Welcome to MaplePrimes -- a new Web community for Maple users and enthusiasts. This site is designed to offer a dynamic, moderated environment for you to get answers, get new tools, and share your work with the world. For the complete story on where MaplePrimes came from and where it's heading, see "What is MaplePrimes?" and "FAQ". Today, you have two primary vehicles of communication: forums and blogs. Both are moderated and both are open to members as long as they abide be the general terms and conditions and Community Guidelines. Forums are like any other forum, you can post and comment. We've started with a set of topics including a general technical forum (Maple Commons), "How do I do x in Maple?", a suggestion box, and a non-technical forum. Of course, we will be introducing new ones or adjusting existing ones as time goes on. Blogs are Web logs -- or on-line journals. It is a vehicle for you to express your opinions and ideas. We envision the blogs being a great way for users to showcase their work in addition to being a more general tool for commentary. The prime difference between a blog and a forum post is blogs tend to be more structured with more depth. Whereas forums are for multi-directional dialog typically involving quick comments and Q&A. Any member can blog and with a bit of knowledge in HTML, you'll be able to share your ideas directly with thousands around the world. One thing we've focused on for both forums and blogs is to make them math-friendly. We know how much of a pain it is to create mathematical content on the Web. We've built tools into this system for either using Maple itself as an authoring environment (for large complex articles) or for quick direct editing of math expressions from within the MaplePrimes content editing facility. In all cases, you can attach worksheets and other supporting docs. Again, with a bit of knowledge on HTML and Maple, you'll have free access to the easiest site for publishing Math information. MaplePrimes has been tested and retested and we believe it is pretty solid. The beta notion is simply an indication that the site is a new concept and we will be learning from real world experiences -- i.e. your experiences. Beta means portions of the site may change based on feedback and in some cases, the change may be major. We'll try our best to ensure good stability and predictability but if initial assumptions were simply wrong, we will need to make changes. This applies to site features as well as site policies. Overall, a beta site is not too different from any other good site. We simply ask for more "breathing room" in the early days as we learn from the community. Finally, beta definitely means that there are no liabilities on the part of Maplesoft, site administrators, etc. on the consequences of your use of the material it generates or presents. Although such disclaimers exist with most well-developed sites, the term beta simply reinforces the concept during the challenging first days as we all start exploring our ideas and the technology. OK not every likes to read legal sounding docs but we do want to stress that the best open communities operate within a mutually agreed upon set of guidelines and rules. Ours are in the following doucuments Terms and conditions Community guidelines In addition, the following posted articles will give you a less dry description of the site philosophy MaplePrimes??!? (a blog by Tom 4, our chief editor) What is MaplePrimes? (a formal statement of the spirit of the site) MaplePrimes FAQ Once you get the feel of the site, we hope that you become a member. Without a membership, you can only read. As a member, you can post. When you become a member, don't forget to tell us a bit about yourself in the profiles. The final step is to simply engage in the site. Ask questions, offer answers to others, post your CV and publication list, show us your amazing Maple plots, comment on politics (be civil please :-)), etc. etc. etc. Will's article "What Can I do Here" also offers some tips on getting started. In other words, enjoy yourself ... I'm sure we'll e-chat again ... Ciao. T4.

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