Welcome to new and old users alike from this month's host smileycreek. Our group is here to help you orient yourself to the site and answer questions about how to use it.
When you join us below the orange gnocchi-doodle you'll find both basic and more advanced tips for navigating the Comments sections of diaries. Below that you'll find links to a whole Welcome New Users trove of teaching diaries.
After that you can ask us 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 'em and bring 'em to ya (wink! wink!). ]
AND-- if you're new and wondering what is and isn't OK around here, read Kos' Community Guidelines. That'll keep you out of trouble!
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.
Do you read the comments that follow every diary? Ever find yourself lost in confusion as to who is replying to whom? Do long comment threads make your browser (or your iPad) crash? Want to know how to ignore pie fights? Follow us below for tips on how to quickly navigate the comments sections with ease.
How to Set Comment Preferences
Comment Preferences can be set on your Profile page, accessible through the Welcome Back Box in the right hand column. The above image shows how I've set my preferences.
I keep a default Comment Display Mode set to Shrink for ease of reading on my iPad and to make long comment threads easier to navigate. If your browser is slow or if a comment section is heavy with pictures and music videos it will load much faster if you keep the comments shrunk.
I set Auto Refresh so that new comments automatically update as they're posted. If this makes your computer screen jump around too much in fast-moving threads you can turn this function off.
I also like to read Hidden Comments because, well, I not only find them entertaining but informative as to what right-wing push-back the site is getting at any given time. Note: You will only see this option if you are a Trusted User, which is automatically bestowed on users in good standing after three months of involvement. If you don't like the distractions, diversions and pie fights hidden comments can create (along with some truly top-notch comedy), just turn them off and, in some diaries, you'll miss a great deal of noxious volume and back-and-forth fighting.
What's the Best Way to View Comments-- Expanded or Shrunk?
This is, of course, personal preference, so feel free to play around with the settings. At the end of each diary, and at the top of each comment section, you will see the same toggle choices to Shrink/Expand comments or turn Auto Refresh on or off. And look-- you also have the option to Hide all the comments completely! Again, this comes in handy if you're using an iPad or mobile device in a diary with a very long comments section that keeps crashing your browser. If you're not interested in the discussions just make 'em all go away.
Since I keep my comment preferences in my profile at Shrink, here is where I can decide which strategy will work best for a given diary. It's easier to skim through the comments titles in a lengthy comment section and decide which users or sub-threads to ignore (yes, you can ignore things you don't like). I pass on most race-to-the-right-hand column threads, which generally consist of a small number of people hashing out a dispute. It's often easier to hit Expand to read a shorter comment section. Which brings us to....
The Mystery of N/T
This is one of the most common questions we get in the Welcome New Users mailbox: What does N/T mean in a comment title?
N/T means "No Text" and is there to alert people they don't need to expand that particular comment to read the body of the comment, which will be empty. Less frequently seen, but with the same purpose, is EOM for End of Message.
More Things to Like About the Shrink Function:
In the visual example above, I was enjoying this Daily Bucket diary and returned several times to view new comments that had been posted. They're easy to pick out here-- just look for the red [new] box in front of unread comments.
An advanced trick for finding new comments: On your PC, hold down the Control Key and the F button. Inside the rectangular box that pops up in the upper right hand corner type [n and all new comments will be highlighted in yellow.
It's also easier for me to keep track of who is responding to whom when comments are shrunk. More on this below under the explanation of Parent comments.
If you've written a diary that's getting a lot of comments, try the Shrink mode and see if it makes it easier for you to spot new conversations and users that have popped up.
How do I Expand Just One Comment?
Simple-- just click the grey arrow that points to the right. The comment will open.
How Do I Expand or Shrink an Entire Comment Thread?
This is the best trick of all. Hold down your Shift key and click the grey arrow. The grey arrow will now point down and every Reply to that initial Parent comment will open up.
Here's what the same comment section from above looks like after holding the shift key and clicking on the right-facing arrow. All the replies to jersyblue's Parent comment open up and now display downwards-facing grey arrows, while the comments for the rest of the diary remain shrunk down.
The reverse holds true if a lengthy thread holds no interest for you. Just hold down the shift key and click the downwards facing arrow. The entire thread will collapse to just the comment headers.
