CHAPTER 8
                    DIRECTORY SERVICES


There are a number of useful things in the category of 
"directory services" that new users should know about.  
The Directory Services menu can be accessed by using the 
command "go directory", through item 9 of the Post Office 
menu, or through item 5 of the Communications menu.  Once 
there you will find a menu that offers:


    GET DETAILED USER INFORMATION
    LOOK-UP USERS BY FULL NAME
    ACCESS THE USER DATABASE...
    ALLOW ACCESS TO LOGON/MAIL-READ TIMES
    DENY ACCESS TO LOGON/MAIL-READ TIMES


The uses of each of these options will be summarized 
below.


GET DETAILED USER INFORMATION

This option allows you to display the name of the person, 
and some other optional information, associated with a 
particular user ID.

You will be asked to enter the desired user ID, and the 
system will respond with the person's name, possibly an 
indication of when that person last logged onto OSFN (see 
4/5 below), and possibly some information about the 
persons interests and affiliations (SEE Access the User 
Database below).

This option is helpful when you have the user ID of 
someone, and you want to find out who they are, and 
possibly some of the optional information about them. 


NOTE:  It is important to note that this option is 
       case sensitive, e.g., if you are looking for 
       aa331, then enter exactly that AND NOT AA331.


LOOK-UP USERS BY FULL NAME

This is primarily for use when you know a person's name, 
and want to find out their user ID, perhaps in order to 
send them an Email message.

You will be asked to enter the name, and then the system 
will respond with the name and the corresponding user ID.

The use of "Full Name" in this option is perhaps a 
misnomer, since you do not actually have to use the full 
name, and the search is also not case sensitive.

For instance, if the search name entered was "sea", the 
system will return with anyone having surnames like 
Seaman, Searle or Seaton, as well as anyone having first 
names like Sean, or indeed, anyone who has the three 
character sequence "sea" anywhere in their name.

Such a search will yield a list of all names that match 
the search string, and in each case, the full name and 
user ID will be given. This can be very useful if you are 
not quite sure of the exact spelling of a person's name.


ACCESS THE USER DATABASE

This option brings you to a second menu that tells you 
more about the users database, and allows you to add or 
edit your personal information in the database, or to 
query the database for particular user information.

For instance, if you want to find everyone who has 
indicated an interest in photography, initiate a search of 
the interest database with a search string of 
"photography", and you will get the complete information 
on everyone who has included photography in their interest 
file.

The same applies to the affiliation file which can list 
the person's employer, and clubs and organizations that 
the person belongs to.

This facility can be quite useful if you want to set up a 
special interest group, or organize an event that will 
appeal to a particular interest.

For the database functions to be useful, the information 
for many users must first be in the database.  You are 
encouraged put your own information in the file using the 
Edit your database option.  You may be surprised to find 
new people that share your interests.

It must be stressed, however, that this is strictly 
voluntary.  If you wish to remain private and undisturbed, 
then put no information in your file.


ALLOW/DENY ACCESS TO LOGON/MAIL-READ TIMES

These two options allow you to turn on, or turn off the 
option that allows the display, under item 1 above, of the 
last time that you logged onto OSFN, and the last time 
that you read your mail messages.

This can be useful to other people who may have sent you a 
mail message (possibly of some importance).  The next time 
they are on OSFN, they can check to see if you have logged 
in and probably read that message.

It is a nice courtesy to other people to turn this option 
on.  On the other hand, this is strictly voluntary, and if 
you wish to remain private then turn it off.

.