Welcome, New Users, to The Daily Kos. This Diary is intended to help you orient yourself to the site and ask questions about how to use it.
In the Body you will find some links intended to get you participating more effectively. Also in the Body this week is a discussion of Community Moderation on The Daily Kos (dKos).
After that you can ask me any question you want. I don't know all the answers so if you stump me, you do. I invite those wiser than I to contribute and correct (or raise a ruckus, just don't scare people).
No permission slips needed, join us at the deep end of the pool for adult swim.
Romper, bomper, stomper boo. Tell me, tell me, tell me, do. Magic mirror, tell me today, have all my friends been good at play?
I can see GHP (#121400) and Cuthbert (#121928), the first and last users to join the weeks of 4/12/07 to 4/20/07, and all of you boys and girls out there in DailyKosland!
Hello Devil. Welcome to Hell.
Recommended Links-
Frequently Asked Questions
Highlighted FAQ Areas/Rules for polite conversation-
I have written some diaries you may find useful-
Other Useful Diaries-
Here are some other Diaries that address the needs of new users-
Here are some older takes on what the well informed user should know-
Other diaries in the Welcome New Users Series. The Welcome New Users dKosopedia page.
Community Moderation I
This is the start of a series on Trusted Users, not all of which will be elements of the Welcome New Users series (who says set theory is useless?).
This installment is going to cover-
How to Achieve Trusted User Status
- How do you tell you're a Trusted User?
- How to maintain Trusted User Status
The Powers of a Trusted User
- Tag Editing
- How Things Are Hidden
- The Ability to See Hidden Comments
The next installments are-
- Community Moderation II (also part of Welcome New Users)
- The Ridiculousness and Danger of Troll Rating
- A Modest Proposal
Introduction
dKos uses a system of Community Moderation to perform certain administrative tasks. These users are commonly called Trusted Users and I'll call them that here. When we talk about proper and responsible behavior for TUs though I trust you will keep those two words in mind.
Community- all of us. The people who come here to post Diaries and the people who just read them. The ones who Comment and the ones who just lurk quietly. Also all the visitors who we hope will look, get excited about what they see, join, and learn how to become more effective Activists in meatspace where elections are won and lost.
Moderation- You may think you're a big fish, and big fish swim here, but however big you are there are fish bigger than you. I talk about some of them in Group Blogging.
I talk about a lot of things, some of them more than once, and these are topics I have frequently visited, but sometimes we all need reminding. I'll try to be consistent.
How to Achieve Trusted User Status
LunkHead, I love you, but almost everything in your Diary-
is wrong.
- Post at least two diaries a week.
- Be generous with recommending comments on your diary.
- Leave a tip jar on your diaries
- Make sure that you are actually writing a Diary about something
- Write at least two diaries a week.
- Write at least two diaries a week.
- Write at least two diaries a week.
- Write at least two diaries a week.
Accumulating enough Mojo to become a Trusted User has nothing to do with writing Diaries, unless you Comment in them.
Since Tip Jars are a Comment they can be helpful in the struggle for existence. I talk about the reasons for them in Posting Diaries, along with other rules of Diary etiquette like #4- "Make sure that you are actually writing a Diary about something".
You're on the right track with being generous with your Comment Recommends, but perhaps not for the reason you think.
It's all about the and hearts; metaphor. I'm just a luv machine- ♥.
- "This site uses a system called "Mojo" to try to keep the comments as high-signal as possible. All users can rate all comments, except their own, between 1 and 5. When your comments are rated by others, those ratings are combined into a weighted average (newer comments count more than older ones) called your "Mojo". This, roughly, represents the rating we could expect your next comment to receive based on your past comments."- Trusted User Guidelines
It continues-
- "Users who have a mojo greater than a certain minimum, and who have posted a sufficient number of comments, such as yourself, for example, are considered 'trusted' users,"
So it's all about the Comments.
It's also about history. During the spring of 2006 Markos was on a book tour promoting Crashing the Gate. It may or may not be coincidence that also during that time period the site had what are called the "Troll/Troll Hunter Wars". At least one former Front Pager wrote a highly influential Diary (well, it influenced me) saying that the bulk of the site's Trusted Users were not sufficiently engaged in the process of Community Moderation and as a result the Front Pagers, in addition to covering Markos' writing volume, were also distracted by their administrative duties (aka "taking out the trash").
Many Trusted Users, and I was one of them, re-evaluated their reluctance to publicly criticize others and pitched in. Others saw it as an opportunity to run amok, indulge their petty spites and grievances, and disrupt the site.
It's incredibly easy to become a Trusted User, even Trolls can do it.
