Man Eegee volunteered to make up a guide for the Newbie that would help newcomers navigate the site and understand all its features.
Boy!! did he do a good job. I am going to post his effort below so that we can have a comments period, and then I’ll integrate this masterpiece into the FAQ and create a new page for newcomers. Go below the fold. -Boo
New User Guide |
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Welcome to the Booman Tribune! This page is a handy guide to show you how to navigate the site and fully utilize the SCOOP format. For more info on the Booman Tribune’s purpose, as well as a few ‘rules of the pond’, check out the Frequently Asked Questions page. First thing’s first, you should register as a user of the site. It’s free. You’ll find that the BooTrib will come alive when you register because you can see all of the features that will be explained below. Time to dip your toes in the frog pond: MAIN MENU At the top of the homepage you will see the Main Menu that has the following links:
DIARIES The diaries are the heart of the BooTrib community; they can be posted by any registered user and are listed on the right side of the homepage screen. You will find that the diversity of the community is reflected in the diary entries. We all come from different backgrounds, and in some cases, different countries. This gives us an opportunity to hear varying opinions on the world’s political news. You may find that the author’s viewpoint is different than yours; no worries, that is why there is a Comment feature on the site, which will be covered below. One day you may feel brave enough to submit your own diary entry to the site. Simply click on the “New Diary Entry” link in the menu bar at the top right of the homepage screen. While HTML knowledge is helpful, it’s not required to submit a text-only diary. If you want to spice up your entry with features such as web-links or pictures, check out user superscalar’s very helpful beginners’ guide to HTML. Here at the Booman Tribune, there is a lot of collective passion and in-depth knowledge about the political issues of the day. Sometimes a diary will grab your attention and will be something you want to re-visit later. The site has a handy feature called “Hotlist” that allows you to bookmark your favorite entries. To put a diary on your hotlist, click on the plus sign (+) next to the title. This will create a menu on the right side of your screen with your selected diaries for quick viewing. RECOMMENDED DIARIES You may be asking yourself why some of the diaries are considered Recommended. This site operates on a rating system that allows the community to highlight diaries that they feel provide excellent commentary on an issue. Any registered user can recommend a diary by clicking on the “Recommend this Diary” button on the right side of the entry. The diaries that have the most Recommends are featured. RECOMMENDED WORLD DIARIES One of the things that sets the Booman Tribune apart from other political blogs is the commentary by many bloggers outside the United States. Featured diaries by the international community are set apart in the Recommended World Diaries section. The same rules apply to these entries as the previous Recommended Diaries section. The authors’ country abbreviation is listed after their user name; for example: (GB) stands for Great Britain. COMMENTS The Booman Tribune is a democratic site. This means that dialogue and debate is encouraged for each of the issues raised. Every diary and front-page story has a comment function that allows users to interact with the author and fellow BooTribbers. Don’t overlook the spell-check feature when posting a comment, it’s there for a reason and helps with the flow of discussion. Comments can be viewed using several different views. They are:
Rather than completely confuse you on the different view options, you can play around with them while you’re reading the diaries. Choose the one you like the most. The default setting is Nested in case you were wondering. RATING COMMENTS As mentioned above, this site operates on a rating system; commonly known as ‘mojo’. Users are able to rate comments based on whether or not they feel the comment is helpful to the discussion. This does not mean that you should down-rate comments you don’t agree with. The ratings are used to frog-march any trolls, or pond scum, from the site. See the FAQ page for more info on trolls. The ‘mojo meter’ is as follows:
Users can give out mojo by clicking on the “Rate All” button that follows each comment on a thread. With this feature, you can submit all your ratings at once for a page after you’ve read through all the comments; rather than having to rate each comment individually. For a fun post on the community’s thoughts on mojo, check out this diary posted by the Booman himself. TRUSTED USERS After you have been on the site for awhile and gained some mojo, you may find yourself as a Trusted User. TU’s are BooTribbers who have accumulated a higher-than-average amount of mojo and interact regularly. If you become a Trusted User, you have a bigger responsibility to help keep the site running smoothly as well as welcoming newcomers like you. Who knows, you may even be asked to write a welcome page like this one! That’s about all for this Newbie Guide. On behalf of the rest of the Booman Tribune community, welcome to the frog pond and remember, Splash Nicely or be Frog-Marched! |
That is fantastic! ManEegee Rocks…
One little detail: When I tried to follow the links to the other diaries (ie, HTML guide, what is mojo?), none of the links in this version seem to be working.
