Ok - this is totally meta. If you're a new user or a person who has been somewhat afraid of diving in here at Daily Kos, what follows below the fold could be helpful. Or not. It's for you to decide.
So everyone knows, this is an email I put together some months ago for a friend of mine who was interested in getting involved. People unfamiliar to blogging, however, seem to find the do's and don't's approach helpful, so that's what I'm including. These are a summary of my experience of what has worked and what hasn't, how best to be involved in the community aspect of this site, and obvious areas that are to be avoided.
Boogie, baby. The bump ain't big.
Here's the email I have now sent to not less than 50 people who have wanted to get involved.
Establishing a new user account
- Pretty straight-forward. Go to the main page Daily Kos) and look at the top-right navigation bar. Select ‘Create Account’.
- Choose your username. User names are pretty creative. If you want anonymity, be sure you don’t reference your own name (like I did – I am RenaRF and my user page is here).
- You will have a 24-hour waiting period to post comments.
- You will have a one-week waiting period before you can post ‘diaries’ and/or recommend other posted diaries and comments. This is done because Daily Kos gets a fair amount of trolls from the far-right Republican web sites who come for the sole purpose of being agitators.
The structure of Daily Kos
- There are three main sections. The bulk of the home page is called the "front page". Kos himself, of course, posts to the front page. Every year, a new cadre of front pager posters are nominated and appointed. These folks have been around for a while and are generally accepted to be stellar members of the community. The current cadre of front page posters are: mcjoan, SusanG, Georgia10, and DarkSyde.
- You will also see "special features" daily/weekly posters. Bill in Portland Maine posts Cheers and Jeers Tuesday-Friday (remember that – we’ll come back to it). Al Rodgers posts a regular Sunday feature. There are other regular features, but this will suffice for now.
- Former "front pagers" (referred to by others as FPs) also have the right to post to the front page. Armando (skilled in all matters judicial and legal), Billmon, RonK, Steve Soto, DemFromCT, DHinMI, Meteor Blades (read ANYTHING he writes), Theoria, Trapper John, DavidNYC, Hunter (read ANYTHING he writes), Kid Oakland (posts less frequently, but always excellent) and Plutonium Page all posted to the front page in prior years. The reason I highlight these folks is in case you see comments by them, etc. They are held in high esteem.
- The ‘Diaries’ section - If you look down the right-hand navigation bar, past the ‘menu’, ‘about’, ‘tools’ and ‘recommended diaries’ (we’ll come back to this one) sections, you’ll see ‘recent diaries’. Once you have lived past your week-long no-diaries waiting period, any diary you post will appear on the recent diaries list. They appear on this list from most to least recently submitted. When the blog is hopping, the recent diaries list "scrolls" pretty quickly. In other words, diaries move down and off the list pretty rapidly.
- The "Recommended Diaries" section - This is hallowed ground. Only 8 diaries appear on this list at a time. To give you an idea, on Wednesday, 307 total diaries were submitted. Only a total of 20 made the recommended list.
- Once you are past your one-week diary waiting limit, you will see a "recommend" button on individual diaries. It is exactly as it seems... If you read and liked the diary, you recommend it. Via a method that calculates number of recommendations and comments received over a period of time, a diary can move to the "recommended" list.
- Recommended diaries are usually very good. It’s always where I start reading when I visit the blog.
Mojo and trusted vs. non-trusted user status, trolls, hidden comments, and banning
- In addition to being able to recommend diaries after the waiting period, you can also recommend comments made by other users in diaries. Regular (non-trusted) users ONLY have the option to recommend a comment. It’s a simple "recommend" checkbox that will appear after your waiting period is over.
- Trusted users (TUs) can recommend comments AND they can troll-rate comments.
- If another user recommends a comment you make, you have received "mojo". Accumulating enough mojo without being troll rated will eventually get you to TU status.
