Welcome, New Users, to The Daily Kos. This Diary is intended to help you orient yourself to the site and ask questions about how to use it.
In the 'Extended' Section you will find some links intended to get you participating more effectively.
Also in the 'Extended' Section this week is a discussion of
Posting Comments using The Daily Kos (dKos) interface.
After that you can ask me any question you want. I don't know all the answers so if you stump me, you do. I invite those wiser than I to contribute and correct (or raise a ruckus, just don't scare people).
Romper, bomper, stomper boo. Tell me, tell me, tell me, do. Magic mirror, tell me today, have all my friends been good at play?
I can see postpen (#110096) and alonentexas (#111274), the first and last users to join the week of 11/3/06 to 11/9/06, and all of you boys and girls out there in DailyKosland!
No permission slips needed, join us at the deep end of the pool for adult swim.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Highlighted FAQ Areas/Rules for polite conversation-
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Other diaries in the Welcome New Users Series. The Welcome New Users dKosopedia page.
Posting Comments
So. Tell me the truth. Who thought last week that it would be handy to know where the View Comments button was? Hands?
Of course it must have been quite frustrating that I hadn't told you how to gloat properly yet.
Tonight we will be opening the 'Comment Posting Window' and learn how to use all the pretty buttons. Most of them are for formatting so we'll cover some of the basics.
I will also speak briefly about polite conversation.
Opening the 'Comment Posting Window'
Remember that Permalink/View Comments button at the end of the diary? The next thing to the right is a counter that tells you how many comments are attached to the diary so far. The next thing after that is a button that says Post A Comment.
Pushing it takes you to the 'Comment Posting Window' but let's not go there quite yet. Let's talk about indenting.
There are 10 types of people, those who understand binary and those who don't. Similarly there are actually 2 different types of Comments, those that I call 'Main' Comments which are direct responses to the content of the Diary and Replies. If you are looking at a Diary that has Comments you will notice that the very first Comment is flush against the left margin. You will also notice that it has a button that says Reply to This.
Pushing it also takes you to the 'Comment Posting Window', but we're soo not going there yet.
Replies are indented under the Comment they Reply to, moving farther and farther to the right (it's a direction). Each direct Reply is the same level as all the others, but Replies to the various direct Comments get in between them and spread them apart. This is one of the things that makes those 'Shrink' views so useful for examining relationships.
If you push the Post a Comment button at the end of the diary or the one way down at the bottom below all the Comments, your 'Comment Posting Window' pops you right up to the top of the Comments underneath the diary. This reminds us that the Comment we are composing is a direct response to the Diary.
If you push the Reply to This button at the bottom of a Comment, the 'Comment Posting Window' pops up right underneath the Comment you are Replying to.
But wait, there's more.
There is only one 'Comment Posting Window' and it moves around with you once it is open.
Say I've composed a 'Main' Comment, a response to the Diary. As I've typed, I've noticed other Comments getting posted in the Diary and I want to make sure mine is still unique and relevant. So I scroll around and I see a Comment that is almost the same as the point I'm trying to make, but I have some things they don't. With a few changes my Comment would make more sense and not be redundant at all if I made it a Reply to this new Comment. So I push on the Reply to This button and bang- 'Comment Posting Window' with all my stuff is right there where I want it.
You can use this behavior in other ways too. I'm a frequent participant in TDS/TCR Live Blogging. As the shows progress new information is being posted at the bottom of the Diary and if I try to post a 'Main' Comment I get zapped right up to the end of the Diary, dozens of page scrolls away. If I open the 'Comment Posting Window' as a Reply to the bottom most Comment, it stays waiting right there until Jon says something brilliant like "Now that the Democrats control Congress, everything wrong with the world will be fixed." and I can quick type it in and hit the Post A Comment button, get zapped but who cares, hit 'Post' and zap right back to the bottom by clicking on my handle when the new Comment notification pops up.
