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 Body you will find some links intended to get you participating more effectively. Also in the Body this week is a discussion of Diary Rules.
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).
No permission slips needed, join us at the deep end of the pool for adult swim.
Hello Devil. Welcome to Hell.
If your user id (hover your mouse over your name in any comment, look at the status bar in the bottom of your browser) is larger than 174150 you probably haven't had to opportunity to participate in one of my Welcome New Users diaries.
That would be 5637 of you more or less.
There are 13 of them that I consider the New Users Guide and I encourage you to take a look at the table of contents at least so you can see what kind of information is already available.
But don't panic, I'm always happy to review.
Diary Rules
While the title of this series is Welcome New Users I can hardly delude myself that they are my audience as most of them are simply too ignorant to even look for such a thing.
And I am an inconsistent poster, too lazy to post my own franchise under the press of activity and high volume traffic.
Then there is my reluctance to self plagiarize and whore.
But my vanity insists that I remind you we are a nation of laws, not of men.
Posting Diaries
What I want to emphasise is that YOUR diary drives someone else's diary off the Recent Diaries list. They might have spent up to 2 hours, as I typically do for an Overnight New Digest, composing it.
Not that 2 hours is an upper limit.
Nor should there be limits to the type of diaries you post. Feel good pootie pics and light hearted silliness are always appreciated provided they are not too frequent or desperate.
Or organized.
The Seven Basic Diary Rules
If you post a diary at all you can hardly claim ignorance because they are RIGHT THERE ON THE NEW DIARY ENTRY PAGE.
Posting a Diary Entry
Daily Kos welcomes blog articles from readers, known as diaries. The Intro section to a diary should be about three paragraphs long, and is required. The body section is optional, as is the poll, which can have 1 to 15 choices. Descriptive tags are also required to help others find your diary by subject; please don't use "cute" tags.
When you're ready, scroll down below the tags and click Preview Diary. You can edit your diary after it's published by clicking Edit Diary. Polls cannot be edited once they are published.
If this is your first time creating a Diary since the Ajax upgrade, before you enter any text below, please press Ctrl-F5 and then hold down the Shift Key and press your browser's Reload button to refresh its cache with the new script files.
ATTENTION: READ THE RULES.
- One diary daily maximum.
- Substantive diaries only. If you don't have at least three solid, original paragraphs, you should probably post a comment in an Open Thread.
- No repetitive diaries. Take a moment to ensure your topic hasn't been blogged (you can search for Stories and Diaries that already cover this topic), though fresh original analysis is always welcome.
- Use the "Body" textbox if your diary entry is longer than three paragraphs.
- Any images in your posts must be hosted by an approved image hosting service (one of: imageshack.us, photobucket.com, flickr.com, smugmug.com, allyoucanupload.com, picturetrail.com, mac.com, webshots.com, editgrid.com).
- Copying and pasting entire copyrighted works is prohibited. If you do quote something, keep it brief, always provide a link to the original source, and use the <blockquote> tags to clearly identify the quoted material. Violating this rule is grounds for immediate banning.
- Be civil. Do not "call out" other users by name in diary titles. Do not use profanity in diary titles. Don't write diaries whose main purpose is to deliberately inflame.
For the complete list of DailyKos diary guidelines, please click here.
Please begin with an informative title: |
And then you have your title box.
I'll point out that READ THE RULES is in red, a feature I can't duplicate since ct cut off our <span privileges, but it means that you should maybe like, oh I don't know, READ THE RULES!
Today I'd like to concentrate on Rules #2 & #3-
- Substantive diaries only. If you don't have at least three solid, original paragraphs, you should probably post a comment in an Open Thread.
Front Page Open Threads happen at 9 am, 9 pm, midnight, sometimes slightly later, 4 pm, and 7 pm. There are also regular Community Diaries happening all the time where pretty much no "Comment" is off topic.
- No repetitive diaries. Take a moment to ensure your topic hasn't been blogged (you can search for Stories and Diaries that already cover this topic), though fresh original analysis is always welcome.
Bother to click the damn link and see if someone has used exactly the same title in the last 30 minutes. Heck, bookmark this and make it an hour.
Sigh.
