I've modified and cut this diary for publication here from the original version that appeared on Readers & Book Lovers March 5th. The diary was written to state and clarify policy and duties pertaining to the Editor status in our Group. It's being re-issued here as a suggested guideline for Founders and Admins managing large, complex Groups.
It makes me happy to be able to say that in spite of phenomenal growth, near daily changes and updates to DK4, software spasms, and with all the distractions that real life provides, our Editors are doing an incredible job of proposing new series, of writing and producing high quality diaries that our readers are truly enjoying and learning from, and, on top of that, they're finding their way around the system.
So, before change and diary mass, production and management duties bury us in chaos, it’s necessary to pause and make sure everyone with responsibility for making R&BLers an exceptional DK4 group be familiar with the niceties of being one of our Editors.
To start, let me outline how I envision the operational organization. To me, R&BLers is a dynamic organism rather than a stultified monolith. It must grow and change, adapt and develop in order to survive. In fact, on days like yesterday, I think of it as a many-headed hungry monster that needs taming and leading! Each Editor is, in my view, one of the heads of the leader.
Editor status here is conferred because you host or co-host a regular series, or are a featured writer who contributes on a semi-regular basis. As Editor, your permissions include queuing your own and others’ diaries. These can be diaries intended for your group or diaries you discovered while out “trolling” the DK4 gen pub. As Editor, your permissions also include scheduling diaries; however, scheduling is confined to diaries for your series only.
When you queue and schedule one of your series' diaries, make a note that says something like: “Diary scheduled.” When you queue a “found” diary, make a note that says something like: “Needs to be scheduled for publication.” The notes are visible to anyone examining the queued diary page and will help prevent publication accidents, like instant publishing when that shouldn’t happen. In the case of found diaries, after you have notated them, message an Admin that a diary is queued and waiting to be scheduled. The Admin will then do so. Admins are familiar with the latest R&BLers Weekly Magazine Calendar and can make the judgment calls if circumstances demand a particular found diary be squeezed into it.
That covers queuing and scheduling for Editors. What about other responsibilities that go with the title?
Those can vary depending on the kind of series you are in charge of producing. If you’re doing a mini-series with a limited run, your responsibilities are pretty much confined to tagging, queuing, and scheduling your own installments for publication to the Group at the agreed upon day and time, and using the third button option from Publication Management – queue to a group blog – when you do so.
For sole Editors of ongoing series, such as SensibleShoes’ Write On!, her responsibilities are the same. For Editors of collaborative, rotating, aka omnibus, series, you must also queue and schedule Contributors’ diaries, make sure both tags appear, – “Readers & Book Lovers” and "R&BLers” – select which Contributor is due up with the next installment, and communicate with your Contributors in a manner of your own devising that keeps them fully apprised of who goes next and when their diaries need to be ready. Those additional duties do not devolve to the Group Admins; they belong to you. The object is for you to enjoy total autonomy over your series no matter what kind it is.
In sum: 1) All Editors are in charge of content, tagging, and correctly publishing to the group, whether for themselves or for their Contributors. 2) All Editors are “Rescue Rangers” and look for pertinent content suitable for queuing and republishing to the Group. 3) All Editors completely control their series’ production.
Now for delicate matters.
As Founder, the only policy I unilaterally apply and enforce for R&BLers is that Editors do not edit the content of a diary not their own unless specifically asked to by the author. And I am unanimous in that!
Collaborative diaries (one document, many authors) are allowed; here’s how it’s done:
You put your diary on the group queue, and let others in the group make editorial improvements. To just a review stage: please look at this diary before it goes up. Make any suggestions in a group message, or in a queue note, about the diary.
Groups will work out their own practices for degrees of collaboration. Collaboration requires that the diary be published by the group.
If you don't want any degree of group members being able to mess with your diary, you can first publish the diary as yourself. And then republish your own diary, by the group. The distinction gives you a degree of control. Garrett
The last paragraph is why I will not permit editing of another author’s work without written (in a message) permission. Offenders against this policy will be blocked from the Group at the first offense.
Moving on.
Why must I choose the “queue to a group” button if I am a Sole Editor of a longstanding series and not the “Publish Now” or “Publish Later” choices? Well, there are practical as well as philosophical reasons. I can’t argue against the first reason, but I could against the second, but won’t for the reasons I’ll provide below. I believe it is the second reason that will determine whether or not R&BLers continues to exist.
First the practical: Only by selecting “queue to a group” from the Publication Management tab at the bottom of your diary when it is in draft mode will your diary automatically be funneled to the streams of all the R&BLers Followers. This is the basic purpose of groups, to allow a diary to be automatically noticed and not to force Kossacks to go hunting for content. It is the natural expectation of a Group Follower that all that group’s content will be funneled to his stream.
Now the philosophical: Some diarists may have proprietary feelings about their longstanding series. You should. And in deference to those feeling, that is why I have a strict policy regarding editing others' works. I feel each diarist, Editor, Admin, or no, is entitled to those feelings, and they must be honored.
But it is a detriment to the very idea of how groups work if diaries intended for our audience are not directly queued to the group. I have found since beginning this project that I have had to – in nearly every case – edit tags, or explain in messages to countless Followers of R&BLers why certain diaries are not appearing in their queues. I have found this time-consuming, dispiriting, and exhausting, and I will no longer continue those housekeeping chores.
I'm sure we all realize that it is unfair to expect Kossacks who understand certain content is to be found in certain groups to be forced to become Followers of not only the Group, but every diarist in it, and multitudinous tags in an effort to capture all the Group’s content. Especially when that Kossack is a Follower of a behemoth group like R&BLers. In short, by not queuing content intended for R&BLers to the group, the entire reason for R&BLers existence is defeated.
I hope you all understand and agree.
I feel that by clearly and forcefully stating my “no editing other than your own stuff” policy, everyone can feel their proprietary interests are considered and protected at the same level they enjoy if they published their diaries under their personal profile. That is my intention, and that is why I will strictly enforce what may seem at first blush to be a draconian policy.
No matter what status you enjoy as a member of R&BLers, when it comes to your status as a writer, all of us are equal in my view. I think by keeping the Rules simple – Daily Kos Rules are Our Rules; and Policies to a minimum – Edit Your Own Stuff Only; R&BLers can thrive and even become an influential forum within Markos’ vision. And our own. The important thing is to create a group environment that remains exciting, welcoming, and easily accessible to all Kossacks.
If you have other policy issues you want to raise, if you have questions, or uncertainties about policies, operations, and technical concerns, please state them in comments where we can air them out, discuss, and confab.
Thanks everyone! You are the reason for this group’s quality and the main reason I find the strength to get out of bed in the morning! For now, I feel an inexplicable urge to read a Rumpole book and seek out some Hilda-isms.