The problem was WORD copying the wrong parentheses. Is it fixed now?
They all work (and I checked them all to be sure they went to the right place, too)!
Word is evil when you’re editing HTML.
Definitely. It clutters up the code with a bunch of nonsense. I tried to keep it as simple as possible so it will load quickly for our friends on dial-up.
Looks awesome and should help those who are blog challenged. Such as I once was and continue to be with the advent of so many different blogs available. thank you
WOW! Laura Bush thinks ManEegee is studly too.
Excuse me … it was a digression that the title demanded .. this is a great FAQ.
I love the friendly, comfy style of writing.
These sites have become second-nature to us. But, I can’t tell you how many times my daughter sent me links to a Daily Kos diary, and I’d go, read, and then I’d just stare at the page, overwhelmed. Then I’d leave. It took me a period of leisure time to get up the gumption to work through all the challenges at Kos. The Kos FAQ didn’t help me much at all.
Eeegee’s is a huge advancement. it’s so clear.
What an excellent job.
I had the same problems as CabinGirl with most of the links.
I have only one minor suggestion for the write-up:
In the section for Recommended Diaries it is stated that diaries with the most recos end up there (which obviously is correct), but for completeness, maybe also mention that the mojo of the diary diminishes with time – causing the diary to eventually drop off the list.
Should we add that, after a diary has been up on the Rec lists for a couple days, it’s nice — I think — to Unrecommend a few of the diaries so that other, new diaries have a chance to climb up?
(I originally got the Unrecommend idea from a diary that MaryScott posted at Kos, and it seemed like a neat way to get more people’s diaries on the Rec list.)
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Please, no tactical mind games!
Let your heart speak by recommending while you read and when a decision is made. The feature unrecommend should be used for diaries gone wayward in discussion phase.
BooMan’s algorithm should take care of the length in time and decay, for the recommended diary to stay up!
The number of recommendations is like a Tip Jar, stays with the diary as expression of reader’s appreciation.
Daily Kos is flexible and recently changed their criteria. One difference is, at dKos you can Unrecommend but blocks a chance to Recommend again. Method of false play. At dKos after a period of time the diary is up, the recommend, rating and comment feature is disabled.
System should be fair, honest and straightforward.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
If a diary has outlived its usefulness, it should be unrecommended to make room for others. Example: If a live debate on the floor of Congress is being covered by C-SPAN and a diary has been posted to comment on the debate in real-time, sometimes the diary will become unwieldy. In such cases it’s common to start a new diary, titled “Debate Part II” or something similar. When this happens, if the original diary is on the recommended list it’s good etiquette to unrecommend the original diary to make room for the followup.
I don’t know if this has ever happened here but it happens on other sites all the time (no names, koff koff) and we should be prepared for the eventuality.
My gut feeling for the Newbie Guide is that we shouldn’t get too specific regarding Recommends/Unrecommends. I’d rather leave it simple and if a diary author specifically asks for Unrecommends, then we go from there. Thoughts?
Sorry, I got carried away. 🙂
But maybe that should go into the FAQ, Booman.
I wasn’t proposing a game. I was proposing a way to make room for more diaries to make the recommended list. And Booman will watch out for such things, but it’s okay to unrecommend a diary that’s been up for two-plus days to make room for more.
we should have our own BooTrib drinking game…
Each time BooMan or a Boo’per says Frog-marched you have to drink… okay, nevermind, I’d turn into an alcoholic in a matter of days… 😉
Great user guide Man Eegee!
Alcohol poisoning! We almost all expired the night I foolishly proposed we drink everytime someone said f–k on Deadwood.
Good point Susan! I wrote that last night then went out to play pool with the hubby at a local bar… it was a stressful week so we decided to (ahem) drink a lot. It’s now 3:30 on the east coast and we finally made it out of bed an hour ago.
Which totally messed up our plans for enjoying this lovely spring day by going bike riding… tonight I drink tea, write and try to recover!
Do recommends affect a user’s mojo? Or only comment ratings?
If recos do, then it may be unfair to unrecommend simply to free up space (there may be other valid reasons)?
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In special circumstances mentioned by Omir and MaryScott, when author has a new follow-up diary, he could request to UNRECOMMEND.
Not fair for other reasons beyond author’s request.
The only instance I got a troll rating at dKos was at my own request, to hide a thread in the PropaGannon investigation not meant for lurkers to read.
