<big>Groups a diary is PUBLISHED TO</big> are displayed in the left margin roughly adjacent to the diary’s opening paragraphs. The first thing listed there, tho’, is the writer (or the writer’s pen-name), and if the diary isn’t reblogged at any group, that’s all that will be there. This diary you’re reading was reblogged to the DK group Sustainable Senior Living, just to show how a group name looks there.
You can click on any group in that section (if any) to go to that group’s blogview page. (More about groups below the page-break.)
<big>Next down at any diary, you’ll see the diary’s TAGS listed.</big>
From writer perspective, tags serve multiple good purposes. Four key ones are:
- as in-effect subject headings like in a library catalogue so that readers can use the search-page to find diaries they’re interested in.
- stating diary/discussion types —e.g., “Community” meaning friendly-purposed, not for political or other arguments/fights, “Open Thread” meaning any topic can be brought to the comments, etc.
- The name of the diary series (e.g., at this diary, NewDKGroups) and sometimes the group’s actual name will be there as well, assuming the series is part of a group (not all series are; NewDKGroups isn’t part of any).
- topical alerts more or less as is done in the rest of the blogosphere. In fact, “DK tags follow the same conventions as a Twitter hashtag, meaning that a multiple-word name or phrase will appear as #AllOneWord”
Good tags for a writer to compose will likely include the names of people, places, and processes significant in the diary, e.g., when writing of Senator Elizabeth Warren speaking about rural and small-town economic struggles, the tags would be ElizabethWarren, economy, rural, MainStreet, etc. (More on this below the page-break.)
From reader viewpoint, any tag can be clicked on to reach pages displaying all diaries already published that have that tag.
AND readers can hover on a tag to get the outline of the ‘heart’ displayed at it’s left, and click on that heart so it turns solid orange, in order to FOLLOW/ ”subscribe” so all diaries with that tag from then on will then be automatically delivered to the reader’s ACTIVITY STREAM. The “delivery” job (that tags do is how putting appropriately-worded tags on a diary brings it the most possible interested readers for the least effort.
When you’re following a tag, it will display a solid-orange heart in the left margin of diaries tagged with it that you read.
So, in the illustration at right, the diary that image comes from shows that the person who took that screenshot is following/ ”subscribing to” the WriteOn series — so that as each diary with that tag is published, it will appear in that readers’ ACTIVITY STREAM, available to be clicked on to read.
The Community tag means it’s for friendly discussion, not political arguments. R&BLers and Readers&BookLovers are 2 forms of the name of the group where WriteOn is a series. Teaching is the type of diary (and series) this is; Writing is the diary’s subject/topic. OddsBodkins likely is the title of a book or website that the diary extensively draws upon, or something similar.
<big>The easiest way to follow/subscribe to a group the diary was Published To:</big>
► click on the group’s name in the Published To section — that will take you to that group’s blogview page, which will look roughly like the full-width illustration below;
► just below the centered group name in big block letters, look for the group’s name (again) in pretty blue at the left side of that line, and the pair of buttons at the right side of that line that match the buttons in the illustration at right; ► click on the white diary-list button —it’s not labeled, it just as the 4 bullet-point lines on it— to reach the group’s diary-list a.k.a. posting-history page, which will look pretty much the illustration below; ► look for 💖 Follow next to the group’s name on that page, nearish the top, and click on it. That will make all the diaries originating at that group (i.e., drafts published via the group queue) be delivered automatically to...
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...<big>your <big>ACTIVITY STREAM</big> page,</big> the same as all diaries with tags that you follow, and all diaries by writers whom you follow.
To reach your activity stream, click on your own name at the top right of any diary to get the drop-down menu showing links to all your own pages, including ACTIVITY STREAM, a personalized chronological list of click-to-read diaries delivered there because of all dk tags, groups, and writers you’re following/subscribing to.
