This is a general purpose notes on assiting people who are thinking of hosting the FP&IE Daily Open Thread for FP&IE group. Notes in this diary should also be useful for people who are thinking of writing or already write in subject matters that are covered by the team. A companion piece to this diary listing possible information sources here → FP&IE - Toolkit for Daily Thread Hosts - Information Sources
In this diary it roughly covers
- What do we do.
- What is this group.
- Some tips on writing / hosting a daily open thread.
- Time commitment
- Sending in articles for inclusion in daily thread
- Formatting and queuing
- Trial run
What do we do?
- Daily Open Thread: On a daily basis we present a daily open thread. The thread usually has a curated collection and extracts of articles (news, opinions, editorials, stories, photo libraries etc etc) from various places.
- Reblog / Republish: Group also reblogs (republishes) diaries by kossacks that fall in the broad area group covers.
What is this group?
We started the group as a place to provide a place for republishing and discussions of foreign affairs and/or international stuff. This was aimed at filling a void in Daily Kos community.
Rough Purpose
Mainly to make Kossacks aware that there are places beyond US borders. In other places, there are also people, who also experience same things as we do. Events take place in other places that might impact how we percieve them and ultimately how US foreign policy might need a change or what direction it should be heading in.
Sharing of silent voices, sufferings, injustices, news, and perspectives which do not make it into our usual feeds. Whether it be for a narrative being presented domestically or because those voices are too poor to be noticed.
These other events, whether it be political agitations, recent military events, lost cats, joys of a fish rescued, people moaning about prices of a haircuts, stories of weddings, of schools, of travels, all go towards making more kossacks used to seeing them as people.
Which in turn might lead us to have a better understanding and awareness, to know when our government is doing right things and to know when our government is doing wrong things, to diminish the trap of otherization and collective dismissals.
For us all to see a bit more than we see so far.
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So a quick look at the group,
- Group policy and operations team currently consists of siab, Charles Jay, Ian Douglas Rushlau, Torilahure.
- Group runs a daily open thread which currently goes live at 05:30 AM PST. This is aimed at providing an day thread for sharing links, discussing stuff
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Some tips on writing / hosting a daily open thread.
A few titbits that might help you put together a daily thread.
Stick to the dailykos rules of the road: Daily Kos Rules of the road. Rules are faily simple and apply to all comment / content. Almost all of them are generally about being decent person.
Information / article sources: On top of your usual sources of information, there are some useful sources of reference material for data and some sources for articles (news, opinions, analysis, editorials). We have a list published here. The list is not meant to be exhaustive. These are just some starting points. The list has various specialist publications as well as regional and national sources. Reliability comes into play when selecting sources. Avoid using conspiracy websites.
Reference List here → FP&IE Toolkit - Information Sources
Types of things to include: Links to and extracts from articles you read and think might be a good inclusion. When quoting from an article, use a quote box. A couple of sentences introducing the articole, or quote are useful to set context or provide an introduction. Stick to fair usage policy when including an extract. Copyright Protections and Fair Use Standards
Types of articles to use: There is a very broad editorial freedom so your selection is really upto you. News, Analysis, Op-Eds, Editorials usually make a good addition. Presentation of different perspectives add to the veriety and the debate. If in doubt ask one of the policy and operations team. We are generally aiming for stuff that would not normally make it to DK headlines or diaries.
Some examples of articles: On top of the stuff mentioned already, other items that have made it successfully into daily threads include (these are just examples and in no way meant to be exhaustive or limiting choices)
- News
- Social impact stories
- Opressed voices
- Analysis and reports of events
- Analysis of foreign affairs
- Reports from intergovernmental organizations
- Changes or developents in trade deals
- Unusual or interesting events
- Developements in current affairs
- News or developements in other countries
- Standed dolphins, pet rescues, crocodile escapes
- Satire and humour from other places
- Funnies, bunnies, pootles, wootles
- Society, movies, fashion
- Travel journals, people sharing their personal experiences
- Public unrest, demonstrations,
- Elections and shenanigans
- Government policy initiatives,
- Devious politicians, corruptions, trials, shenanigans, political deals
- Recipes for food stuff
- Photo diaries
- Scientific/technological developements in other places that have gone unseen
- Events, news, changes, policies that might have a bearing on relationships between or within various governments
- Letters to editors in various newspapers
- Schools, learning,
- Unsung heroes, deaths
- Social, political, economic trends in places
Is a theme necessary?: A theme is not needed. Some editors / hosts opt for a theme. This is more to do with what they are attempting to achieve with the thread they host. They might be topical, or regional or provide an arc for that particular curation. A theme sometimes helps compiling a selection. However most opt for a pick’n’mix veriety.
