For a few years now I’ve thought that what sites like Dailykos are missing - desperately - is a social networking aspect. A way to attract younger voters and help people connect with one another. I figured surely someone would do this eventually - but it never happened, and so, here I am, introducing Progressive Pages, the new social network for the lefty blogosphere. Why do we need one? How do we use it? What the heck is it? All shall be revealed below.
Dictionary.com defines "social network" thus: a website where one connects with those sharing personal or professional interests, place of origin, education at a particular school, etc.
The best example of a social network I can give you is Myspace. If you’ve never visited Myspace, it is a site where members are encouraged to make a profile with information about themselves - age, location, interests, etc. and then to search other people’s profiles to find others with common interests. Personally, I use my Myspace mainly to connect with people from high school (5 years - so long ago), since on Myspace you are able to list what high school and/or college you went to, as well as what companies you’ve worked for, to help you connect with people from your past. Myspace allows you to have a friend’s list, with links to the profiles of those on your list, the ability to make groups based on your interests - a group for fans of French films, say, or of Democrats from Iowa. Whatever you want, really. You can upload pictures and put a music playlist on your page. It’s all about self-expression and connection, which is why it’s so popular with us youngsters.
So why do we need a social network? What’s wrong with just hanging out on kos? Well, you see, Dailykos does not give you the option to have a full profile, with pictures, music and all the other bells and whistles. You can have a diary watch list, but that is not the same thing as having a friends list. You can coordinate with people to post diaries on similar subjects (such as the Thursday Night Healthcare series or the Pootie diaries) but this is not the same thing, nor is it as effective, as creating a group, with its own section in the site, it’s own forum, moderators, and tools. A social network has all of these features and more.
On Progressive Pages you'll be able to have a friend's list, send people private messages without having to exchange email addresses (you have an email account built right into the site), design a complete profile page, add pictures, video and music, even chat if you want (without having to download anything). Most importantly though, you will be able to use this site to form groups, groups which can hopefully go on to do great things. Make groups based on key issues, your location (state, city, whatever) - you can even have a group dedicated to "pooties" or other non-political subjects that enhance community building. And yes, I've added a group just for meta. Just a gentle nudge for you to have those flame wars there, rather than here, where it might get you banned and can be distracting. I will only ban you if you start outing people or taunting them with personal information, and if you're really sorry, I'll most likely forgive you. That's just how I am.
Let me give you an example of the ways I hope that people will use my site. Say you have a group of Philadelphia Area Democrats. You find out that your Democratic Senator will be holding a town hall in your city next week. You want to encourage as many fellow Dems to go as possible, so how to get the word out fast? Sign into Progressive Pages, click on your group and select "send message to all members", then type in your message, hit send and presto! Your message instantly reaches the inboxes (of their main email account and site email) of everyone in your group. The best part? You don’t even have to be the moderator of that group, you just have to be a member. This means that all members can be on the lookout for information pertinent to the group and can send it out to all the other members in less than minute. If you start a group, you also have the option of appointing other members to the level of group moderator. So if you’re worried you won’t have enough time to moderate your group, fear not - more than likely there’s another member who’d be more than happy to help you moderate.
You don’t have to limit yourself to groups in your general area, either. If you have an issue, such as, say, the environment, you can start or join a group dedicated to conservation. Then whenever threats arise in the form of new legislation or the like, you can get the message out immediately and have all members of the group calling their comngressmembers, writing to their local paper and donating to put ads on the airwaves in minutes. The organizing potential of a social networking site for progressives with a large, healthy, active member base are truly staggering.
Myself, I plan on using the site to organize my fellow PA Dems to kick Arlen Specter out on his opportunistic behind. But what you do is up to you.
We do have a forum section, and each group has it's own separate forum section, but I didn't really make this site for posting diaries; that's what Dailykos is for. Of course, if you want to post a diary here (either because you already wrote your one diary and want to do another one; or maybe you posted here but your diary didn't get much attention; maybe there's a certain issue or action alert that needs extra attention; or for whatever other reason, you are more than welcome to. The Blog section of the site is more for personal diaries, and you can use them for that purpose or really for whatever you want. In general though, I hope the site can serve as a way for progressive bloggers to organize and get stuff done, whether that stuff involves a candidate, an issue, or just friendship and community.
I encourage everyone to use the same user ID as on Dailykos, that way we can avoid a lot of confusion. Also, Dailykos users who can't seem to get a hold of you here (Am I the only person that happens to) will be able to find you on Progresive Pages and send you a message. There have been a few times that I wanted to contact someone here, but they didn't list an email and didn't check their comments that I replied to because I replied too late. Hopefully Progressive Pages can help with this problem.
By an amazing stroke of luck (and not a small amount of help from my dad, blueness), I managed to get a ticket to Netroots Nation this year. So anyone who would like to be involved with the site should talk to me about it there. For example, I’d love some help with getting google to actually put my site in their search results. So far they’re don't. So to make sure you don’t lose the link, add this diary to your hotlist and then just click the first link in my blogroll. The more times you do this the more appealing my site looks to google anyway so maybe we’ll solve two problems at once. But anyway, come talk to me at NN, I’m hard to miss. I’ll be the girl who looks like she’s too young to vote and walks with a gray plastic cane. (And speaking of NN, are there any females going alone who would like to share a room with me three miles from the hotel for $90/night total? (that’s $45 each per night)? Let me know!)
If you’d like to help out with the site and won’t be at NN this year then please send me a message on the site, though I won’t be able to access it while I’m at NN. Feel free to look around in my brief absence, and I promise to address all questions when I return.
Please ask me questions here or in the "Welcome" thread on PP. I know some people not familiar with social networking sites might find this brave new idea scary, so I’d be happy to walk you through it some more if you like.
Happy organizing!