Recently on World Diaries Recom list, due to lack of other authors, there was a moment when four of my diaries were still listed. Trick I used, was to make sure when World authors showed up with a new diary, they got a RECOMMEND hit from me and problem was solved.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
Yes, if I remember correctly, a diary loses a quarter of it’s mojo ever 8 hours. So, after 32 hours, you lose all your mojo from a given recommend. Also, if you recommend, unrecommend, and recommend again, it will not defeat the system.
Okay I’m here, just got into the office. Thanks for the kind (and hilarious) words. Feel free to critique away, this was the first draft.
Perhaps you should mention that diaries do not have to be political and can be personal as well since we have many fine and interesting personal diaries on this site with some truly wonderful writers and we do learn a lot from the personal diaries. Something along those lines and maybe a reference to the tell us about you diary, which I update reg. and say please feel free to do this so we can learn about you………and so on…
Forgot to add that I too think you did a great job, excellent in fact, just a few tweaks here and there, perhaps for it’s final form.
Thx diane. Keep the suggestions coming everyone!
Along with Diane mentioning the personal can make for great diaries and generate lots of discussion you might add that all diaries do not have to be completely serious.
Someone like Bood Abides does wonderfully creative diaries that are always fun yet do have a political point also.
If this has already been mentioned and I missed it chalk it up to well I don’t know what exactly but consider me chalked.
And I agree with everyone that this is wonderfully concise and easy to understand guide. Thanks ‘Man’.
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Excellent Man Eegee! Love the Natural Feel in your approach of writing on a difficult topic like FAQ.
Keep it pleasant and CONCISE – it’s precious!
In a recent diary, many suggestions were put forward to Nanette, on sort of A Mission Statement. Perhaps those should be compiled in a separate WELCOME PAGE for NEWBIES.
BooTribs came forward with some fine tips and inputs. Should be reread and followed up.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
Excellently done, Man Eegee! I love the friendly, conversational approach, and how everything is laid out in a simple, easy to understand manner. Why don’t we just make this one the “user/community” guide?
Not that I’m trying to get out of doing the community guide, ::cough::, but much of it would be covering the same territory, and I think this is done so nicely. If needed, we can add some of the points brought up in the “The BooTrib is…” diary, to add a little to what is sort of expected in the community and all that. Less clicking for people :).
And then that would just leave the FAQ to be updated to reflect the BooTrib community.
What do you think?
Great job ManEegee. have to tell you I lived in Tucson for eight years, worked for America Weat and Eegees was always in our breakroom freezer to cool down after working a flight on a ramp at 117 degrees in the summer was tops! Thanks for doing this Man!
Should read America West…spellcheck is there for a reason Leezy…lol!
Lol. No worries, we won’t call the diary police on you. Major props to you for surviving the heat at the airport. I never understood why that was the city’s official weather gauge, it seems to be the hottest area; but I digress, back to procrastin….er working.
It does make a great spot for fabulous sunsets though. How hot was it Lee? Before we would work the flight we would hose ourselves down and by the time(20-30 min)the flight went back out we were dry. Sure do not miss those days my friend. My sister still lives there. Was down for a visit in Feb.
What a stellar contribution! The style so perfectly aligns with the site’s persona. It’s warm, welcoming and very easy to understand. (And I thoroughly enjoyed the “pond scum” descriptor.) Following are a couple items that came to mind.
It would be helpful for me to better understand the scope of your project compared to Nanette’s. For example, would it be appropriate to include something about advertising in either of the documents?
I have one (very minor) suggestion with the wording. In the last sentence of the first paragraph in the Diary section, I suggest that you alter the verbiage about comments to include more than just disagreeing with the author’s viewpoint. (For example: You may find that the author’s writing inspires you to share your own perspective on the subject. . .)
Most importantly – thank you for the fabulous contribution in support of this site. You’ve reflected the spirit of this community so very well – both in the content of the document and your actions in taking on the project. And for that, sir, you deserve mojo for life!
Thx Anomalous, good suggestion regarding the sentence, it seemed alittle out of place when I was re-reading everything this morning. I was slightly delirious last night by the time I got to the end, HTML will do that sometimes. Keep ’em coming everybody! (any lurkers around who have some thoughts?)
It’s far, far easier for us to provide feedback with fresh eyes, than it is to create the original document. I hope more people take the time to read it and provide input. The more eyes, the better. (Except, of course, when you’re heading up a corporate project involving representatives from 20 different departments, each with their own personal agendas and baggage. In those instances, it’s much more productive to work alone. 🙂
I agree on the style, I think it’s perfect.
