To new members and new readers: Welcome, welcome, welcome! Traffic at the Daily Kos has exploded over the last year and even the last month; and now you're part of it. The site may run slow at times, you may see people griping about this traffic jam in some fashion in comments or on posts of their own. Rest assured the vast majority of us are
thrilled that you're passionate enough to want to add your voice or read our material. Thrilled is not a strong enough word: We
need you desperately to help save the country!
Below I have a few helpful hints I've managed to pick up that might lend a little insight into this wonderful community. Most of you probably know the basics already, but there it is for anyone who is new. More importantly, in comments please take the time to introduce yourself should the mood strike you, tell us a little about why you're here, your background; your story, and feel free to ask any questions. This post is for you.
By way of introduction, I go by the handle DarkSyde; it arose from an old AOL screen name. I usually write about science with the occasional rant when the White House spin, religious right lunacy, or GOP nonsense becomes too great for me to bear in solitude. I've only been a member for about a year and a front page writer for less than a month; not very long in human time. But in Kos years that makes me a middle aged geezer. I'm just a member and reader that was given the opportunity to post on the front page for a year: One voice in a wonderful chorus.
Most of us are here because we're concerned with the direction our country has taken over the last few years. Hell I was a republican more or less up until a couple of years ago. So all kidding aside, saving the country is serious business and that's why your voice and your patronage is essential, not just for this site, but for the health and welfare of the nation at large.
If you're new and someone tells you or implies--for no obvious reason--you're not wanted or that no one cares you're here, they're absolutely full of crap. If they stalk you around the site, don't worry, if they start out with subtle criticism which builds into a bat shit insane rant: That's just a troll trying to mess with you. Like any pathetic coward they zone in on new members whom they perceive as 'weak'. Don't waste time on them.
Those of you who are interested in taking back this country: You're among friends here and your participation is valued. Those of you interested in trying to disrupt the site be warned: Dkos is not the minor leagues. This is a world-class blog and we expect world-class trolling. Simple vulgarity and mere stupidity will just get you troll rated and your comment[s] will disappear into the hidden realm. In the old days a troll tried to be the best darn troll they could be. These days they just can't seem to meet that classical standard, so we mostly use their posts/comments to share recipes amongst ourselves.
Dkos is part political news and op-ed site, and part community. The news and op-eds are on the front page, the page that everyone sees when they come to the main site. About a dozen managers spend practically their whole day keeping a flow of information moving along at quite a clip on that front page. You'll see stories here before they're on CNN if you keep an eye out; the information stream moves fast. Dkos has an army of servers that require a staff of several professionals to keep operational. We get around a million hits a day. We're not even sure anymore because the site counter breaks under the load during peak times. That's the political/news side of Dkos.
The core of the community side is the recommended list and the new diary list. To be part of the community you must create a member account. There is no charge to do so and no software download involved. You can see all the diaries of any member merely by clicking their user name which is listed below each comment or above each diary from that member. That history will give you an idea how long they've been here and what kind of stuff they write. Right now we're at almost 80,000 registered users.
As a member you can leave comments on diaries or front page articles 24 hours after first signing in. A week later you can post your own diary. I strongly recommend you read this FAQ on Diary Guidlines and Meta Madness: Diaries before posting your first diary.
A few highlights: There is currently a maximum limit of one diary a day. We discourage short diaries of just a few sentences or a list of links with no analysis of your own. **Copying and pasting entire articles or posts from elsewhere and posting that as a diary is a bannable offense AND it could put you in legal jeopardy for copyright infringement!**
We ask that you avoid duping topics that have been diaried earlier that same day. A quick review of the titles of the last fifty on the recent diary list will usually clue you in on that. If the diary is a dupe, there's a pretty good chance it will be deleted without warning. Don't take getting a dairy deleted as a personal insult. It's not; hell it's virtually a rite of passage. It's happened to me, I bet it's happened to most everyone who writes diaries regularly.
We need everyone to abide by these guidelines voluntarily, because we want those who put in the effort of providing original, quality material, to have a decent chance for their work to be read and appreciated, before it gets lost in the large number of diaries posted everyday.
Once you post a new diary it will appear on the recent diary list and scroll down as other members post theirs. It may scroll away quickly. Members can vote to recommend your diary though, and if enough votes are garnered it will appear on the recommended diary list giving it a much longer life. Understand this: Getting on the reco list involves a great deal of chance. Even if you have name recognition here there's a ton of luck involved. Every one of us who writes articles has watched our cherished work scroll down that list into the abyss and watched as second rate snark we or someone else wrote in less than half an hour pop to the top. What will or will not be reco'd by other members at a specific time is unpredictable. But the best way to get a diary on that list, that you have control over, is to follow the rules and post well written, original work, that you've put some time into. Also I personally like to use Carl Sagan's Rule: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
In addition to getting on the reco list, managers can front page your diary. We make a point to look for new names and relevant material for that purposes, but again there's a lot of luck involved. On the reco list you can easily get thousands of hits and dozens of comments, on the front page you might get a hundred thousand hits and hundreds of comments. I don't know of any other forum on earth where the everyday Joe can get that kind of exposure. But aside from luck, the competition is fierce. There are members of Congress, national celebrities, political candidates, famous activists, professional reporters, big name bloggers, and some of the most talented and hilarious writers on the Internet, posting here all the time. Don't be discouraged if you're new and you're don't seem to be getting any attention. Keep producing good material and you will eventually get some feedback; you'll probably end up getting more than you ever wanted.
We also regularly put up open threads on the front page. The open threads are the most under utilized part of the community for new members who have something to share. Use them! The competition is less intense than the recent diary list and they're on the front page for crying out loud.
From Buckeye in comments:
Just bear in mind that some of what you read here will be the most gratuitous nonsense ...and worse. Some will be deliberate "misinformation." With the success of dkos comes increasing infiltration from neo-reactionaries. Some material might SOUND like "progressive" commentary but it's really wacko falsehood.
Once again: With the exception of trolls, we're glad you're here!
Other than that, if you have any questions about the site or the community, please use this thread to ask them and we'll do our best to answer (It may take some time before someone shows up who has an answer). If you've written a diary you're proud of that didn't get much attention, link it below. If you're a blogger, feel free to link your blog and tell us a little about it. And even if you're a bit shy, by all means share with us why you joined Dkos and any other information about yourself you feel like providing! Tell us your story. And regs please join me in helping the newer folks feel welcome!
To learn more about this site, I suggest starting with The Daily Kos FAQ File