- Trolls - This is a subject of some disagreement. I’ll give you my line on it. Troll-rating another user’s comment is a serious thing and should be done only when absolutely necessary. A trollish comment or diary is one that is posted only to insult and aggravate. There are other reasons given in the FAQ (linked at the bottom) to troll rate, but the two I list above are my guidelines and I almost never give out a troll rating. You will, however, see troll ratings, sometimes, where I don't personally think it's appropriate. To wit – if a person with a definite opposing opinion (e.g., Republican) shows up and makes a comment or writes a diary that RESPECTFULLY puts forward their point-of-view n the spirit of debate, it should NOT be troll-rated (though some do troll rate these). Merely disagreeing does not make one a troll. This standard is abused more often than I would prefer.
- When you initially post a comment, the subject of your comment appears with a (0/0) next to it. If you come back and see (4+/0-) next to that same subject, it means you have received four comment recommendations and no troll ratings. You do NOT want to see something like this: (0+/7-) That means you got seven troll ratings. Ack!
- Hidden Comments - If a user receives a sufficient number of troll ratings (two troll ratings with no comment recommendations) from the TU community, that comment becomes "hidden". Those without TU status will not be able to view them. Generally, this works to help keep diary comments on-track and on-topic. In other words, a legitimately trollish comment distracts from meaningful discussion in the comments. Once troll-rated, it is hidden and is no longer such a distraction. TUs have the option to view hidden comments.
- Banning - Banning is incredibly rare. One thing that will get you IMMEDIATELY banned is if you disclose the personal information of another blogger. This will happen regardless of what may otherwise be a stellar standing in the community. Disclosing the personal information of anyone who is not already in the public eye is a total no-no. There is also an auto-ban feature. If you accumulate enough troll ratings quickly enough, the autoban kicks in. Hopefully you won't have to worry about that. ;-)
Diary pimping and whoring
If someone has written a diary that you want to direct others to read, you are PIMPING. If YOU have written a diary that you direct others to read, you are WHORING. There are only a few appropriate places to pimp and whore:
a) In Cheers and Jeers and a few other features.
b) In the Open Thread (on the front page).
Some of us also belong to groups where we can pimp or whore to a mailing list. Pimping and whoring in the comments of another person’s diary is REALLY rude. Please be aware - I am referring to where you stop by a recommended diary or any other diary and simply post a link to a diary you or someone else has written that has nothing to do with the diary in which you are commenting. There are appropriate times to link to other diaries (yours or someone else's) - but in another person's diary, this should ONLY be done when the link itself is relevant to the subject of the diary.
Miscellany
If you want to dive into this community and show your personality as well as meeting people you will instinctively like, post comments in the following:
- Cheers and Jeers (Tue-Fri by Bill in Portland Maine; appears on the front page; Mondays by AAbshier which can be found at about 10am EST in the diaries section) - Great group of supportive people once you've proven yourself a valuable member of CnJ. It is considered proper for you to hand out mojo to everyone who posts in this thread.
- WYFP? (What’s your Fucking Problem, by Elizabeth D) – this appears on Saturday nights and will almost always hit the recommended list. It’s a place to rant about your fucking problem and interact. It is considered proper for you to hand out mojo to everyone who posts in this thread as well.
- Got a Happy Story? (by Carnacki and Darrell J Gahm) – appears on Friday nights and usually makes the recommended list. You can read some great and inspiring things in this feature. It is considered proper for you to hand out mojo to everyone who posts in this thread as well.
- Ask a Kossack (by buhdydharma, appears Sunday nights) - Got a question you thought was too stupid to ask? Well honestly, you can ask it anywhere, but especially here.
- Garden Blogging (by Frankenoid, appears on Saturdays) - This is a great place as well to interact and share information. The pictures are beyond beautiful, also.
- Any of the five above will also get you better-known in the community, which takes me to a discussion of UIDs.
- User IDs (UIDs) – if you open any diary that has comments, and scroll down to the comments and hover your mouse over the name of the user who posted the comment, you can see their UID. You’ll see it in the hyperlink that appears in the lower-left of your browser window. For example, when you hover over MY username, you see this: \http://www.dailykos.com/user/uid:37061 Therefore, I am user number 37,061 to Daily Kos.
- Your UID will be in the 100,000’s.