You see the fundamental problem is that your "new" diary scrolls someone else's off the page and that's true whether you have followed my advice and done 'Show 50 diaries./Set' or not.
Some of those people have invested a considerable amount of time and effort to assemble their piece and it's really incredibly rude of you to post 300 random characters and essentially delete them from public conciousness.
And since anything you can do I can do better, I can do it in 4 characters. No poll.
I don't demonstrate because it is rude.
Did I mention how rude it is?
This is a greater problem at the incredible amount of traffic we have been generating-
Number of diaries
Now the critical dates are Friday the 29th and Thursday the 4th, and the critical statistics are 44.2 per hour and 45.3 per hour. Average.
That's pretty quick, even @ 'Show 50 diaries./Set'.
And if you will examine the statistics you will find that as the traffic goes up, the fewer unique diaries make the Recommended Diaries list and the fewer Comments and Diary Recommends are given to everyone else even though overall impact goes up.
In short a perfect model of Republican 'Trickle Down' Economy, the rich get richer and the poor poorer. Is that the kind of content you're looking for when you visit Daily Kos?
YOU HAVEN'T SUFFERED ENOUGH!
There are in fact 27 Diary Guidelines, if you're too lazy to read the FAQ you can click through on that handy link on the Diary Editor page.
You know, the one with the red in the headline so you pay attention!
Diary Guidelines
- All users are limited by the system to one diary per calendar day.
- New users cannot post diaries for one week after an account has been created.
- "Intro" box for new diaries has a three paragraph limit. If you exceed that limit, use the "Extended Body" box for the remainder of your diary.
- Diaries should be substantive. A good guideline is that if you don't have at least three solid paragraphs to write about your subject, you should probably post a comment in an open thread, or in a recent diary or front-page post that covers a topic relevant to what you wish to write about.
- Copying and pasting complete copyrighted articles without permission from the copyright holder is absolutely prohibited by both this site's policies and copyright laws. Copyright infringement can expose both you and the site's owners to financial liability. Just don't do it. And if you see someone else doing it, please politely ask them to edit their diary accordingly. This is a bannable offense.
- Limited copying within the bounds of the doctrine of "fair use" is permitted. A reasonable rule-of-thumb is that copying three paragraphs from a normal-length news article or editorial is acceptable. (This, however, is not a safe-harbor. If even three paragraphs seems like "too much," then copy less or nothing at all.) For more on fair use, please visit this site.
- When you quote material that is not your own, please provide a link whenever possible. Also, use the blockquote tags to set off the copied material so that your writing is distinct from the material you are copying. For more on HTML tags, click here.
- Hotlinking images without permission is prohibited. Hotlinking means using the [img src] tag to display an image on a diary which is hosted on someone else's server. Hotlinking, especially on a site as popular as this one, can cost people real money in bandwidth costs. It's essentially stealing. If we get complaints from sites about images being hotlisted, we will consider that as possible grounds for banning.
- Duplicative diaries are prohibited. Please scan the recent diaries and front-page posts before starting to compose your own diary. This rule operates on a sliding scale. A repeat diary with minimal analysis or originality (particularly on "breaking news" items) is prohibited. Such diaries are subject to deletion without notice. But if you write on a recently-covered subject and provide original analysis or research, that is acceptable and in fact welcome.
- If you receive a reasonable request from a fellow Kossack to delete your diary (i.e., your diary is duplicative as per above), please do so.
- Cross-posting from your own blog is welcome. Remember, though, that you can only write one diary a day at Daily Kos.
- Diarists are strongly encouraged to back up all assertions with facts (and preferably links to supporting materials) whenever possible. Use reputable sources whenever possible. If you can't find a reputable source that supports your position, then perhaps reconsider writing your diary.
- As a corollary, diarists should always make it clear when they are expressing an opinion - please do not assert opinions as facts, as this tends to be needlessly inflammatory.
- Diaries which engage in wild speculation without any proof are strongly discouraged. Repeatedly posting diaries consisting largely or entirely of wild speculation is an abuse of site policy. Bear in mind that that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
- Diaries which contain hateful or defamatory writing are prohibited.
- Diaries which are deliberately designed to inflame are prohibited.
- Deliberately inflammatory titles, or titles which contain attacks, are prohibited.
