3.5 THE ACHAEAN NEWS SYSTEM

Writing articles for other adventurers to read: the Achaean news system.


New to the News System?
-----------------------
The news system is a valuable way for Achaeans to communicate with each
other in non-real-time, by writing posts that others can read on their own
time. If you are brand new to Achaea, you don't need to worry about the news
too much at first, but you should certainly learn how to at least read the 
news. Most importantly, you should make it a habit to read the latest news 
in the Announce section for announcements from the administration, and the 
news sections of your city and House, if you belong to either. 

You can check your news status and read individual news posts from anywhere,
but if you wish to write a news post, you must find a news room. Details
follow below.


News Sections
-------------

News is divided into sections:

Name      Who Can Read          Who Can Write

Public      Everyone            Everyone
Announce    Everyone            Administrators
Comments    Producers           Everyone
Poetry      Everyone            Everyone
Events      Everyone            Administrators
Leaders     Org Leaders         Org Leaders

Cities, Houses, Orders, and Clans
---------------------------------
Members only may read and write in any of these sections which are named for the organisation (City name, House name, Clan name, etc).


Reading the News
----------------

You can read news posts and check your news status from anywhere in Achaea.

To check your news status, type NSTAT. This will show you something like
this:

Public:           Read 2/17688 articles.
Comments:         Read 0/596 articles.
Announce:         Read 2489/2729 articles.
Ashtan:           Read 0/5937 articles.
Poetry:           Read 0/3395 articles.
Events:           Read 0/266 articles.

The above tells you that there are 2729 articles in the Announce news
section, for example, and that your "last read" marker for that section is 
at post 2489. Your news marker for each section is simply set for the very 
last post you read in that section, whatever it was.

If you type NSTAT CATCHUP, it will automatically set your "last read" marker
for ALL the sections to the very last post in each section.

Using NSTAT CATCHUP <section> will perform the above function but only for
the news board you have specified.

To read any existing post in a section where you have read access, type
READNEWS <section> <post #>. For example, READNEWS PUBLIC 1.

The READNEXT command (or RN) will cycle through all posts going forward from
your "last read" markers. Try it out: type RN several times. (See HELP
READNEXT for more information.)

You can also read news posts from within a news room. Some prefer to do this
if they have many news posts to read, for the peace and quiet.


Writing a News Post
-------------------

In order to write a post, you must journey to a NEWS ROOM. These are 
scattered throughout the land in each major city, and a few other locations
such as Delos. Once in one of these places, simply NEWS. Once in the NEWS
system, enter HELP to get information on how to use the news. Please read
the HELP before you enter the news writing editor! 

If you choose to write an article, you will enter the Achaean Composer. This
tool allows you to write an article, skip around from line to line, replace
lines, delete lines, and so on. Typing *help from within the Composer will give
you help on how to use it. You can also read HELP EDITOR.

Something to keep in mind while using the public, house, order, and city news
sections is that these are strictly in-role sections. Repeated out-of-character
(HELP OOC) articles may result in the termination of your writing privileges.

Due to the high volume of posts on the Public newsboard, there is a cost
associated with posting to that section: 5000gp. Posting anywhere else where
you have posting access is free.


Commands
--------

CONFIG NEWSIGNORE
Configure your settings to ignore certain news sections.

NSTAT
  Show you a summary of the news sections you can access.

NSTAT CATCHUP
  Automatically bring your "last read" post in every news section in which
  you have news access to the last post.

NEWS
  Enter the news system.

READNEWS <section> <article #>
  Read a news article from outside the news system. The syntax is, for
  instance: READNEWS PUBLIC 1000.

NSUM/NSUMMARY <section> <beginning article#>
  See a summary of a range of up to 20 articles, starting at whatever article
  you choose.

RN
  Review all news sections to which you have access. (See HELP READNEXT)

READPREVIOUS|READPREV|RP
  Read the previous article in a news section. (See HELP READNEXT)

NMARK
  Mark a news article to easily find it later.

SEARCHNEWS <section> [field] [article #] <keyword>
  Search the body of posts for keywords.
     SEARCHNEWS ANNOUNCE TECTON - search all of announce for instances of
                                  Tecton.
     SEARCHNEWS ANNOUNCE 3560 TECTON - search announce 3560 and later for
                                       instances of Tecton.
     SEARCHNEWS PUBLIC A TECTON - search public news for posts authored by 
                                  Tecton.
     SEARCHNEWS PUBLIC S ASHTAN - search public news for posts with Ashtan 
                                  in the subject.
     SEARCHNEWS PUBLIC B SHEEP - search public news for posts with sheep
                                 in the body.