In which we invite users to think about ways this new platform can be used for the expressed purpose of the site: Electing more and better Democrats.
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 how to harness the power of DK4.
But first, if you would like to receive future editions of Welcome New Users in your mailbox stream, just go to our home page and click the little heart next to our group name in the right hand column.
Once you've done that, feel free to ask me any questions you have, and if I don't know the answers I'll go find 'em and bring 'em to ya (wink wink)!
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 by LaughingPlanet and myself, smileycreek. We hope that any attempt to revive this effort is appreciated by those who got the ball rolling, and especially the person who wrote literally dozens of such entries over the years.
So: How CAN We Harness The Potential of This New Site?
How do we use the new DK4 platform for the purpose of this site:
This site is about more and better Democrats, not necessarily in that order.
As kos recently remarked:
... ultimately, what has a direct impact is educating people, knocking on doors, making phone calls, donating money, casting votes. A diary that gets people to call their senator, but garners 20 comments, has far more impact than people arguing over whether Clinton has been good on Egypt policy (or whatever).
I offer one suggestion here, and invite your own strategies:
Start a Blog For Your Own Local Political Group
I was dismayed to see how the friendships and coalitions we had carefully nurtured disintegrated so rapidly after the 2010 midterm elections. DK4 began beta testing just as I was considering starting my own local blog, and it provided a free platform with all the bells and whistles I could hope for already in place. Just to see what would happen I started Butte County kossacks of CA-02, invited the few kossacks I knew, and posted an introductory diary. While the idea of a local blog was initially met with enthusiasm by local activists, I quickly encountered resistance to coming on Daily Kos. The site was just too big, too concerned with national events, and too difficult to figure out for many of them who are older and not as acquainted with online blogging.
My next step was to post an illustrated introductory diary that I emailed to each one of them that started with the basics. Yes, I had gotten phone calls from several who could not figure out how to even create an account on the site. Some I had to reassure that they could preserve their privacy and remain anonymous on the site.
I started with the basics, from
How to Create an Account and Log In:
to How to message me for an Invitation to the group:
to How to Accept an Invitation without hitting the wrong button (and yes, people DO hit the Confirm button by mistake):
to How to Find the Group, which they were then encouraged to bookmark as their portal into Daily Kos:
The diary (which gave written instructions to go with the images) then gave some etiquette about participating in comments along with Tipping and Recommending.
After that diary posted, 6 more people signed up, and several more locals will need another nudge or two from me to follow through. Many of them are talented writers and passionate advocates who will benefit from a forum for their views, and I'm counting on the magical community-building properties of Daily Kos to keep their interest. Caddis Fly has even started publishing Open Threads to get people talking.
I believe that building a group around local politics or a specific issue is one of the most powerful potentials of this new platform. When a crucial statewide issue comes up we'll be ready to join forces with other California based groups, like the San Francisco kossacks group.
What do you think? If you've considered forming a local group feel free to use any of these images. If you've already formed a local group, tell us about it in the Comments.
And now, onto some Tips and Hints for our less-new users still figuring out the site:
People and Groups to follow for DK4 News and Updates
or
Is Our kossacks Learning?
First, we republish as many helpful diaries as we can find in our blog list.
If you see one we've missed, please contact us or send it to our queue.
See also:
elfling: DK4 Project Manager
aoeu: Posts the Thursday Troolz updates on troll busting
kosbusters:. (Check here for Garrett's classic Moose and Squirrel strategy to keep your Group diaries secure. The User Profiles are pure genius!)
Cranky Users: They seem to be getting less cranky as bugs are squashed.
Is it a Troll?
As aoeu writes in his series Trools, after cautioning us to be kind to people who have lost their way or might be having a bad day:
some are up to no good. People experience conversion of one kind or another, an account gets hijacked, astroturf, ratfuck, psychotic, or Redstate. There it is. Right there in the thread. A troll. Maybe it wrote a diary. How to tell at DK4?
Here are three quick ways to tell if you're dealing with a troll:
1) Has the diary been published in Trolls?
(For those of you who miss seeing troll diaries on the front page, here's your collection!)
2) When you see a trollish comment and click on its profile, is aeou the only follower? (As in this example)
3) Has it been banned? In dk3 you could click on Subscriptions, and if the user could not accept Gift Subscriptions you knew it had been banned. Now an extra step is needed. Substitute the user's name for bigchin in this url http://www.dailykos.com/... and you will see that, indeed, gift subsciptions cannot be given. This may mean a banned troll, but it may also mean someone who has been suspended or has GBCW'd.
And while we're on the subject of Trusted Users, the only ones who can Hide Rate (HR) trollish comments:
WHAT'S IT TU?
Question: I put my heart and soul into writing an awesome diary that never made it to the front page. What's a person gotta do to get seen around here?
Answer: You need at least one Recommend from a Trusted User to get to the Front Page's Recently Recommended List. Here's how you do it:
1) Ask a friend who's a TU to give you a Rec.
2) Don't have any friends? Just pimp your new diary in an Open Thread and nicely ask for a TU's recommendation. So long as you're not a troll, someone will be happy to oblige!
If you're a Trusted User take advantage of your awesome new power by taking a look at the Diaries List on the front page and give a new deserving diary a Rec!
A Tip for those Homesick for DK3:
Complaint: I miss how the old DK3 worked-- I just want to see ALL the diaries!
Solution: Bookmark This Page View.
And, My Current FAVORITE Thing About DK4:
Diary Preview actually works. Unless you're putting together very complex diaries (cough, see JekyllnHyde), if it will Preview it will Publish.
No longer do I have to cut and paste my new diary into an old diary and see if it works. No longer do I think I've got it all sussed, hit Publish, and get that &^$#@! string of html errors.
It IS, however, a good idea to keep an offline copy of any diary you're working on. Just sayin'.
So, come join us in the comments for questions, declarations, frustrations, explanations and general frivolity. No question is too basic, and if you stump me with a question I WILL get back to you, as soon as I figure it out myself. And, as always, play nice!