Users participate in each topic by reading its postings through to the end, at which point they have the option of making a posting of their own. In a single Motet session a user will typically cycle through a number of topics in several conferences. The next time he logs in, the system can show the user the new postings in topics that have been active since his previous visit. One or more hosts typically maintain each conference. Since they handle conference upkeep, they have a few special tools at their disposal to make that job easier.
Hosts can keep topics lively, mediate or terminate disputes, and post useful information.
Hosts are also usually the first people to create topics in a conference. In the educational setting, hosts would typically be instructors, administrators, and occasionally student helpers. The school using Motet as a teaching tool may wish to hold each class in a separate conference that is accessible only by the instructor, staff, and enrolled students. To do this, the school need only put the usernames of the enrolled students on the conference member list and make the appropriate staff members hosts of the conference. How Motet Works The Motet backend is a suite of CGI programs, written in C, which serves up Web pages on the fly.