MUDs, MOOs, and Forums

The Internet has allowed people to communicate and collaborate in new and exciting ways. Anyone with access to an Internet connection can meet and talk with people from all over the world. These virtual meeting places have changed how people in business and education interact and develop materials. As exciting as these new developments are, there is still some confusion about what they are and what they do. What's a MUD or a MOO, and can I participate in a MOO if I'm a vegetarian? This page will define these various mediums and provide some tutorials for using them.

MUDs

MOOs

Forums

MUD

A MUD (Multi-User Domain or Dungeon) is a virtual "space" that people can occupy at the same time and in which they may talk simultaneously, or, as computer geeks like to say - in real time. The difference between MUDs (synchronous conversation) and something like e-mail (asynchronous conversation) is similar to the difference between talking to someone on the phone and playing phone tag with answering machines. Talking on the telephone is like a MUD in that two people are occupying a virtual environment and talking in real time. This might be contrasted to leaving a message on someone's answering machine and having them respond to that message by leaving a message on your machine. Communication did take place, but both people were not "present" in the same space and the conversation wasn't in real time. You can communicate directly with a person over e-mail, but like an answering machine it's asynchronous. An example of a MUD would be something like a chat room where more than one person can occupy a space and talk to each other directly. As seen in the images below, a chat room is usually a web page which can be accessed via the world wide web. In this chat room, three people are logged in. These people can be anywhere in the world and monitor and participate in the conversation. I've entered a comment and am going to hit the "Submit Remarks" button (as seen in the image on the left).

MUDs

MOOs

Forums

As soon as I enter my comments, they appear not only on my screen, but also instantly on the screens of Dean and Scott. This kind of instant posting of messages allows all three people in the virtual space to communicate in a synchronous conversation. Chat rooms are constructed via HTML web pages and CGI programming language. The CGI interprets the commands generated when a comment is submitted from the web page and acts on that command by posting the comment to the chat page.

MUDs

MOOs

Forums

MOOs

A MOO (Multi-user domain Object Oriented) is a MUD in that it's a space that multiple people can occupy and engage in synchronous conversation. What distinguishes it from a MUD (even though it is one) is that unlike a lot of MUDs, a MOO is object oriented. Unlike the bare space of the chat room that simply displays the users and their comments, a MOOs space has objects that define the space and can be virtually manipulated by users via a series of conversational commands. MOOs then not only create a virtual environment for conversation, but define that environment by providing more of a tangible space. An example of one of these virtual worlds is MIT's Media MOO. Unlike chat rooms accessed via web pages, MOOs are usually text based environments accessed through telnet. To access Media MOO, open a telnet client and for the host or location enter the address purple-crayon.media.mit.edu 8888. Log into the Media MOO by typing in "connect Guest" (without the quotes). This will allow you access to the MOO as a guest. You can gain a permanent (if there is such a thing in this environment) user identity by contacting Media MOO.

When you enter the MOO, you'll notice that the first thing it does is to describe the virtual environment and the people within that environment. The same will happen whenever you enter into a new room or section of the MOO. Media MOO also offers a more graphical representation of the MOO world that can accessed by typing in "common" without the quotes. This will produce a virtual map so you can get your bearings (see the second screen below).

You can navigate and participate in the MOO through a series of commands. Because it's such a lovely day (it rarely rains online), I want to head into the E&L Garden. Notice that the map lists the Garden as North of where I'm positioned. To move in that direction, I simply enter an "N" (without quotes) that represents North on the map. This takes me to the room which again begins by describing its contents and the people present. To enter a comment, you type a single quotation mark, your comment, and hit return. Once you do, your comment is instantly displayed on your screen and the screen's of those present in the room.

The learning curve and work is higher to both build and use MOOs in comparison to a MUD like a chat room. MOOs are created via a combination of a programming language called Lambda MOO and databases. To use a MOO users have to become familiar with a number of different commands. The basic MOO commands are listed below.

MOO Commands

@who
Lets you know what other players are logged on and what room they are in.

@go <#roomnumber>
Teleports you to the room whose number you give.
Example: @go #1873

@go <roomname>
Teleports you to the room whose name you give (for rooms in your personal room database).
Example: @go English

@rooms
(On Diversity University.) Gives you a list of rooms in your personal database (those you can @go to by name).

