I spent some time on the DK4 beta site trying to understand the features of the group function. I followed the posting of various people who were involved in the development of the new site. I thought I was prepared. Last Sunday felt a lot like the major earthquake I experienced in San Francisco.
We have been trying to adapt this group and its liveblog activities to the environment of DK4. I think most of you have experienced a good bit of confusion and frustration with the process. The issue that I would like to address here is how people can participate in this group. The design of the new site offers several approaches to the matter.
When Marcos first presented the idea of the new groups he did so in terms of their having a small actual membership and seeking to have a large number of followers. He seemed to be thinking of them as being versions of the Daily Kos front page. However, he has all along acknowledged that people will choose to use them in many different ways. Changes are still being made to the way that the software operates for groups and probably will continue to be. Here is a very nice diary that I republished that gives a pretty up to date description of how they now work.
Clarity On Groups
Many people who started groups seemed to approach the matter in terms of something like email groups or Facebook groups where you have to be a member to participate at all. They sent out a large number of invitations to people that they thought would have various levels of interest in their topic. Initially we were unsure of what to do and followed Markos' approach for a few days while we were sorting things out. I made a few comments about the topic in diaries that I'm sure weren't very informative. Some people sent request for membership which we were unsure of what to do with. We are now attempting to develop a more coherent and active approach.
Everyone who wants those diaries which have been published or republished by the group to appear in their stream, simply has to follow the group. That includes all levels of members in the group. Being a follower is done for one specific purpose. It has nothing to do what what else you might be doing in the group. Anyone can read the diaries of the group and all Daily Kos users can post comments to them. Initially groups had three types of membership.
Admins
Editors
Members
The term member has now been changed to contributor. The diary link above gives a detailed description of these functions and what they can and cannot do.
We are still working on trying to develop the general approach of this group on DK4. This diary is an appropriate place to raise questions and offer suggestion about anything along those lines. We urge everybody who is interested in this complex and ever changing topic to follow this group and to participate in it.
For those of you who wish to become designated contributors of the group and have your user name appear on the member list on the group page, we welcome and appreciate your interest. As of now anyone who wishes to do that should click the send new message link on the group page and let us know of your interest. You will receive an invitation to become a contributor.
Being a contributor will likely mean different things for different people. Some people will write diaries. Others may help assemble links for news sources. Clearly there will be other tasks that we have not yet even thought about . Thinking of those tasks is our job to do together. For those of you who previously sent a message please accept my personal apology for the lack of a response and send us another one.
At the same time that we were all going through the DK4 upheaval, North Africa and the Middle East have been dramatically transformed by the spread of pro-democracy demonstrations to multiple countries. Unfortunately most of them have been met by violent repression. The mother ship child diary approach that was an effective means of tracking the events in Egypt on DK3 needs to be adapted both to the changed environment of DK4 and to the more complex realities of events. Please give us your thoughts and ideas on how best we can approach that challenge.