interface is redirected to that service until the user ends that service session.