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.
Below the orange gnocchi-doodle you will find links intended to get you participating more effectively. Also in this edition are answers to questions that have been moldering in the Welcome New Users mailbag (also known as Messages, or kosmail*).
After that you can ask me any questions about the site you want. If I don't know the answers someone smarter is bound to be along who does, or I'll go find the answers 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, going back to WNU founder ek hornbeck.
* Other diaries in the Welcome New Users Series.
* The Welcome New Users dKosopedia page.
* The list of teaching diaries republished to our Group page.
Wanna follow us around or send us a kosmail?
Click the ♥ to follow us in your Stream, or click Send Message to send us a private kosmail. Please note you must be a registered user for one week before you can send kosmail.
Greetings, everyone, Welcome New Users is back from hiatus.
LaughingPlanet, who resurrected the group from an earlier hiatus is off gleefully wandering the globe but he gave me the keys to the car, so for now it will be just me with an assist from the
New Diarists folks. This recent absence on our part explains the backlog of unanswered kosmails in the WNU Messages folder. I'll bet some of you forgot you even wrote. I know
I forgot that only individuals, not groups, are notified of new Messages.
Here's how it works:
If someone sends you a private Message (aka kosmail), you'll see this notification in your Welcome Back box (only it won't have a red arrow pointing towards it). Click on it for your personal private Message.
You can also change your settings so that you also get an email notification anytime someone sends you a private Message on Daily Kos. This is especially helpful if you're not on the site every day, or not in the habit of glancing over at your Welcome Back box.
How to get an email notification when you have a private Message:
First, click on Edit Profile at the bottom of your Welcome Back Box.
Second, scroll down past where you enter your Signature, and you'll see this:
Set your email preference to On and you'll get notified of a private Message.
(Only paid Subscribers have the ability to turn ads off.)
Anyway, I am embarrassed to say, in the intensity of medical issues last year I just sort of forgot that when your
group gets a message, you don't get notified. Your Welcome Back box doesn't light up, you don't get an email, nothing. You have to go look for it. And I didn't. But I'm back now, and I will from now on. Promise!
WNU Privacy Policy: While I may publish a question you send me privately, I will not publish your name.
So, let's get to some questions:
Y U no answer my kosmails?
See my sorry excuse above. In future you can kosmail me with questions you're too shy to ask in public (I may publish your questions, but I will not publish your name) or suggestions for future diaries. And I will remember to check the Group messages.
How do I join your group?
You really don't need to join the group to follow us, but if you really want to just send us a kosmail, which is explained above. Handy, eh? We'll then send you an invitation. If your previous request got lost in the ethers, please send another. If you do join the group you will be able to submit teaching diaries to be listed in the queue. Otherwise, to have our diaries show up in your Stream, just click the little ♥ next to our name. Again, see illustration above.
I do not understand hardly anything about kos. I write stuff sometimes but no one sees it and they are editorial essays. I do not know what the difference between those and diaries. Please help!
This sounds to me like a job for the buddy system over at the New Diarists group. While WNU and New Diarists do quite a bit of cross-pollinating (hey, it's spring!) there is one essential difference between us: Over at New Diarists they will assign you a personal mentor who will help you learn how to write and publish a diary that won't get you publicly consigned to Worst Diary Hell at the GOS (Great Orange Satan, as we are affectionately known among wingnuts). Just send them a kosmail asking for an invite! Also check out their diary archives.
Note: The New Diarists groups also welcomes experienced diarists who would like to be mentors.
It would be nice for the New Diarists group to do a post on common abbreviations in DK. Things that confuse even us old farts must really be confusing to new Kossacks who must wonder what n/t, FIB, OT, IMHO and many other common abbreviations mean.
That's a great suggestion, and it's in the works for a future diary. In the meantime, I encourage everyone in the comments to start adding abbreviations they'd like to see in a future glossary. Meanwhile, here's a previous WNU diary that explains some terminology, such as the origin of Pie Fights and more.
(What, BTW, is FIB?)
Got questions? Comments? Ideas? We're all ears-- just join us in the comments. And remember: Since this diary is for New Users no question is too basic, no matter how long you've been here!