Well, they are basically the same thing, only I think there should be only one (this one). No need to have 3 or 4 things for people to have to click around in. I think this, as a general overall community guide, incorporating the flavor of the suggestions in the “BooTrib Community is” diary, and then a FAQ for more detailed explanations of stuff like trolls and recommends and unrecommends, and all that.
Thanks Nanette. I’d likely have a better understanding if I hadn’t been horsing around so much on your diary, when I should have been helping you with productive comments. If I can redeem myself by assisting you in any way now, let me know.
Yup. That’s me. Jump in to offer my help as soon as you mention the project is near completion. :^)
Hey now 😉 horsing around is great fun! No need to redeem yourself, you gave me a good laugh, which is always welcome.
If no one objects to their just being one community guide, I think if we can combine this and get just the flavor of the combined ideas in that other diary, it would work fine. Sort of a “Don’t tread on me… because I’m a frog and I’ll squish” thing, maybe. (just kidding).
How good are you at weaving threads together?
I’m interested in hearing Booman’s take on this. My intention with this guide was to show someone how to use Scoop if they had never used it before. Here’s the original call for volunteers:
The community guide, I thought, would incorporate the ideas from the BooTrib Community diary as well as some of the detailed info (like trolls), from the DKos stuff. Wow, I’m confused.
Sorry if I “squished” you Nanette! You’re doing a great job on pulling stuff together for your part of the project!
No, no, no… I’m not being squished! See? this is why I don’t do snark or humour… I’m terribly bad at it ;). I was saying that was the flavor of the posts in the diary… basically, a “don’t tread on me” type thing… don’t fence me in, don’t put me in a box, don’t… well you know.
I’m thrilled that you have done such a good job with this, I think it’s fantastic and that the tone of it is really reflective of the site and the people and so on. I can still tweak Pastor Dan’s community guide and also the FAQ, but then we have two community guides. Which is fine, but seems to me to be unnecessary. Yours is simple enough for new users, and with a bit of tweaking and maybe combining from Pastor Dan’s, should also suit old users as well. And then the FAQ for really detailed stuff.
That’s just my view… I’m willing to go either way, although I won’t have time to really get to either one until Sunday or so, cuz of a deadline thingy (the wages of procrastination and all that… ).
Welcome to my world! (Always having to ‘splain myself) As soon as I saw M.E.’s apology to you, I nearly spewed a mouthful of water on my laptop.
Realistically speaking, it comes with the territory of any project such as this. I know far too many people who would’ve “subtley” mentioned something about a frog being squished when they were really talking about their portion of the project. And being the gentleman that he is, M.E. had to make sure that’s not what you meant.
FWIW, I knew what you were saying. But the outcome was worth it, because for once it didn’t involve me! (And again, I find myself saying “Woo Hoo!” :^)
LOL yes, I should have thought of that. And don’t worry, I’ve lived in your world for a while now… I’m usually a fairly serious, reserved person at first, so when I do joke, people tend to take me seriously! (Which could get to be quite inconvient for them, if I was the pratical joke playing type ;). Thanks for your sympathies, lol.
I should explain that I’m a pinko-commie socialist pagan heathen lib (and whatever other lables have been bestowed upon me) and I’m not in the least bit territorial. Best person for the job, and all that.
Well, unless it involves chocolate tasting or something, but that’s different.
If “weaving threads together” means that I end up volunteering myself to do actual work, then I’m really, really bad at it!
But seriously :-), if you’re referring to anything involving technology – I suck. No ifs, and or buts about it. (I’m still flying high because I figured out how to use “bold” and “italics” in HTML. Woo hoo!)
However, if you’re talking about weaving together documents from a writing perspective, I might be of some help. (But, um, if there’s a deadline involved. . .I kinda backed myself into a corner with some client project deadlines. . .all because of that damn aforementioned horseplay)
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Great New User Guide
Thanks so much for your excellent style, content and production!
FOR FAQ PAGE —
Booman Tribune has been around since March 2005, …
How do I post a comment?
[Last sentence]
Add the text of your comment directly in the large box. For a lengthy contribution use your word processor and copy and paste the info into the box. Allowed HTML is listed below the comment box, see HTML definitions.
