Caucus
From CarlWiki
Caucus is an online message board system used by Carleton. It is accessible only to current and incoming students, faculty, staff, and alumni.
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History
Caucus first appeared in the Carleton community in mid-1997. For a short time it operated concurrently to its predecessor VAX NOTES, which ran on the VAXbox known as VEBLEN. VEBLEN and NOTES were shut down permanently in 1999, though NOTES lives on in the Alumni Vax, LEGACY. NOTES itself had a presecessor on the Carleton campus known as FORUM.
Layout
Caucus is organized into several independent message boards called "conferences" (also known as confs). Anyone can start a conf, and set rules for who can access it. Within each conf are "items," which are message threads. Anonymous items can be created, although these are the exception to the rule.
Notable conferences
- The most popular conf, as determined by the Most Active Conferences list, is nearly always The User Files. It consists simply of items created by individuals, mostly students, who express their thoughts and discuss them with others who read their item. It is common for Carleton students to read their friends' user files, which offer more interactivity and security than web journals such as LiveJournal, although these are popular at Carleton as well. (Carleton College community at LiveJournal)
- Cobwebs is a place for discussion of Carleton history and traditions.
- The Sex Conf is usually the second most-active conference. It is accessible to all Caucus users, and consists primarily of anonymous items on a variety of sexual topics. Its less carnal spin-off, Love and Relationships, is also highly popular.
- Review is a student-only forum for discussion of current professors at Carleton, including critical discussion of the quality of their classes. It is not anonymous. This conference is frequently used by students during registration.
Support issues
If you have a valid CarlNetID yet cannot log in to Caucus, then either the Caucus server is experiencing difficulties or your account is locked. Contact computing support for assistance.
The conf entitled "Talk About Caucus" exists for those who need help using Caucus.