How and When to Recommend Comments
When Do I Recommend a Comment?
To participate in the comments you will first need to Log In. If you're brand-new and logged in you'll see a small box to check marked Recommend. If you're a Trusted User you'll have a Recommend box and a Hide box.
If you like a comment, by all means recommend it. Don't be stingy! I make it a habit to recommend all comments in a diary of mine as a way of saying "Hello! I see you! Thanks for coming by!" That is, of course, unless the comment is nasty, unpleasant, or says something I can't endorse.
Can Recommending the Wrong Comment Get Me in Hot Water?
Yes, it can, but it should be obvious when you shouldn't. If a comment has any Hide Ratings and no positive ratings, shown as negative numbers like ( 0+ / 1-) after the comment title, you should think twice. Look for an explanation as to why it was Hide Rated. Did it violate kos' Community Guidelines? Is someone being a dick? Uprating such a comment can get your rating privileges taken away.
Why Can't I Recommend a Comment?
1) You aren't logged in.
2) The rating period has expired. Comments can only be rated for 24 hours.
Why is No One Recommending or Responding to My Comment?
If you are brand new and no one is responding to or recommending your comments, don't despair. You may have commented in a diary that is over 24 hours old, which may happen if you came across it on Facebook or in an email blast that got to you a day or two after the diary was posted.
You may also have posted at the bottom of a lengthy comment section where you're less likely to be noticed.
Keep commenting in a variety of diaries, especially those marked open thread or community diaries. If all else fails, re-read the Community Guidelines to make sure you're not wandering into territory that will get you ignored or even Hide-Rated.
How to Post Comments and Replies
There are two ways to comment:
Post a Comment
You'll see this button at the very top and the very bottom of every comment section.
This posts a comment in reply to the diarist that will be listed in order of when it was posted; i.e. at the bottom of the comment section. This becomes a Parent comment that will have [Reply to This] appended at the bottom of it when published.
[Reply to this]
You can reply to any individual comment by clicking this. Now you are replying directly to a commenter rather than directly to the diarist.
Note that each comment (except a non-customized Tip Jar) becomes a new Parent comment that can be replied to. Every Reply is indented to the right. Sometimes a comment makes little sense unless you know who and what is being replied to. When that happens just click Parent and you'll be taken to the original comment everyone is hanging their replies off of. In some cases this might be a considerable way upstream. If so, shrink all the comments down and look leftwards and upwards to locate the Parent comment.
For Advanced Users:
I'm copying this wonderful explanation belinda ridgewood gave a confused new user about why she was seeing Parent links and no Reply to this links in an entire diary's comment section.
Parent and Reply to this are two entirely different and independent things, not either/or. A comment might have one or both or neither.
Let's call whatever comment we may be looking at right now the "current comment". Parent is a link that takes you to the comment our current comment is in reply to. In a thread where active discussion is taking place, it's not unusual for most comments to have a Parent link. Someone comments initially, replying directly to the diary, and that starts a discussion with other people. That first comment has no Parent link, but everything under it, replying to it or to a reply to it, does. Parent links stay there forever.
In contrast, Reply to this links are temporary. Every comment has one to start with, except for some "tip jars" (the first comment in the diary, always by the diarist.) The diarist has the option of allowing replies to this comment or not. Other than that, diaries and their related comments are open for replies for ten days. (The ability to recommend comments goes away sooner; the ability to recommend diaries never goes away.) When ten days pass from a diary's publishing, the Reply to this links disappear from all its comments. At that point, no more comments can be made in that diary's thread at all.
Of course there is an exception -- isn't there always? Some popular past diaries are resurrected by Daily Kos staff as "Classics" and re-advertised in the email blasts they send out. When they re-open such a "classic", the ability to comment there comes back for another ten-day period.
Thank you for coming by Welcome New Users today, and check out some more helpful material below:
Please also check out the buddy system over at the New Diarists group. While WNU and New Diarists do quite a bit of cross-pollinating, there is one essential difference between us: Over at New Diarists you can request a 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 Resource Diaries. Note: The New Diarists groups also welcomes experienced diarists who would like to be mentors.
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!
For More Helpful Diaries, Check Out Our Archives:
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 and including the list of teaching diaries republished to our Group page.