It is useful to Run Spellcheck or use Preview to check format of you entry, specifically when a picture is added check it’s width, pic should not surpass “420” and ruin the thread.
Bill Saffire mention NYT registration?
So what about cross-posting diaries from other web sites?
COPYRIGHT – add a line about article and image copyright!
WELCOME for NEWBIES and Introduce Yourself Page – see comment Diane101.
PS Minor item — add to “Hotlist”
To UNDO click on the (-) sign.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
Okay. . .I’ve been wanting to ask you this for some time, and it’s Friday night, all casual and stuff, so here goes.
Why is there a dot at the top of all your comments? When I’m feeling extra paranoid it sometimes concerns me – like it’s a tracking device or something.
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Good observation, the dot must have a special meaning, like a microfiche. It gets the focus of all attention, so content is not read.
No, in reality on a dot you can write enough memory to load all text of these comments. More or less like the cells of the eye of a fly on the wall. Very minute …
Making any sense of it?
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
Now that I actually read your comment (rather than just asking about your dot), I have a few items to add.
1) Where did you get the Kos text in the box? I agree with a little background information about BT, such as the start date of the site, and maybe being an offshoot of DKos, but the way the text reads it seems more of a promotion of DKos vs. Booman, and I think this site needs to start distancing itself to develop its own identity. (But I might be missing the whole point of that part of your comment)
2)This is going to sound amazingly anal retentive, but there’s a reason I’m about to make this suggestion. For comments, you said “Add the text of your comment. . .” I’m embarrassed to even have to say this. . .but. . .I’d suggest that it be “Type the text. . .” Being completely new to this world, I take everything literally. So if you say “add the text”, I’m going to freak out and wonder where I’m supposed to add it from. (Yes, sad but true) (Sadder yet, many years ago, when I was on a business trip to Pittsburgh, a road sign said “McKnight Road Trucks”. I knew I had to take McKnight Road, but, um, I assumed there would soon by a sign that said “McKnight Road Cars”. (Good Lord, I can’t believe I just shared that!)
If you want to spice up your entry with features such as web-links or pictures, check out user superscalar’s very helpful beginners’ guide to HTML
versus
Allowed HTML is listed below the comment box, see HTML definitions
Ahh, the fleeting nature of fame ;-).
There’s nothing fleeting about fame on the internets! Just ask Jimmy/Jeff who witnessed the power of Google archives used against him. 😉 I thought about just mentioning the code, but your diary had good instructions and visuals of what the html produced. Thanks again!
If I were a newbie and I saw
Allowed HTML is listed below the comment box, see HTML definitions
I wouldn’t have a clue what that meant. “Allowed”? Am I in some kind of trouble if I inadvertently use some “forbidden” HTML? Will it break the blog? Will someone yell at me?
“HTML definitions”? Define HTML!* Actually, I have two web sites and a blog of my own (rarely updated, but still), I’ve been hanging out at dKos and then here since last October, and I’m still mystified by the phrase “HTML definitions.” It seems an obscure way to say it.
Nope, I like it just as you wrote it, ME. Great job.
(*Yeah, yeah, I know. HyperText Markup Language. I think.)
I really like how you presented the user guide. I still consider myself a newbie at this whole thing, I felt welcomed and didn’t get confused with the explanations. I actually learned a couple of things from just reading it.
I also really liked the tone of it all. You made it to where everyone is welcome…I think that’s very important, especially for a “Newbie” guide.
Awesome job! I’ll hook you up with more tea 😉
hehehe, NO MORE TEA! (in case anyone cares, I have formed a minor addiction to hot chai tea every night. Mmmmmm)
Well done!!!
As others have remarked, I think one of your main successes here was in the very easy style you manage to convey. A difficult task given the dry nature of the information.
Kudos.
In light of Diane’s immense energy surrounding the personal details of member’s lives, would it add value to the site if you had a link in the upper right hand corner for member bios? I mention this because someone was posting very peculiar comments – to the point where I felt the need to track down the member’s background – in an attempt to determine a basic level of psychological understanding of where that person may be coming from.
Considering the “tell us about yourself” diaries are spread out all over the place, and I had to dig deep to find the information I was looking for, a separate section near the FAQs might add value and present another means to set this site apart from others (reflecting the hominess of the site, for example).
On the other hand, I know there are many people out there like me who are tremendously private. If someone is willing to tweak those diaries to combine them into one document (while eliminating the extraneous conversations within those diaries), it might be a good addition. (Or not – just a thought)