- Profanity is prohibited in titles. The use of asterisks is acceptable.
- "Calling out" other site users by name in diary titles is prohibited. Diaries which "call out" another by name tend to needlessly inflame. If you feel compelled to address another user's comments or diaries in a diary of your own, please do so cautiously. Avoid ad hominems and stick with substantive, constructive criticism only.
- Some topics which tend to make for poor diaries: Breaking news. Something you just saw on a TV show. Something currently on the front page of a major news site (eg, New York Times). Something currently on the front page of a major blog (eg, Atrios).
- What makes for a good diary: Anything which showcases original research or original analysis. Political calls to action with substantive information on how to get involved. News (plus analysis) on interesting/relevant topics that are not widely discussed.
- Diaries on contested Democratic primaries: Be positive. Make an affirmative case for your favored candidate. If you do criticize a Democratic candidate, don't make ad hominem attacks - stick to substantive criticisms, and back them up with hard evidence. Be very cautious if you go after a fellow Democrat. Odds are, that candidate will have supporters on this site. Reasonable people will accept reasonable criticism - unfair criticism will only needlessly inflame. And remember, deliberately inflammatory diaries are prohibited.
- "Open Thread" diaries: Diaries designed to serve as "open threads" for discussion on major, breaking events (such as a speech or hearing) are permissible. Please provide links to information about the events (such as news articles or webcasts) in such diaries. Do not post duplicate diary open threads unless an earlier open thread exceeds 150 comments.
- When writing a diary on a political race, prefixing the title is always helpful. For example: FL-Gov (Florida governor's race), NY-Sen (New York senate race), CA-25 (California's 25th congressional district race).
- Do not use ALL CAPS or exclamation marks !!! in diary titles.
- Do not put "Please Recommend" or similar language in diary titles.
- Please read an entire diary before hitting "Recommend." Recommending based on just the first few paragraphs or the author's name is strongly discouraged.
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Calls for deletion
- Duplicative diaries are prohibited. Please scan the recent diaries and front-page posts before starting to compose your own diary. This rule operates on a sliding scale. A repeat diary with minimal analysis or originality (particularly on "breaking news" items) is prohibited. Such diaries are subject to deletion without notice. But if you write on a recently-covered subject and provide original analysis or research, that is acceptable and in fact welcome.
- If you receive a reasonable request from a fellow Kossack to delete your diary (i.e., your diary is duplicative as per above), please do so.
I'm very sorry, once you do so you will have to wait until after midnight to post another (et).
- Some topics which tend to make for poor diaries: Breaking news. Something you just saw on a TV show. Something currently on the front page of a major news site (eg, New York Times). Something currently on the front page of a major blog (eg, Atrios).
- What makes for a good diary: Anything which showcases original research or original analysis. Political calls to action with substantive information on how to get involved. News (plus analysis) on interesting/relevant topics that are not widely discussed.
Calls for deletion are not troll rateable unless you consider them spam or hijacking.
- If you receive a reasonable request from a fellow Kossack to delete your diary (i.e., your diary is duplicative as per above), please do so.
The diarist should certainly not troll rate them as that would be retaliatory and frankly your trolls will run out long before the feeding frenzy ends. The best bet is to ignore them and the lowest risk response is to modify the body of your diary to include the criticism or eliminate it (how about some content dude?).
Kossacks who are not cowards are encouraged to respond in comments.
Why are you not in violation of the rules?
Troll tags
Are not acceptable.
The seminal work is MissLaura's-
Meta: Tagging and Tag Abuse
by MissLaura
Wed Apr 25, 2007 at 12:47:16 PM PDT
We've been noticing a fair amount of tag abuse lately, and wanted to clear a few things up to make sure the tags get used properly.
First, and most importantly, you need to know that tag abuse is a bannable offense. If an administrator sees you've engaged in tag abuse, you will be formally warned. Repeat abuses can result in banning at any time without a follow-up warning. This diary should be taken as a warning in itself - now that we are unequivocally on the record about this, we will be more willing to take action against tag abusers the first time we see it.
So do not express your dislike of a diary or diarist in tags. Reserve that for the comments.