Most kosaks follow at least some writers, groups and tags. That’s why carefully composing tags you put on your own diaries is key in readers finding them, even after the diary’s brief moments on the Recent Diaries page are past. Tags are how a diary reaches its TARGET audience/readership, the readers who follow/“subscribe to” every diary with that particular tag on it. Because, unless you’re a popular frontpager, the way tags deliver diaries into kosaks individual Activity Steam is how diaries are findable by those readers
<big><big>The basic rules of thumb for putting tags on your diary are:</big></big>
- every significant proper noun that’s in the diary, such as names of persons, places and other geographicals such as rivers, mountains, regions, or etc; names of organizations, businesses, schools, government agencies, etc. For names of persons, use the established standard you’d find in newspapers (wikipedia is a good quick consult if you’re not sure) which is generally only firstname and lastname, e.g., HillaryClinton rather than HillaryRodhamClinton, and BarackObama rather than BarackHusseinObama but JimmyCarter rather than JamesEarlCarterJr. and JoeBiden rather than Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.
- every topic the diary covers, besides or whether it’s in the title or not. Think back to using subject headings in public library and college library catalogs — if you come up with topic-tags consistent with what you remember from those catalogs, you’re likely to word those tags the same way the vast majority of other dk writers do and the same way readers would who follow the topics your diary covers. Standard usage like that helps avoid having to try to read each other’s minds or go by-guess’n’by-golly and risk losing interested readers.
In past years, there was a site page with its top 2/3 or so looking like this, to help orient readers and writers to the entire realm of tags here, among other purposes shown.
Next there was a section approximating this one illustrated below, with each tag clickable — most diary topics would fit under one or another of these broad categories, so they’re useful to use in addition to more specific tags.
Below that section was the search-engine access, which still survives in the form of this <big><big>page good for searching and checking particular wordings and tags, reached HERE.</big></big> It looks like the illustration below when you click to search <big><tt>Tags</tt></big> mode, and the data bars vary somewhat for each of the other modes, which are <tt>Diaries</tt> —usually the default mode when you first arrive at the search page— <tt>Comments</tt>, <tt>Users</tt> —i.e., kosaks— and <tt>Groups</tt>.
(Regarding dk groups, the search engine goes by how the groupname shows in the group’s original URL, which sometimes is different enough from what the group’s name currently is that a search for a particular group can require considerable imagination to be successful.)
You can just fill in the longest data bar/field with what you’re looking for, and usually that will get you good results (for highly specific searches, you may have to practice to learn to fill in other fields too) — a list of all tags that include what you’ve typed. Based on that list, you can decide how specific or general the tag you want to put on your diary, because that list will display the most-often-used variant first.
You also reach the Search Page by typing a character or two (and hitting Enter) in the blogview search bar or in the search bar above your WelcomeBack box on any page in old-style format.
<big><big>More about groups:</big></big>
See the introductory paragraphs at Where the DailyKosgroups Are: Links to DK’s 280+ Local & Political Groups by State & Beyond,2011-2020 or any of the diaries listed at NewDKGroups to get an idea of what groups in dk are about. There’s all kinds. And maybe even one near you!
At the top of everyone’s ol’fashion pages is the link to aaaallll DK GROUPS, just below the space between the Y in DAILY and the K in KOS. There are probably around a thousand groups in dk by now —some defunct, some active, some hyperactive— across a terrific range of interests. (various areas of science, arts, all kinds of crafts, history, theater, film, television, protest music, gardening, disaster preppers, etc. One excellent et cetera is The Inoculation Project, a Sunday morning diary group of
<big>ongoing, volunteer effort to crowdfund science and math projects for red-state public schools in low-income neighborhoods. As always, our conduit is DonorsChoose.org, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation that facilitates tax-deductible donations to specific, vetted projects in public schools.</big> |
Another kind of etc are the friendly, open-thread (any/all topic) groups across the day, some of which are:
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<big><big>To follow an individual writer or commenter,</big></big>
<big><big>OK</big></big>, now you know how to follow/subscribe to topic tags, series, groups, and writers, how —as a reader— to see pages displaying all diaries with a given tag, how as a reader or writer to search for particular tags and the diaries that have them, and how as a writer to use your diary’s tag-ability to get the most possible readers seeing what you write.
For more diaries explaining DK how-to—including official ones, which this isn’t— click on Tutorials (or tutorial) in the tag list at the top left margin of this diary, and/or explore the site’s official Common Questions & Support Documents Helpdesk pag. There y’go!