Welcome, New Users, to 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 of this diary you will find some links intended to get you participating more effectively. Also in the Body this week is a discussion of user #one million.
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).
Before we begin, a brief word from our sponsor:
Everyone is encouraged to review some of the previously written goodness that survives here in the DKos archives.
* Other diaries in the Welcome New Users Series.
* The Welcome New Users dKosopedia page.
And finally, as DarkSyde eloquently stated:
With the exception of trolls, we're glad you're here!
Note:
The realm of Welcome New Users has evolved. For now, it will be hosted alternately sporadically by smileycreek, myself, LaughingPlanet and anyone else who is a glutton for punishment. Anyone is welcome to volunteer to host a WNU diary. We hope that any attempt to revive this effort is appreciated by those who got the ball rolling, especially the person who wrote literally dozens of such entries over the years.
So, now about that question raised by the headline...
Question
Will we ever see user #1,000,000?
Answer
We may or may not.
Keep reading for an explanation...I promise I will explain.
But first, to answer some of your questions that I have just made up on my own...
If I am user #1,000,000, do I get a prize?
Not likely!
But good luck with that!
So how close to 1,000,000 are we?
Well, according to BruinKid's latest tally
We've added 363 more users in the last three days.
The days of 1,000-2,000 new accounts per day here are gone, so we may have a long wait for UID one million to appear.
However, just this week the email list surpassed 1 million accounts, so we got that going for us.
But for now...
Welcome to
johnbradleycopeland user #984317, our newest memeber, and That wood b me user #984000!, the newest user with a bunch of zeros in his UID.
That means we need only 15,683 more spammers New Users to register to Daily Kos before we cross that arbitrary yet significant milestone.
If we average say 150 new users/day, within the next few months, this site will likely add its one millionth registered user. I would imagine the rate will exceed 150/day as we draw closer to #1,000,000, but then again, maybe the whole discussion will be rendered moot by then.
Will it even be noticed?
Wait, what?
Yes, UIDs may be a thing of the past soon here. It was announced at NN13 that a future iteration of DKos will likely do away with the longstanding practice of showing the User ID (UID) # of its users, meaning the chronological number of people as they signed up.
I am UID# 160810. Scroll over this link of my name (LaughingPlanet) and it should show in the lower left of your browser. Do the same with any user in the comment section and it will show you their UID. For now.
Kos himself intimated at the DKos caucus that he finds too much factionalism and discrimination toward never users. So much so that he seems dead set on removing the UID# thing from the site altogether. Of course, I will always make a point of pulling rank reminding people I have been here for a while. Some of us who have been here even longer than myself have tattooed their UID on their body (in case they forget it?)
This may create quite an uproar if it happens. I welcome such a kerfuffle, as it will surely distract from the latest boring meta-wars in the false SUX/ROX equivalence.
So you are saying Daily Kos is Communist then?
In terms of all of us being equal? I guess so.
Kos merely wants the crusty old-timers to give more credence to the younger/newer voices on the interwebs. Most of us have fallen prey to looking at the source of a comment versus its content. I often look at comment ratings and diary recs (seen in the box on the right side of the user page) of a user to see which perspective they are coming from.
Perhaps this will have to suffice in the future as opposed to simply seeing "NEW USER" due to the UID and not actually looking further into the context.
Kos's theory seems to be playing out. If we continue to get good posts from new users such as this #2 hit from today's HIP list, the plan to end people's hierarchical viewpoints may be terminated. Perhaps those who never wanna give UIDs up should take a screen grab now, or better yet, get their UID tatooed on their person before they become quasi-obsolete.
Other than that, feel free to check in with any comments about the site, its newer users, or anything else on your mind.
Remember the old adage:
There is no such thing as a stupid question! *
*
Only stupid people
;-)