At the beginning of June 2006 kos, during a break from the tour came back, evaluated the situation, and changed several site rules.
Among the changes made was establishing a minimum amount of time that had to elapse between joining and becoming Trusted User.
You must be a member of dKos for at least 3 months to become a Trusted User. The idea is that unless you've been a User at least that long you won't have a clue what you're doing.
This is the main reason I don't generally address topics that only concern Community Moderation as part of Welcome New Users.
That change and adjustments to the calculation of Mojo reduced the numbers of Trusted Users to 2200. Yes I made the cut. I call it the 'TU Purge' but I don't know anyone else who does (The Purge refers to the exodus of Conspiracy Theorists).
The actual formula for the minimum amount of Mojo one needs to collect is a closely guarded secret (to keep people from 'gaming' the system) but it consists primarily of 2 factors-
- Number of Comments
- Mojo- The predicted number of Recommends for your next Comment
There are some who suggest that number of Recommends given and the total number of Recommends received also factor in. I'm not sure.
If you are an active member of the Community by Commenting often, and those Comments are reasonably well received you can become a Trusted User in no time. Many attain Trused User Status on their 3 month anniversary. By way of contrast it took me 7 months.
How do you tell you're a Trusted User?
The most obvious indicator is that your Comment Recommend box changes to a round radio button (like a Poll) and next to it appears...
The Troll Button!!!
Don't push it, soon enough.
On the upper right of the page, in the 'Tools' box, under Your Hotlist, will appear the Hidden Comments button.
If you're not a Trusted User yet, you won't see much if you push that link. It's just a scoop Search and you can do it, but all the Comments are Hidden you see (or maybe not).
More subtle indicators of your super powers are the ability to see Hidden Comments in threads, to see Trollrated by: when you click on the Ratings of a Comment that has been Troll Rated, and the Add/Edit Tags to this Diary button at the bottom of a Diary.
How to maintain Trusted User Status
Comment, Comment, Comment.
A certain amount of Community approval in the form of Recommendations is required too. Mojo is a prediction of how your next comment will be received based on your history.
I'm currently averaging about 3 - 4 Recommends per Comment. My average is probably lower than some because I make a lot of Comments and I don't really worry about people's opinion of me that much. I'm admired for my detestibility.
If keeping your average up is important to you because you're a flame warrior of note, I advise you to write a daily 'Recommended Diary List' Diary, put up a Tip Jar and leave it at that. I've seen people who claim that 5 or 6 Comments a week keep you in the game.
Personally I'm more comfortable with daily Comment Activity, about 5 Comments a day, about 20 Comment Recommends. Once you reach your goal you can quit.
If your Mojo is low or you are a New Trusted User without much history your status can change from Comment to Comment (well, actually the exact refresh rate on Mojo updates is another of those hidden mysteries of Masonry), but normally if you just step up your activity it will come back in a few days, a week at the most.
And why do you crave existence anyway?
The Powers of a Trusted User
The Powers of a Trusted User actually haven't changed much since I joined the site-
from Naked dKos! w/ Poll, Sat Jul 30, 2005 (61)
There are those who suggest (shudder) that cliques are developing. I say this is not surprising in a community of 50,000. They gang up on people who's opinions differ from theirs and 'troll rate them to oblivion'.
Umm... So what exactly is oblivion?
Regular User status, just like me.
The only things you get from (T)rusted (U)ser status (as far as I can tell) are-
- the ability to see hidden (Troll Rated) comments,
- the ability to Troll Rate Regular Users invisibly,
- AND the ability to see which TU Troll Rated you!
So Ratings Wars are really all about who's a TU, and who's not. Remember that.
I have the tools of a Regular User, but it ain't the meat- it's the motion.
At the time I wrote that I wasn't Trusted User yet. Ask anyone who's given it up, it's really not that compelling.
We didn't have Tags back then either. You modern list of super powers are-
- Tag Editing
- The Ability to See Hidden Comments
- The Ability to Troll Rate
- The Ability to See Who's Troll Rated You.
Modern Ratings Wars are still mostly about who's got TU and who doesn't. If you are a Regular User it's a good idea to run far, far away.
Tag Editing
This is the only ability I really crave. It's 'Condoleezza Rice', 'George W. Bush', 'Not Jenna', gosh darn it. Let me fix that for you. No need to thank me, you'll never know I was there unless I think it's a teachable moment or I am frustrated.
If you want to learn the ins and outs of Tag Editing I suggest these Diaries-
I think that devoting some time each day to keeping the 'Tag Cloud' clean is one of the best and most Community spirited things Trusted Users can do for the site.
