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 Writing Franchise Diaries.
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.
Hello Devil. Welcome to Hell.
If your user id (hover your mouse over your name in any comment, look at the status bar in the bottom of your browser) is larger than 188713 you probably haven't had the opportunity to participate in one of my Welcome New Users diaries.
There are 13 of them that I consider the New Users Guide and I encourage you to take a look at the table of contents at least so you can see what kind of information is already available.
But don't panic, I'm always happy to review.
Writing Franchise Diaries
In addition to Welcome New Users (which, btw, is not a Community Diary, it is a Meta Diary) I find myself participating quite frequently in many Diary Series. In some of them, Top Comments for example, I am merely an occasional participant, there to watch the show.
Polite Behavior
In 'Community Diaries', when I visit, while I may or may not comment I will certainly leave many 'Comment Recommends'. It's supposed to be fun and if something amuses you or makes you think, or even if you just like the poster, it's ok to give them a little ♥.
In the past it's not been my policy to 'Diary Recommend' because I think most of them last quite long enough. At the times most of them are posted you're guaranteed a Dwell Time of 2 or 3 hours and isn't that long enough to visit and chat with your friends? I mean, even if you really, really like them?
Recently however I've been recommending more and more because I'm frustrated at how slowly the Rec List turns over. This is a direct function of diary traffic but I'm not prepared to publish my definitive monograph yet. There are other behaviors this campaign season it will be interesting to compare after the fact with baselines.
It also rewards the author and I am intimately familiar with how much dedication and effort it takes to run a successful franchise.
Establish a Schedule Part 1- Regularity
If you are starting from scratch you have to build an audience. If not you have an audience that has expectations. While not all 'Community Diaries' are regular series (an example of one that is not is The Scotty Show by karateexplosions) many of them are.
The reason is so that people know when to tune in.
Some people may not mind rummaging through a week old diary answering every technical question, but that's not the kind of experience I'm looking to have. I want to chat. I want to have reasonably contemporaneous responses.
By appearing on a regular basis, at a set and agreed time between you and your audience, you are also investing them in the series.
- Sorry I'm late. This or that pitiful excuse (Evil Diary Editor... Eeeevil!).
Much ♥ ensures.
If you have to change the schedule you should do it publicly so that everyone knows. All Open Threads and many 'Community Diaries' accept public service announcements.
Establish a Schedule Part 2- Team Building
Some franchises are tightly held. With this one for instance, you mostly get me and certainly my editorial control is nearly absolute.
I publish once a week or so on a relaxed schedule (though usually 11 pm (et) on Fridays if at all). I have occasionally sought and may again seek contributor input and if you have an interesting suggestion...
Mostly I get asked to self plagiarize and hardly any new users read anyway.
If I might suggest a more successful model-
Magnifico founded it and still runs it to the extent that it needs running.
We publish every night at around midnight. The goal is to highlight news stories of interest to the readership of Daily Kos.
There are 7 regular contributors-
- Sunday Magnifico
- Monday jlms qkw
- Tuesday ek hornbeck (this would be me)
- Wednesday ScottyUrb
- Thursday Sidof79
- Friday Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse
- Saturday Neon Vincent
If someone needs the night off they're supposed to email Magnifico although we mostly just announce it in the thread so volunteers from the regular audience can step up. Occasionally someone has long term commitments that prohibit regularity and makes a weekly spot available.
If there's an oops, there it is.
We don't scold each other about it, it's only a blog.
This is the model I'm trying to set up in What's for Dinner as a matter of fact. I've recently inherited the scheduling responsibilities for this 121 diary franchise founded by kate petersen, tvb, and cookiebear.
My intention is to return it to it's roots as a place to unwind about things food related, without having to worry about how politically correct recipes for lutefisk are.
It's my Viking cultural heritage!
Currently the schedule looks like this-
- 10/18 Translator, Purple Hulled Peas
- 10/25 MaskedKat, Cold Weather Soups
- 11/1 ek hornbeck, Take Out!
- 11/8 ???
I'm not looking for any particular time, I publish at 7:30 pm (et) on Saturdays which is the same as tvb's original piece, but if your schedule dictates differently it's up to you to advertise it.
Were I less lazy I'd email Translator to make sure he was on track.
How to Host
Most franchises have a format, or at least a theme and if you don't have a clue about the general concept it's perhaps best to get one before you volunteer- although it's not exactly rocket science.
In my ideal OND model you understand the goal is to highlight news stories and don't post quite so many lutefisk recipes. The regular crowd will shuffle in and if they aren't offended by the ferns Sammy they'll have a brew on their tab. If you did an ok job decorating the place you'll be asked to do it again, because everybody is lazy although nobody is lazier than me.
As a host your most important duty is to publish on time (if you have committed to one) and if what you have is not working put up something simple instead while you work on it.
Your next most important duty is to forget the lutefisk burning in the oven and greet your guests and make sure they feel welcome. Everyone who comes through the the door should get a hello and then they can chat with the others while you call the fire department.
In diaries that are labeled Community there's a presumption of innocence. While you may not care for your company when you put up that 'Open House' sign it means you can't keep away the people who like lutefisk. That said the normal rules about trolling and spamming apply and nobody has a claim on your ♥, but denying them makes you seem petty and contemptible.
Usually contributors are encouraged to contribute something and really the very best way for you to demonstrate your appreciation of the diarist is to show by some comment that you actually read it since many of them labor for hours with high anxiety to achieve their perception of perfection.
My standards are not so high.
On the other hand it does have your name on it and if ever there was a diary you should not delete for fear of community wrath it's a well commented on 'Franchise Diary'. You're just making it harder for everyone else.
The Big Wind Up
I hope I haven't scared you off. Contributing episodes of 'Franchise Diaries' is actually a really good way to get over initial goosebumps about diarying because the community is very supportive, especially if you are a regular participant.
More experienced diarists use them as a bigger soap box than they might be able to achieve on their own because of the built in audience. They also use it as a platform for self promotion.
The very most experienced community organizers can start locals whenever they want and recruit leadership and membership until the effort is self sustaining.
"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."— Mark Twain |