Of course I could also hit the 'End' key on my keyboard, but my browser is good like that.
The 'Comment Posting Window'
Why do I call it the 'Comment Posting Window' and not the 'Comment Editing Window'?
Because once you hit the 'Post' button you can't edit your Comment.
Ever.
Get over it.
While it would be nice to be able to fix your misspellings and the HTML that previewed just fine but got rejected by the server, you can't because here at dKos you are supposed to stand by your words. If you have said that you'd pay good money to spit on Ronald Reagan's grave and someone takes exception to that statement you have 3 choices-
- Ignore Them (it's first because it's best)
- Debate Them
- Evolve your position ("On reflection you are correct. It would be foolish to spend money that way when I could donate it to Democratic victory. I'm sorry you were offended.")
Everything you say is indelibly etched on your very permanent record at The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. My most ill conceived basilisk joke is enshrined time stamped in the archives for your disapproval.
The 'Comment Posting Window' is very helpfully labeled Post Comment (in case you forget) and contains 2 boxes, 'Subject:' and 'Comment:'; and 5 + 2 buttons, 'Bold', 'Italic', 'Blockquote', 'Link', and 'Help', and then, 'Preview' and 'Cancel'. As we usually do, we will talk about the last two first. And take them in reverse order too.
But before we even do that we're going to explore those boxes, 'Subject' and 'Comment'.
The 'Subject' is basically the title of your Comment. If your Comment is not the type that lends itself to a title you can use the first few words as a subject and an ellipsis (...) to indicate continuation below. Or you can curse at scoop (the software that runs dKos) with 'asdf' or 'aeiou'. If the illusion of emptiness is important to you a single '.' will do.
There is a limit to how long a 'Subject' can be. Because of the proportional font the exact number of characters varies. If your thought can be completely expressed in that space (and with a little room to spare) there is no need to use the 'Comment' box. Comments that consist solely of a 'Subject' are customarily ended with 'nt' or a variation, indicating that there is 'n'o 't'ext.
Whatever, your Comment must have a 'Subject'. Because it has to. So there.
The 'Comment' is your Comment. You were expecting something profound?
How about this- I am extremely reluctant to suggest what should be in a Comment, because there are all kinds of Comments in all kinds of contexts. What is appropriate in one place is not necessarily so in another. Still I have some Do-Bee and Don't-Bee tips-
Do-Bee
- Careful to spell correctly. Here is an online spell checker you can use www.spellcheck.net. Ctrl-A will select all the text in the 'Comment' so you can cut and paste from the Clipboard into a spellchecker or an editor.
- Follow the copyrighted material rules- indicate which material is quoted, no more than 3 paragraphs, include a link to the source.
- Take your time to compose a thoughtful response.
- if you are going to spend more than 15 minutes on a Comment, compose Offline using a text editor like Notepad or Wordpad. If you use a word processing program like MS Word, save your documents as text.
- Advance another's argument with information of your own.
- Offer new perspectives in a polite way.
- Chat, say hi, have fun!
Don't Bee
- Don't poke fun at other's misspellings or suggest they correct them, because they can't.
- Don't just say "I agree 100%", that's what the 'Recommend' box is for.
- Don't abuse, bully, or stalk people and don't lie.
- Don't push people's buttons just for fun.
- Don't be a prick.
I suspect that there will be lots of Comments adding to these lists, but to me the key is imagining I am at Thanksgiving dinner with all of my relatives, some of whom I like better than others, but all of whom I will be seeing next year at Thanksgiving.
The size of the 'Comment' box is what it is. Your text is displayed in a fixed font and word wraps in the box independently of how it appears in the Diary. If there is more text than will fit top to bottom you will get a vertical scroll bar at the right of the box. If you have a line that without spaces or other breaking characters exceeds the width of the box you will get a horizontal scroll bar at the bottom.