- The higher your UID, the more people will scrutinize what you write. In other words, a troll is much more likely to have a high UID than someone who has been on Daily Kos for a while. It just is what it is. My UID is (now) considered relatively low and is associated with someone who’s been there for a year or more.
- Posting ESPECIALLY in Cheers and Jeers (CnJ) will help you to become known as a non-troll much more quickly, and it's screamingly funny and full of great people. Posting in WYFP and Got a Happy Story also helps familiarize you to people who spend a lot of time reading, writing and recommending diaries. Both are also a place to share details about life and all of its ups and downs.
More Helpful Hints
- "Everyone Hates Me" - Don’t be offended if no one reads your diaries. It took me months before any of my diaries became widely read and recommended. Commenting in other diaries is the best way to jump in. BE THOUGHTFUL. Be sure you have read the diary (you'd be surprised that some don't) and post a comment germane to the diary's topic.
- HTML - The basic stuff is fairly user-friendly. When you’re posting a comment and, more recently, a diary, you’ll see buttons at the bottom of the comment box (where you write your comment) to do bold, italic, blockquote (for quoting other content) and links. You would simply highlight the text you want to bold put in blockquotes or make italic and then click the related button. With linking, you highlight the text you want hyper-linked and then another window comes up for you to type in the location of the actual link. Linking is used extensively and it’s a good skill to learn. You’ll see a lot of other fancy stuff – pictures inserted, scrolling boxes, fancy stuff – but you don’t have to worry about that initially.
- Diary Tags - Before you can submit a diary, you have to add diary tags to it. These are essentially words or phrases that allow people to find the information better. If you look here, you'll see a list of the dominant tags. Try to re-use tags. It's unlikely that you have come up with something so utterly unique that a tag doesn't already exist to characterize it (no offense). The tag area linked above is also a great pleace to start browsing on subjects that you might find particularly interesting.
- Jotter - Jotter is a community treasure. S/he compiles a daily list (M-F), weekly list, and weekend list of "high impact" diaries - not all of these make the recommended list, though, and you may have missed some so Jotter is a good one to Hotlist (see below). You can also fiddle around with the search function to see what kinds of results you get. Go ahead and try it - you won't break anything.
- Hotlisting - When you open a diary, you'll see a '+' immediately following the diary title. If you click that plus, you have hotlisted the diary itself. It is accessible from the 'hotlist' link, found in the upper-right area of the menu. Likewise, you can 'subscribe' to a diarist. Again - when you open a diary, you'll see the diarist's name is hyperlinked. If you click it, it will take you to that diarist's user page. Next to their name on this page, you can "subscribe" to that diarist. Subscriptions are also available from the hotlist link.
- Diary Rescue - Current FP SusanG instituted the nightly Open Thread and Diary Rescue. Here's a link to the one from last night. These are literally rescued diaries that people recommended but that did not make the recommended list. It's another great resource to find writing you may have missed. At the end of the Diary Rescue, you will also find a link to Top Comments, another great feature.
Resources:
FAQ, Ins and outs of writing diaries, writing comments, some technical guidance, etc.
A "Welcome, NEWBIE!" diary
9 Common Terms and Acronyms
Kossary
The infamous "Pie Fight"
Test your understanding with the FAQ Comprehension Quiz
Diary Guidelines
A final note in closing. The goal here is to get involved in the community. The involvement is what makes this place matter. That involvement can take many different forms in line with your personal comfort level. You will learn more here and sooner than anyone else once you get involved.
Your reputation here is paramount. Follow the guidelines - observe community standards - be thorough in your research when you make a comment or write a diary.
And overall, this is a VERY welcoming community. Lots of times new people (or even those who have been around for a while) don't ask questions because they think they are the only one who doesn't know the answer. That is RARELY the case. Ask the question - some person will answer it for you.
I'm sure a few of my friends who have received this email have opened it and their head promptly exploded. But it address a lot of the ocmmunity aspects that could be really helpful to someone who wants to engage in here and has been otherwise unsuccessful or someone who is too intimidated to step off the ledge.
Please feel free, if you have friends like mine who could use a mini-"handbook", to forward it along for their use. Enjoy!