@knock <charactername>
Politely asks the specified character if you can join him/her in his/her room.
Example: @knock Leslie

@join <charactername> or @join <#characternumber>
Teleports you to the room where the specified character is currently located.
Example: @join Leslie

"<your comment>
How to say something on the MOO. What you type after the quotation mark is heard by everyone else in your room.
Example: "I agree with you completely.
You see: Paul says, "I agree with you completely."

: <third-person description>
"Emoting" on the MOO. What you type immediately after the colon is appended to your character name as a description.
Example: :jumps up and down
You see: Jenny jumps up and down

page <character> <message>
Sends your message to the character whose name or number you specify. The person will receive the message even if he/she is in another room.
Example: page Leslie Where are we meeting again?

n, s, e, w, up, down, out . . .
How to move between connected rooms on the MOO. Typing the direction of the exit (for example, s for south) moves you in the direction
specified.

ways
(On Diversity University.) Tells you what exits are available to you.

help <topic>
Displays help message for the specified topic (if available). Not all commands have help files.
Example: help page

look
Gives you a description of your current room, along with what players are present in the room.

look <objectname> or look <#objectnumber>
Gives you the description of the specified object. You can look at an object by name only if you are in the same room as the object. If you use the
object number, you can look at the object from any room.
Example: look DU Places of Interest

@examine <objectname> or @examine <#objectnumber>
Like look, examine gives you the description of the specified object, but it also gives you more information: the object number, its alternate names
(aliases), its owner, and the verbs that can be used with it (actions that can be done to it). As with look, you can examine an object by name only if you are
in the same room as that object, but you can examine an object by number from any room.
Example: @examine Filing Cabinet

read <objectname> or read <#objectnumber>
For objects created as notes or letters (including certain bulletin boards and blackboards). As its name suggests, "read" allows you to read whatever
has been written on that object.
Example: read Homer's Cocktail Napkin

@request <name> for <email address>
Allows you to request a permanent character name on DU. The MOO will take you through the application process.
Example: @request JohnS for jsmith@smithland.smith.edu

@pagelength <number>
Sets the limit for number for the number of lines the MOO will send to your screen at once. When the end of the page is reached, the MOO asks you
to type @more to see the rest of the text. Setting the page length prevents the text from scrolling off your screen.
Example: @pagelength 24

@quit
Exits from the MOO

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MUDs

MOOs

Forums

Forums resemble bulletin boards in that they are a place to post messages, papers, or assignments and have people directly respond to them. Since they don't allow for synchronous conversation, they aren't considered MUDs. The advantage of forums is that they organize both postings and responses making it easy to find information, and they operate via a web page that can be accessed by the world wide web (no more full e-mail accounts!). To use a forum, open a browser and enter the address of the forum. On the opening page of the forum, you'll see the messages posted to the forum and an option for starting your own thread of conversation. To post a comment or thread, click the "Start a New Thread" link. This will open up another page - enter in a title for your message, your name as the author, your message, and hit "Submit Article." If you have a paper or something you have previously typed to post to the forum, remember that you can copy it from something like a word processor and paste it into the "Article Text" box.

To view the entry you've entered in, go back to the opening page and click "Reload" in your browser. This will reload the page and display any new messages sent to the forum. Click on the link of your article and it will display the content of your post.

The page that displays the thread you've created allows you to post a response to the message. To do so, again enter the name of your response, your name for the author, and the text of your response.

Hit the "Submit Response" button, which will send your response, click "Back" to view the thread, and hit "Reload." This will reload the page into the computer and you'll see the title of your response listed directly under the original thread. All responses to this thread will also be listed in the order they arrive underneath the content of the message. This makes it easy to follow a train of thought or conversation on any one topic. Like chat rooms, forums are easy to construct using HTML web pages and CGI scripting. The web pages display the content of the page and the CGI acts on commands sent from the web page to repost information onto the different pages. Although CGI is a programming language and can be difficult to learn, there are applications on the market that do the CGI scripting for you. Net Cloak is an excellent program that makes CGI scripting especially easy for Mac based servers.