How to read and post messages and events on pangea

Last revision March 23, 2005

The pangea server provides two forums for posting information of general interest to the School of Earth Sciences community: an electronic bulletin board with free-form temporary messages in chronological order; and an online events calendar, structured and searchable by department and event date, with event information maintained indefinitely.

The bulletin board is known as the pangea system messages or pangea msgs. It can be read using the msgs command from a pangea command-line login, or via the web at:

http://pangea.stanford.edu/msgs

This web site is only visible to computers on the Stanford campus, so the pangea msgs bulletin board is appropriate for informal messages that are only of interest to the Stanford community. New messages are posted by sending a plain-text email message to the special address msgs@pangea. This message must be posted from a Stanford computer, or from a login to pangea using pine or pangea's webmail, and should not contain any attachments, which will not be readable or downloadable in any way.

The events calendar is accessed only via the web for both reading and posting at

http://pangea.stanford.edu/calendar/

You can view upcoming events in a specific department of the School, or for all departments. You can see a weekly or monthly calendar view. You can search for events by keyword. The Events Calendar is visible to anyone on the internet, and should be used to announce events of interest to the wider community beyond Stanford.

The pangea msgs bulletin board is the electronic equivalent of the bulletin board in the elevator. People use it to announce events on short notice, such as a seminar quickly arranged by a visitor; to provide information on service and facilities changes that may affect you, such as fire alarm testing; to announce informal events, such as Friday Beer, or events of particular interest to students; to post job openings; and to simply ask for help from others in the School, such as "where can I find some platinum electrodes for an experiment?". Messages are automatically erased from the pangea msgs bulletin board after three weeks, so it is not useful for continuing or long-term events. This electronic bulletin board is the primary mechanism for general announcements within the School of Earth Sciences, and everyone should check it regularly.

By contrast, the School Events Calendar is a more formal notice system, more like a newsletter or a shared calendar. It is intended for events officially sponsored by the departments and research groups; for long-term planning, such as reserving the date for the Holiday party; and for notices of recurring events, such as seminar series. All events posted here are collected in a database and kept indefinitely, so you can browse to see what types of events normally occur in each month of the year. Check it periodically just as you would your own calendar.

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