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How do I ``subscribe'' to these ``instances''?

There is a program called zctl that controls Zephyr. Typing zctl from the unix prompt will bring you to the zctl prompt, which looks like this:

zctl:

Each subscription consists of three pieces of information: the class, the instance, and the recipient. The class tells Zephyr what type of information is being transfered. Right now we're only interested in messages, which have class message. Note that class, instance and recipient strings are case insensitive (i.e., zippy will be treated the same as Zippy or ZIPPY).

The recipient can be either %me% or *. Personal messages (like How about lunch?) are sent to instance personal and recipient %me%. These are already subscribed to when you start using Zephyr. For all other instances, the recipient is *, meaning ``everybody.''

So, to add a subscription to all the presidents messages, type

zctl:  add message presidents *

zctl:  delete message presidents *

You can invent an instance of your own. Just tell people to add it, then use zwrite -i foo and you have your own instance! Many fraternities and dorms have their own. Ask around.

It should be noted that it is possible to subscribe to all instances in class message (the default), and there are a number of people who do; this means that you should never consider an instance in class message to be private. If you invent a new class (simply substitute the name of the class, anything you want, for ``message'' in the commands discussed here) it is exactly as private as the name is: the only way to keep people from subscribing to a class is to keep them from knowing the name.

You can also try out an instance by using the zctl commands sub and unsub instead of add and delete, like:

zctl: sub message presidents *

zctl: unsub message presidents *

If you're lazy (or nosy) and just want to see everybody's public messages, you can add message * *, and you'll get messages from every instance. If you're getting deluged, you can always return to simpler days by doing delete message * *.

If you decide you still want to be subbed to every instance in class message except the instance silly_twits, you can use the zpunt program. (You must add the sipb locker to do this, if you haven't before.) At your athena prompt, simply type

zpunt silly_twits

When you're done with zctl, type quit.