Tag abuse includes deletion of tags in order to replace them with "troll diary." We have been tolerating the addition of the "troll diary" tag without appreciating it, but if it continues to be applied to diaries that are not clearly, absolutely, 100% definitely troll diaries, its use will be prohibited as something that starts a lot more fights than it is worth. |
The most recent and definitive guidance from the Front Page is this from DavidNYC-
Tags: New Features & New Guidelines
by DavidNYC
Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 11:14:25 AM PDT
- Always err in favor of adding new tags, rather than deleting or modifying existing tags. Some folks have expressed concerns about the size of the tag database. In terms of server strain, we can assure you, there is no need to worry. (The tag db is comparatively very small.)
- Our general principles behind this policy are two-fold. First, different folks have different ways of mentally categorizing things. That's the strength of a folksonomy, and by letting a plurality of tags bloom, we play to that strength.
- The second reason is the flip-side of the first, namely, that individual tags have to be "allowed to fail." The tag system is not the Dewey Decimal System - it's not designed to be. On a site as large and free-wheeling as this one, it's almost certainly futile to try to enforce a rigid classification system. So it's okay if some tags only get used once. Other tags will "succeed' and be used many times.
- If you would like to search for a particular tag, you can always check out the DKosopedia tag search tool here, or use the "Sort by Tag" feature found at the top of the Recent Diaries section of the sidebar.
- Tags should generally only be modified when you see misspellings (eg, Gorge W. Bush) or obvious ambiguities (eg, George Bush instead of George W. Bush, to distinguish son from father). If an ambiguity is not clear-cut, please add a new tag rather than modify an existing one.
- If a diarist chooses a particular tag that might be different from what you've chosen (say, "bellwether state" instead of "swing state"), please respect the diarist's choice, even if your preferred tag is in wider use. Feel free to add your suggested tag as well - just don't modify or delete the diarist's tags.
- Tags should generally only be deleted if they contain abusive language (eg, "this diary sucks," "sh*t diary", etc.). We emphasize in the strongest of terms that these kinds of tags are completely unacceptable. The use of abusive language in tags will be treated as a bannable offense.
- If you see a tag that seems to be completely out of place, please post a comment asking for clarification (there might be a good reason for it) rather than deleting it.
- Don't use the "troll diary" tag, or any variant thereof, when you think a diary is trollish. Tags are designed to help folks search for information. There isn't a need to be able to search for alleged "troll diaries" - the administrators have many tools at our disposal to find trolls, and this one is not necessary. It also creates needless flamewars and thread hijackings when people disagree over whether a particular diary is, in fact, a troll diary. (Obviously, if a diary is discussing the issue of troll diaries, then this tag might be appropriate.)
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falme is in direct violation of rules 4 and 6.
- "We emphasize in the strongest of terms that these kinds of tags are completely unacceptable. The use of abusive language in tags will be treated as a bannable offense."
I don't think you can be much clearer than that, can you?
Troll rating Tip Jars
Umm, that's what they're for!
Do you stand by your words or not!
Accept the judgement of the community coward!
You have Markos' word you'll not be banned for just a singular spectacular flame out (umm... unless you do something that is instantly objectionable from other standpoints) though there is no doubt you will deserve the ridicule and derision you receive-
Site changes
by kos
Fri Jun 02, 2006 at 09:52:12 AM PDT
Given the tiresome troll wars of late, we're in the process of instituting changes in how the system works.
Already done:
No one will achieve Trusted User (TU) status unless they've had an account in good standing for over three months. All current TUs with less than three months of service have lost it (that's 121 of you, btw). It's clear some people don't know enough about how the site works to use the troll rating responsibly.
Imminent changes:
TUs will be limited to two troll ratings per day. Too many people on these boards don't get that troll ratings were meant for trolls, and not "comment I disagree with" or "user I don't like". Limiting the number of troll ratings allowed should make this rule crystal clear.
It will also be more difficult to achieve TU status. It won't be enough to head into C&J and rack up the mojo overnight. People will actually have to earn TU status. There are obviously too many TUs running around who are acting irresponsibly. (And that's not just people who are quick to troll rate, but those who are quick to uprate obviously trollish comments.)
