In addition to its public interface, an InterMix hub may support any number of networks.  These networks are created and controlled by the sysop through the "HubNetworks" control page.  Networks are accessed via an internet address, such as http://sharingLA.org/cgi-win/LAstub.exe?hub=0&net=SNVLA. Capitalization of the net= parameter must be exact. 

The same network may be accessed from multiple websites simply by linking to  the same internet address.  The exact network is specified by the "net=" parameter.  Knowledgeable users can even switch InterMix networks while logged in just by manually adding the net=??? parameter to the web address in their browser. 

A clickable icon is displayed at the top of every InterMix page for the network user.  Clicking the network icon takes the user back to the network entrypoint, making the network appear to be part of the originating website.  Messages added through the network are also automatically linked back to the originating website. 

Networkers can easily access the open, unnetworked sections of the InterMix hub.  The network system is designed to provide a sense of separateness while also encouraging sharing where appropriate.  The three types of network give a choice of degree of separateness, from nominal for the public network to full separateness for the private network. 

Each network has a home discussion area.  When a networker posts a message to a discussion group, that message is always posted to the home area as well, making it easy to find all the messages for any particular network. 

When a message is "booted" from a network home discussion area, that message is simultaneously removed from the network.  I.e., the message no longer displays the icon of the network it was booted from.  Instead it displays the icon of the next higher network in the network hierarchy - see below. 

A "Networks" link in the footer of most InterMix pages gives the user access to all public networks and also those private networks the user is privy to.  Semi-public networks are listed only if the user is currently on them.

When a user first links in to an InterMix network, only messages of that network are visible.  A "broaden network focus" link is prominently displayed in the upper left corner of the InterMix web page.  By clicking this link, the network user broadens the focus to include all public messages; private messages also become visible from other networks, and the link in the upper left corner changes to read "narrow network focus".   By clicking to narrow the focus, the user can again exclude all messages except those of the original entry network. 

InterMix networks may have a "Parent" network.  Several networks may share a single parent network, and that parent may itself have a parent and so forth, creating a network hierarchy.  InterMix network hierarchies are implemented by the network focus mechanism. 

For example, say an online cooking club at CookItUpLA.com wants to have geographic divisions for its members so they can post recipes and have local community cookoffs.  So we might have a Valley CookItUp and a WestSide CookItUp and a Long Beach CookItUp, which we could implement as an InterMix network hierarchy.  CookItUp members would click in to the online recipe database for their own community and post their recipes in the Dessert area or the Entree area and so forth.  They would see only recipes and discussion by others from their own part of the city - which would make sense because these would be people whom they might actually meet at a local barbeque or such.  But if they clicked "broaden network focus" then they would go up a level to "LA CookItUp" and would find all the recipes from all parts of the city - and this would make sense, too, because there would be more to choose from, and with the InterMix ratings, they could find the best of breed for each category.  Now if they clicked "broaden network focus" once more, they might find themselves in the totally open, unnetworked  area above all the networks, where even people who are not CookItUp members might have added recipes, or where there would be messages about other topics besides cooking. 

At each level in the hierarchy, the clickable icon at the top of the page changes to reflect the name of the current network: first the "Valley CookItUp" icon then "LA CookItUp" and finally "sharing LA". 

If so desired, a "focus=" parameter may be added to the url along with the "net=" parameter to specify a broadended starting focus.  Use "focus=TOP" to start at the broadest network focus possible.  The focus parm is probably one of those fairly useless features that clutter up most applications, but you might just want to specify a broader network if you are a small startup network with few messages.  That way, the message list your users click through to will have something for them to look at.  This feature is not available for private network hierarchies.  If the focus you specify is not a valid parent/grandparent/etc to the net you specify, then the focus= parameter will be ignored.  Capitalization must be exact.  Here is an example: http://sharingLA.org/cgi-win/LAstub.exe?hub=0&net=SNVLA&focus=NVWeb. 

Public and semi-public InterMix networks work the same except that semi-public messages and areas are visible only to those who come in through the semi-public network link.  Messages posted to a public network, by contrast, are visible to everyone. 

The semi-public network can be advertised to its own public yet maintain a degree of  group privacy in that only those who see the advertisement are likely to link in to the network.  For instance, a group of high-schools in a city might share a semi-public network, publicizing its web address in their school papers and linking from their web sites.  Students and school staff would know how to access the network, but the adult public of the city would be unlikely to find the network.  Obviously this arrangement is not truly private, but the great advantage is that the membership does not have to be controlled one by one. 

The home areas of public and semi-public networks are visible to the general public, and it is possible for the public to post and read messages there. Messages by the public can be distinguished because they do not carry a link back to the home web site of the network.  And of course, in semi-public areas, the general public can see its own messages only, not the networked messages.

Private InterMix networks are private enough for the use of small non-profits or groups to brainstorm their ideas in confidence and to keep data which is to be shared within the group only, but only if that data is not highly sensitive.  For instance, a list of contacts or volunteers or a todo list would be appropriate for keeping in an InterMix private network.  Swiss bank account numbers with passwords would not be the thing, though, nor databases of credit card numbers. 

The hub sysop can get access to all InterMix information including private network information.  Moreover, a clever hacker with tools to intercept internet traffic could detect a login sequence and capture the password of the private network moderator.  Private data is encypted in the file system, so a hacker who gains entrance to the system by some means other than password cracking will be seriously slowed down.  Still, someone determined and clever could break the encryption. Therefore truly sensitive or highly valuable information should not be kept on an InterMix hub. 

