Hello, Cranky Users! I thought we might talk a little about groups today.
First, a couple of news items that aren't really so new, but maybe you haven't seen them. (I'm starting to get that I'm not the only one who occasionally sleeps and fails to read every single comment in every single diary...)
In this thread, kos confirms that there is currently no way to tell that someone has been banned, but promises that something is in the works.
And here, he clears up confusion about the statistic in our profiles called "Total Recommends" -- it represents the number of recommends we have RECEIVED on our diaries, not how many we've given out. A clearer caption is also on the to-do list.
If I may be not cranky for a minute (!!!), I'd like to thank kos for the amount of time he's been taking to go through this site regularly and see that people's questions get accurate answers. I know it's a lot of work on top of everything else he does, and I appreciate it (even though it means that he hollers at me and my readers any time the evil Picture That Cannot Be Named is so much as mentioned -- and I didn't even make the damn thing!)
Okay, onward past the squiggle!
Now, groups. A few days ago, we reported an error with inviting people to join the editorial staff of a group, where the person accepting an invitation would end up on the list but without any role assigned, and you couldn't assign them one. Peraspera of Gulf Watchers was kind enough to let us know that's fixed -- thank you!
And speaking of Gulf Watchers, they have a very cool and copiously illustrated diary about how to publish to a group. To their group, of course, but I think even we cranky users can find it in our hearts to mentally swap in the name of our own group.
Our true friend elfling has another DK4 update diary up, now republished to Cranky Users. Among the new fixes noted there is: when you queue a diary to re-publish to a group, you now get a confirmation message offering you a link to go directly to that queue and publish. Very helpful!
So, let's talk a little about this diary by Garrett from a few days ago, because it illustrates some fundamental truths about groups that we've probably mentioned here before, but that bear repeating. (The linked version makes this illustration with the sad tale of the banning of Rocket J. Squirrel, all because of Bullwinkle's foolish invitation to Boris Badenov, but it contains a link to a shorter, flying-squirrel-free version, if you are short on time.)
Garrett's diary digs into the question of where your diary lives and who can get at it. If you've published a diary to a group, you've probably noticed that it publishes to your name, your "blog" within Daily Kos, at the same time. Every diary that you write is posted to your name, whether or not you publish it to a group. Your DK blog under your name is like your vault, in which all your diaries are stored. When you click New Diary, you've staked out a spot in your vault for this new diary. When you publish a diary, you turn on the camera in that part of the vault and let everyone look at what's there, and send out notice to the recent list to let everyone know there's something to see. When you also publish to one or more groups, whether you do this at original publication or you re-publish later, you're not creating a separate copy of your diary for each group; you're just notifying the group's followers in their streams that the camera's on in your vault.
However, something special happens when you initially queue your unpublished diary to a group, as opposed to publishing it yourself and then allowing a group to republish. Remember, your republished diary is locked in your vault, and you're the only one who can change it, always. But when you initially publish to a group, you give the group's editors and admins the combination to that section of your vault. The diary is still yours, and it still lives in your vault attributed to you! But now you've given other people the permanent power to change it, up to and including erasing all the contents and replacing them with other contents. (Then you can change it back, of course, and eventually there'll be all-out war and Meteor Blades will be called in -- oh, I don't even like to think about it!)
Now, it is certainly unlikely, or so we hope, that any group editor or admin here would use her or his powers for Evil! This collaborative group power is conferred with the idea that wonderful joint projects can result, and valuable editorial help can be given. You just need to be aware of what you're doing when you initially publish your diary to a group. There isn't another copy somewhere that's "yours", and they can edit "theirs" and publish under the group's name only. There is only one diary, and your name is on it no matter how many other people have a hand in working on it. If you trust the editors, as we hope you should be able to, then everything's good. If others having that access is going to upset you, don't do it that way. Publish what you want, and allow the group to republish later if they want to.
That's all I have to say today, my cranky ones! Except this:
UPDATE 1: Nurse Kelley here, proving that one's diaries are never safe from trolls meddling editors. Publish directly to groups at your own risk.
UPDATE 2 ARODB here. The group feature is a utility that can be used in quite different ways, depending on the Administrator. The more editors, the more people who can contribute and revise. This provides the potential for a diary to be a semi-permanent wiki like document. It can be improved by incorporating comments from users, to become more than just a diary, or an essay, but a living evolving source of informaition.
Selection of editors is the key. There should be a symbiotic relationship, a complementarity of skills and interests. One admin/editor or many. These, and other subtleties will make "Groups" the key to DK4s success and compensate for some of the qualities that we have lost with DK3's demise