Buttons from Right to Left
'Cancel' does just what you would expect it to, it takes you back out of the 'Comment Posting Window' to the Diary. Why use it? "You know, now that I look at it, this is not something that I want on my permanent record." Did I mention permanent?
But me, I don't care what you think about me, I'm going to tell you what's on my mind anyway. Where's that 'Post' button?
I'm sorry, I can't do that Dave.
'Preview' is your friend.
Say it with me- "'Preview' is my friend". Now backwards- "Friend my is 'Preview'". "Is 'Preview' my friend?" "My friend is 'Preview'!"
Before you post a Comment you have to look at it. If you change it you have to look at it. In fact the very first time you post a Comment that is misspelled, poorly argued, badly grammared (that's a word, isn't it?), or unfunny you will wish that you had looked at it again.
But no matter how many times you do the day will come when you push that 'Post' button and say...
Well we won't say that here and instead we will say "'Preview' is your friend."
When you push the 'Preview' button your Comment displays as it will appear in the Diary (mostly) and a new box pops up with the 'Post' button and this message-
- If this is OK, click Post:
- Or you may make changes below and Preview again, or Cancel this comment.
Now is the time to scroll up and down to make sure that your Comment is directed at the correct Comment or at the Diary and check to see if it has been duplicated. All set?
Post!
Hey wait. The computer just goes chug, chug, chug and then I get a yellow triangle around an exclamation point and Failed. What happened?
Your Comment may not have posted, let's check.
First save your Comment. Use the Ctrl-A trick to Clipboard it and paste it in a file, so if we screw up the next bit we don't have to re-type. Scroll up the Diary until you see the 'Menu' that contains the Your Page button and carefully open it to a new tab or window (right mouse button for me). Second tab in is 'Comments', click it and see if the first Comment has your 'Subject'. If it does, your Comment posted, otherwise probably not.
When you see duplicate Comments, that's usually what happened. Someone got an error message and just hit 'Post' again without checking. No big deal.
The reason we were careful to use a new window or tab to check is that if you change pages (click links) in your browser you frequently lose the contents of the 'Comment Posting Window' and start again from scratch (unless you saved). You can zap around in the Diary all you want using the scroll bar and the handles in the Comment notification pop up though.
Formatting Using Buttons
No more RPN, let's work from left to right.
Bold, Italic, and Blockquote
'Bold', 'Italic', and 'Blockquote' all work basically the same way. You highlight the text that you wish to apply the effect to and push the button.
- This text is in bold.
- This text is italicized.
This is a blockquote and you can put Bold Italic text in your blockquote by just pushing the buttons.
Link
Link is short for hyperlink and jumps you to a resource on the web (like Wikipedia or a news article). Open a window or a tab on your browser so you can locate your resource while still keeping an eye on your Comment. Use your Clipboard to copy the address of the item you want to link to from the URL bar of your browser (that jumble of letters and numbers that starts 'http://'). Go to your Comment. If you've already typed a label for your link highlight it. Push the 'Link' button.
A box pops up at the bottom to help you complete the link. It has 2 boxes, 'URL:' and 'Label'. If you highlighted your label that box is already filled. In the 'URL' box 'http://' is already typed in for you and highlighted. Paste from the Clipboard and replace it with the address you just got. All valid addresses start with 'http://', 'https://' and www. are not recognized.
Ignore the 'Image' checkbox and hit 'Add' and boom, your link is placed.
Help
Was not working for me at the moment, but who needs it anyway when we have good old Doc ek around to explain things for us.
Polite Conversation
Calling people names is rude and unpersuasive. Sometimes Comments like that are quite properly hidden from new and casual users by community moderators (Trusted Users). There are other reasons why things are hidden, you might want to check out Comments and Dealing with Trolls from the FAQ and my diary dKos Censorship?.
I think it's very important to be polite and I encourage others to feel the same way. Remember the nastiest thing you can do to a person on dKos is call them a Republican.
There are other things to talk about. Let's get started.