The moderator of the home area of a private network has sole control of the list of network members.  However, the sysop has the power to make himself moderator of any discussion group, and so indirectly has access to the list of members.  Moreover, both moderator and sysop have access to the messages in a private area even if they are not named as members.  Better encryption technology will eventually secure the data, but for now there is no getting around the problem, because the sysop must have access to the area in order to appoint and change moderators. 

Private area networks can be made into hierarchies, but at present membership at all levels of the hierarchy must be established manually by the moderator listing the user as a member.  Members of a higher level network can view all messages in lower level networks, but can only add messages at lower levels if they are a member there.  To really make these private network hierarchies useful, a feature needs to be coded which is not yet in place, viz. membership at a higher level automatically gives membership at the lower levels. 

If a user is a member of a lower level of a private network hierarchy and not of the higher level, then the network focus mechanism obligingly skips the higher level network as the user broadens the focus. 

It is possible for a discussion group to be private even though there is no corresponding network.  In this case, messages must be posted into the private area  to be private, and they are not visible anywhere except in that private area.  Normally in an InterMix area, a message is visible in all superareas to the area where it was posted.  This is not true for a private area with no attached network.  Glitch or feature, this is how it works. 

Note that because only identified users have access to private networks, the first thing a user must do when coming in through a private network link is to log in, and there is no option to be anonymous. 

To guard against coding errors that let a private message be displayed, a second round of checking is done at the point of display to make sure the user has access. 

When a private message is displayed, or when a user is writing or previewing a private message, the "Private" sign is displayed in the upper left corner of the InterMix web page. 

In the network hierarchy, if any one network is private, they all must be private.  As a practical matter, first set the discussion group to private and then add the new corresponding private network.  A private network can only be attached to a private discussion area. 

A small detail, but worth mentioning - if you remove someone from the list and they are currently logged in, they will remain privy to the area until their current session times out.

For database areas that use MiXml Forms, the name of the discussion group is used in the item list heading.  For instance, in an area devoted to a database of videos, a good name for the area would be "Videos" because then the heading would read: "Videos and Commentary".  If you decide to name your video area "Mike's Love" then, alas, the heading will read "Mike's Love and Commentary".

Click "Modify" on the discussion group information page for your discussion group.  Scroll down until you find the five lines available for listing keywords for your group. 

These keywords are not for identifying your Discussion Group.  Rather they act to automatically pull messages from other Discussion Groups into your Discussion Group.  For instance add the keywords "Los Angeles" to automatically bring every message with both words "Los" and "Angeles" into the message list for your Group. 

Most Discussion Groups will leave the keywords blank.  Really they are a specialty item only occasionally useful. 
 
The five lines of keywords are OR'd.  Within a line, the keywords are AND'd.  This means that if you want to bring in messages that have both "Pacific" and "Ocean" in them, then list both words on one line.  If you want to bring in messages that have either "Pacific" or "Ocean", list the two words on two separate lines. 
 
For public groups all the messages in your Group normally also are listed in the parent discussion, too.  Messages brought in via the keyword mechanism, however, are not automatically listed in the parent area to your Group Discussion. 

InterMix keeps count of each visit to an item.  It also counts the number of distinct users who visit an item, counting only once for a particular user, no matter how many times that user visited.  Normally only the number of visits is displayed, not the "Read By" count, because it is so much cheerier to an author to see his message has been visited 8 times, than to see it has been read by only three people.  It is easy to change the html that comes with InterMix so the "Read By" count is displayed instead.  Simply go into the dispitem.htm template in the html folder under host/hub0 and uncomment the "Readby" table row and comment out the "visits" table row.

InterMix keeps track of you by your session number.  The session number is how InterMix remembers who you are after your login.  Examine the InterMix url to find a parameter like this: sn=000-02058BHl5R.  The leading '000' or '001' or '002' etc indicates the InterMix hub you are accessing.  After the hyphen, the first 5 digits are a session counter and the last five digits are random numbers and letters to make it nearly impossible for anyone to find an active session, thus stealing someone's login. 

A session automatically times out after two hours of inactivity.  If you send an InterMix url to someone else, you should either let it age 2 hours first, or remove the sn= parameter yourself, by hand. 

Unlike a session, an InterMix "bookmark" never times out.  It always remembers who you are, so you should be careful never to give away a bookmark.  The advantage of making and keeping an InterMix bookmark is that it automatically logs you in.  It is well worth the half minute it takes to make and store the bookmark in your favorites. 

To create an InterMix bookmark, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the Bookmark this page link in the lower right.  The resulting page is the page you will want to bookmark. Any of the important display pages may be bookmarked, including a simple message list, the discussion list or a particular message.

When you login using an InterMix bookmark, the system will caution you not to give your bookmark away.  The parameter "warn=no" replaces the caution with a welcome message.  This feature is useful if you want to automatically login anyone who comes in through a particular link.

InterMix philosophy is based on the idea of radical inclusiveness.  That is, everyone counts, everyone is part of the human family.  The boot function is meant as a replacement for the delete function.  Often a message will be off-topic or otherwise intolerable to the moderator of a Discussion.  Rather than delete the message, the moderator has a choice to "boot" it instead.  Booting removes a message from the current discussion area and any areas under the current area.  The booted message is no longer within the moderator's area of responsibility, but it has not been deleted.  At the very least it is still visible from the topmost Discussion Group.  Booting keeps a basic respect for the author while at the same time allowing the moderator to keep house.  Moderators are encouraged to use the Boot function rather than Delete.