Other changes:
The Scoop auto-ban had been broken since the new comment boards had been brought online. Well, it's now fixed. And unlike the old auto-ban which had a grace period to see if someone troll rated into oblivion could raise his or her score, this new one shows no mercy. Instant ban. But, on the flip side, the bar is set a bit higher. Auto-ban won't kick in for someone who is otherwise a valued user but has a bad day or flips out on a single thread.
...
Update: A reminder -- TU status isn't a lifetime award. If you don't remain an active participant on the site, racking up mojo, it goes away.
Update II: After the tightening of the TU rolls, there are now 2010 trusted users. That's down from about 2,400 before the changes. |
Might I just mention I'm a proud member of the 2010 with oak clusters for undiscovered crime Meritorious Service.
Auto Banishment vs. Administrative
I'm not in favor of vigilante lynch mobs. I ride alone.
Which is to say that I'm in favor of equal justice under law. Enforcing ALL the rules ALL the time EQUALLY!
We have rules on this site. Read the FAQ.
When you see a bannable offense you have a positive duty to notify a Front Pager. The most recent one to post is usually the one on duty, but if there is another you are more comfortable communicating with by all means try them.
What I expect from the Front Pagers is that they will at least examine these complaints. I don't expect that in every instance they will agree with my judgement. I also admit it's frustrating because they rarely respond even to acknowledge receipt let alone tell you about the inner debates and deliberations that are going on. I certainly don't share them at the blog I Admin, except with the people on the Board of Directors in the private forum.
This website is capable of much finer tuned judgements than I am capable of delivering at my Soapblox blog. Full suspension for a greater or lesser period of time is about the only penalty we have for misbehavior. No diaries, no comments, no rates.
Here at dKos at least the rating component can be broken out and suspended, as many people were during the primaries, and I have heard of other instances where the object all sublime, we shall achieve in time, to make the punishiment fit the crime, the punishment fit the crime has been achieved.
What I propose be done about people who violate diary rules is that they get a warning and then a temporary suspension of diary privileges on second and subsequent offenses. I would have this power remain in the hands of the Front Pagers who speak for the site.
To those who contend this model of moderation doesn't scale I say-
If I had 15 people I'll bet I could handle it without anybody burning out. Diary Rescue and Top Comments do it all the time for sport. Try these tools-
The way you use the Window of Time is you click through and bookmark all my lovely links. Then you go to your bookmark manager and put them in a folder. I have 2, a shallow folder that only captures 400 diaries and a deep folder that goes all the way up to 12(00). Take that Spinal Tap.
When you wish to capture a day's worth of diaries you open a new browser window, go to your 'Window of Time' folder and open it in tabs.
Bingo.
Trolls is self evident. Get involved in every fight on dKos.
Hot Diaries are the ones generating the most comments. You can Time Limit them to see what's hottest right now too. It has the added benefit of allowing you to read the diary without getting involved in the comments.
It takes about 2 hours for me to review 24 hours of traffic. I haven't yet gotten that jotter, cskendrick, sardonyx, BeninSC style that goes from ripped Searches to Excel databases and back into HTML.
Sheriff Bart: Need any help?
Waco Kid: Oh, all I can get. |
But you know, team of 15 and management and I don't doubt that SusanG is much more competent than I am at scheduling people.
But ek! What are our Hide Rates for?
The most recent document accepted as definitive by the FAQ is dated January 1, 2008.
To Troll Rate something has exactly one meaning. When you Troll Rate something, as a trusted user, you are stating that the comment should be made invisible to all site users. You're saying that the comment is so bad -- so disruptive or damaging to the community -- that it isn't worth even a debate, but should be deleted from the discussion as being simply inflammatory, simply off-topic, or simply a lie.
Remember that, because that is the only use of the troll rating. It is an editorial vote to delete a comment from the conversation.
Conversely, there is one particular reason troll ratings should never be used: to express disagreement with a poster's opinion. |
It also contains 9 rules in addition to that-
- Do not troll rate people for expressing a contrary opinion, so long as it is expressed in a civilized fashion. The exceptions are for conservative talking points or debunked or false information; this isn't a site for conservatives, they have entire swaths of the internet in which they can regale each other with their reality-impaired fantasies.
- Do not troll rate someone you are actively having a fight with. If you are in a heated argument with someone, you should not be judging whether or not what they say is trollworthy. Leave it to others to decide what behavior is or isn't over the line.