The mechanism is simple. At the bottom of the Diary, at the end of the Tags, is a button labeled Add/Edit Tags to this Diary. When you push it a window labeled Tags pops up under the current Tags with a Tag Editing Box and a 'Submit' button. It also contains brief instructions on proper Tag use- "Add keywords that describe this Diary (required). Separate multiple keywords with commas." and a link to Tagging Tips.
Make your corrections, push the 'Submit' button and bingo. Some people leave notes, I generally don't. Well 'teachable', 'frustrated', and really, really creative.
As I mentioned in Tag Talk, I sometimes notice while I'm correcting Tags that my edits disappear. I attribute that to 2 primary causes-
- Some other Trusted User pushed the 'Submit' button at about the same time you did.
- There has been a Page Refresh issued by the Ajax Comment Engine.
In stubborn cases my work around is to cut and paste the Tags in question to an offline editor, modify them, and then cut and paste them back.
Before discussing any of the other super powers let's take a moment and discuss how things are hidden.
How Things Are Hidden
Most Comments are unrated. Comments that have no Rating or only one Rating, Recommend or Troll, have no Average Rating.
Comments with 2 ratings or more have an Average Rating. This is the total numeric value of all the ratings, divided by the number of Ratings.
A Recommend has a value of 4. A Troll Rate has a value of 0.
When a Comment's Average Rating drops below 1, that Comment is Hidden from Regular Users and non-Members.
Some examples-
- 1 Troll Rate == No Average, Comment not Hidden
- 1 Recommend == No Average, Comment not Hidden
In the next table Troll Rates are abbreviated TR(s) and Recommendations as Rec(s)-
2 Recs == (4 + 4) / 2 == 4.00, Not Hidden
2 TRs == (0 + 0) / 2 == 0.00, Hidden
1 Rec, 1 TR == (4 + 0) / 2 == 2.00, Not Hidden
1 Rec, 2 TRs == (4 + 0 + 0) / 3 == 1.33, Not Hidden
1 Rec, 3 TRs == (4 + 0 + 0 + 0) / 4 == 1.00, Not Hidden
1 Rec, 4 TRs == (4 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0) / 5 == 0.80, Hidden
The salient features are that it takes at least TWO Trusted Users to agree that your Comment should be Hidden and that for each UpRate (the common term for Recommends on a Comment that has Troll Rates) it takes FOUR Trusted Users to agree.
For more information about Hidden Comments you can look in the FAQ. In fact some people can delete Comments.
Remember how we were talking about Group Blogging? The other day Adam B was having some trouble with the HTML for one of his tables. I jumped in and gave him some tips (of the advice kind, Front Pagers don't need Mojo) and eventually we hashed it out. At the end I invited him to delete me and I'm grateful that he did, not the least because I misremembered something early on and I am very vain.
The Ability to See Hidden Comments
Looking at Hidden Comments is very instructive about the types of things an overwhelming majority (at least 2, and 4 to 1 if disputed) of Trusted Users think is offensive. I urge you to follow it for at least a week before you start Troll Rating anybody.
The Hidden Comments button does have some drawbacks if you're going Troll hunting though. It only shows you Comments that are already Hidden, so what you are doing is simply piling on. A Comment with 100 Troll Ratings is no more hurtful to the Troll than one with 2. It's the number of Comments that are Troll Rated that counts.
You'll often see this issue discussed in 'Hidden Threads', so called because all the Comments that Reply to a Hidden Comment are also Hidden.
This frequently induces panic in Regular Users. Hey! What happened to my Comment! Am I a bad person?
Not usually. Check your Comments Tab. If you can still see it there you're probably OK.
If fact, by clicking the link and hitting the Parent button you can back into the Hidden Tread and look at most if not all of the carnage.
Some people think this is a feature. I think it's a flaw. It is what it is for now.
When I go Troll hunting I use a much better tool I call Trolls. This custom search sees every Comment that has received even a single Troll Rating and limits itself automatically to only those Comments who's Ratings are still open. Theoretically I could insert myself into every dispute on dKos every single day.
But I know better than that.
To Be Continued...
I am such a tease, but also it's getting late and Jann Wenner is threatening my expense account again.
More seriously I don't want to send you out the door with your nukes without giving you a few instructions on their proper use.
In Community Moderation II we will chat about the How and Why of things Troll Rateable and the responsibilities of Community Moderation.
I'm going to try and have it ready by tomorrow. I'm thinking about 10 pm EDT after most of the Community Diaries have peaked. If I find myself unable to complete it you'll find me whining about it in all the usual places, Saturday Night Loser's Club and WYFP.
There are other things to talk about. Let's get started.