How many items to include?: Anything more than three is adequate. Do not get carried away with too many. If you are approaching ten then perhaps you might want to instead split and save some for the next day. There have been ocasions when we have put up daily with just one item when previous arrangements have failed or people were just too tired or forgot.
Editorial support: If you need editorial support, get in touch with the Group policy and operations team. We are available via kosmail or drop a message through comments in the latest daily open thread.
Using a template: Daily open thread has a sort of boiler plate. First intro section and the ending tail section have been specifically compiled to promote the group, community interaction, and support. Generally you can just copy paste from previous daily thread. The boilerplate content might undergo periodic revisions and changes by the Group policy and operations team.
Using a leading image: A decent bank of images have been uploaded to Daily Kos image library. They have been tagged with ForeignPolicy. When adding a leading image, in the image searchbox type ForeignPolicy. This will show all the images. Pick one. Or for an easier option just pick one of the ones that have been used in previous daily threads.
Using a tags: Be liberal with tags. Usually countries referenced are ideally tagged. As a standard in addition to other tags, we use two specific ones.
- FPOpenThread : We use this so that all Daily Open Threads by the group can be listed/searched/categorized together. It helps people locate or follow the daily from the team.
- OpenThread : This is a common tag used by various open threads. It helps people locate all open threads
- International : Due to limited number of international content diaries, this tag is used to categorize a general purpose tag that can be used to search, locate diaries with international content.
Check history: List of Previous Daily Open Thread: List of all FP&IE Daily Open Threads. This list might give you some ideas of things we have covered. This is just for examples.
Time commitment.
- Any time commitment you make should only be what is realistically posible. If in doubt assume that your availability is less than you think it is.
Hosting Frequency: This is very flexible. You can choose to do a one off, or on an ad-hoc basis. Get in touch with the Group policy and operations team. Or just drop a comment on the latest daily open thread if you feel like hosting a thread.
Regular Slot: If you would like to do a regular slot, these can be scheduled. Pick a frequency you would like to do. Once a week / fortnight / month.
Sending in suggestions for inclusion of articles.
If the suggestion is for inclusion in the next days daily thread then send a message to the host listed for the next day.
if you just want to share without hassle or complications, pop in to daily thread and post whatever you want to share as a comment.
Formatting and Queuing.
Formatting and editing skills / tips are generally built up over time. Some hints at tips available at https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/2/8/1482008/-New-Diarists-tutorial-for-formatting-drafts-adding-tags-publishing-options-and-editing
Pop into one of the many open threads that run in Daily Kos. Each daily open thread by Foreign Policy team has a table with all the listings of open threads. You can ask in whichever one is currently operating in the time window.
Coloured Boxes and Pretty Little Icons: Easiest is to just copy and paste from another diary. I usually just copy from previous open thread.
Queueing: While in draft, add to the publish group. Do not publish. Scheduling should be done from the group queue
View Queue → FP&IE Queue (list of diaries currently pending in the reblog/republish queue)
If you want to learn more about reblogging/queuing check DailyKos How To: Reblog / Republish Diaries (For Authors, Contributors, Editors) Scenario 5 is the one that is applicable.
Scheduling: This requires editor level access. If you are not an editor send a message to someone from Group policy and operations team, or ask any of the editors. Usually there is one lurking in one of the open Threads.
Trial Run.
If you would like to try out writing a daily open thread to see if it is something you might like to do then get in touch. We can arrange something.