- Do not give positive ratings to people having fights in the comment threads. It is insulting to a diarist to hijack a portion of their comment threads in order to have a fistfight between two or three users. It is insulting to the rest of the community to have to scroll past a fight dozens of comments long in order to get back to the topic at hand. If the fight is off topic or otherwise egregious, it should be trollrated in order to remove it from the thread, but there are almost no circumstances in which users should be rewarded for having a fight. Behavior like that isn't worth positive mojo -- don't do it.
- The exception to the normal troll rating golden rule of "rate the comment, not who makes it" is for people so disruptive to the community that they need to be quickly autobanned. This is a very difficult threshold to reach, and is reserved almost entirely for freepers or other trolls here only to disrupt. "Troll rate on sight" is not intended to be used against anyone but the most obvious and egregious of trolls -- if your definition of obvious and egregious is not the definition used by the rest of the community or by the site administrators, expect your rating ability to be suspended.
- Troll rate a trollworthy comment, regardless of who makes it. Everyone has bad judgment from time to time. Everyone can have a bad day. Even if the person who made the offensive or inflammatory comment is someone you know and respect, you still owe it to the diarist and the community to remove the comment. You can make it up to them later.
- Do note give retaliatory troll ratings. If you get what you believe to be an undeserved troll rating, do not retaliate. Leave it to others to decide if the rating was abusive. It is begrudging community practice to respond to an undeserved troll rating by troll rating the ratings abuser, thus reducing their own level of "trustedness" and making them less able to abuse ratings in the future. But don't do it unless you are absolutely positive the original rating was abusive -- and I mean 100% positive. And never do it if you're the one that got troll rated. I repeat: do not troll rate fights that you yourself are in.
- On the other hand, one troll rating does not matter. If you get troll rated by one person, know that you will continue to walk this earth. It's not the end of the world. Unless a second person rates the same comment (either with a recommend, or another troll rating), it doesn't even count. There's no point in complaining to the admins -- they already see every troll rating on the site, and do not usually yank ratings abilities based on one troll rating, or even one thread's worth of troll ratings. It's larger patterns that are more likely to require intervention.
- There isn't actually any site rule that says you can't quote hidden comments in order to make a point. You should still think carefully about doing it -- after all, they were hidden because we believe that they are so unrepresentative of the community as to be unworthy of display -- but there are valid reasons to bring them up, and it isn't against the rules to do so.
- Banned users are banned permanently -- they are not permitted to return under new names. This is true even if you are autobanned by the community, and even if it was "unfair" -- if you've garnered so much resentment during your time here that it reached that point, we're not going to bail you out. You're done. If you see a new user banned after they make only one or two comments, it's because they're users who have had previous accounts here and blew it the first time. We don't give second chances, and we check new users who seem to get into trouble. For that reason, you should consider your reputation here before getting into fights -- if people start thinking of you as someone who always gets into fights, they will begin trollrating you more and more frequently, and it will be very difficult to convince others of your goodwill. You are responsible for your behavior.
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I might correct some spelling but there it is.
Are you playing by the rules or not?
Fri Aug 15, 2008 at 08:07:48 PM PDT
"What makes a bad person? Or a good person? How do you know if you’re a bad person?"
...
"A good person is someone who follows the rules. A bad person is someone who doesn’t." |
Some minor carping and whining
I agree that 1000+ diaries a day is a bit much for our current infrastructure to support, but it seems to me that radical revisions to our existing software platform are hardly warranted with dKos 4.0 just around the corner.
Unfortunately not until after the election, so that is no solution to our current traffic spike.
I've often advocated boosting our maximums from 50 to 100 for searches (including the old scoop searches like Recent Diary List and Comments). I personally think that change alone and aggressive education about efficient ways to use this site would be sufficient to support this level of traffic.
I'm extremely sorry that the Magic Bullet has not been repaired since seeing the 'Intro' section of a diary is usually enough to indicate whether there is substantial content below the fold.
There is still a way to duplicate that functionality that I'd like to share with you today.
Your Page/My Profile/Display Prefs.
Front page stories: 50.
Now try the Diaries button.
That might make finding worthwhile diaries to contribute to a little bit easier.
Never let it be said I'm not a solutions oriented guy.