The Dreaded Site Meta #3
This is another in a series (goodness knows when it will end) of meta posts intended to discuss site issues and help folks who have recently arrived to orient themselves. For more help for new folks please click on the Welcome, New Members link.
This post will be kind of a mish-mash of issues. We'll start with this one:
Ok, maybe that's overstating it some. 
Many folks have come here in response to events at another site and there is a quite reasonable attention to various aspects of that place.
Many other people are noticing that the attention given to that other site commands a lot of space on the community content page.
We are hoping that this focus will subside soon and people will move on and get about the business that we as liberal/progressive/lefties need to be doing; organizing around issues and working for change.
There has also lately been some further discussion about the length and complexity of posts.
We'd like to continue to encourage folks to make use of the open threads. The more that people use them, the more traffic they'll get and the more satisfaction that folks posting in them will have. Somebody just has to get the ball rolling.
We would ask folks to exercise some discretion about posting. There are times when a short post is completely reasonable, for example when you are announcing a liveblog. On the other hand, if you have 3 lines of breaking news about the election, please post it in the open thread. If you post it with a subject line that announces it is breaking news in large friendly letters followed by a brief indication of what it's about in the open thread and people get used to looking for breaking news there, then the posts that other folks spend a great deal of time researching, writing and polishing won't get lost in a deluge of announcements and breaking news posts.
If you are looking for those longer form articles, that is what we post to the front page. There are a number of front page writers at the site, but we are quite happy to post the good work of any participant there. We have a bias towards issues-oriented work rather than election advocacy.
Ok, some last bits of housekeeping...
Should you need to contact the moderators, click on the "Contact Us" link at the top of the page and in the "Category" box scroll down to "Contact moderator."
And finally, some really good news, we are making progress on the reply notification feature and if all goes well, within a couple of weeks it will be deployed.
Comments
Open Threads
Just to clarify, we have a Morning Open Thread every day and Evening Blues which functions as an Open Thread on week days around 3 pm Eastern. gjohnsit has been posting a News Open thread most days between the Morning Open Thread and Evening Blues, so there are three opportunities for posting breaking news or short clips for ideas.
Thanks as always, Joe, for your great "dreaded meta" posts. Even old dogs like myself learn something from them.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
thanks gulfgal...
i probably should have included that.
Thanks, Joe! In time, I plan to add a 'Policy'
Thread. It will most likely be a weekly post, though; the day of the week TBD.
The primary function will be to provide a receptacle for those of us who wish to address the many serious policy issues facing us, especially those pertaining to our Social Safety Net.
Very much appreciate your meta posts/policy directives--they are most helpful.
Mollie
"The obstacle is the path."--Zen Proverb
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Old news is no longer breaking news
If breaking news is to be posted in an open thread wouldn't it no longer be breaking news by the time you found it? Or never found it as I am sure many don't read the open threads. Aren't you really saying that this isn't a breaking news site, but rather one for more in depth articles? I have a need for breaking new or news period because of the media black-out of Bernie Sanders.
evening ethical...
what we're wondering is, what if people did read the open threads because they knew that that is where breaking news would be posted?
thinking about it, what is the difference between people watching an open thread and people watching a community page scroll by? is it the size of the headlines?
through the magic of html, you can make a headline
pretty large
to call attention to breaking news in your post
see?
breaking news!
heck, that could get somebody's attention and if that's not enough, you could change the color of the text.
it's really just a matter of site organization, not a statement that we don't value breaking news.
Suggestion
FWIW my suggestion is label open threads as "open thread" because some of them don't have that in the title of the post.
"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."
There is kind of a code, actually
If you see "Open Sesame", or today, "Openly Eccentric", and a few others in that vein, those are open threads. With quirky titles. And, they have some text to get the ball rolling, as is suggested in a post below. Getting ever farther below.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
afternoon rmw...
pretty soon the open threads will have a header, because i finally got off my lazy butt and created one.
it'll look like this:
Uh oh!
I am going to need technical training in how to incorporate the header in my Open Threads.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
heh, if you can cut and paste...
you can do this. it's not a big deal, it's just a line of code that gets added at the top of your post.
I don't know the difficulty in creating something like this
but could little tick boxes be added down near the tags section of the editor that automatically adds frequently used headers?
Just a thought, might not be worth much, I do smoke a lot of weed.
"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me
heh...
it sounds like a really cool, modern convenience. on the other hand, it sounds like something that would take a bunch of programming time and it's really pretty simple to copy and paste a line of code.
maybe i'm just being a luddite, though.
that will help
I must admit I was unsure about all the short essays...many like a comment. It's taken me a couple of weeks to begin to navigate and understand the layout of c99 land. Guess I'm slow, but it was a week before I really clued into the evening blues, and the great mix of music and news there...really like a daily news round up with music if you want to listen and read.
I'm still having difficulty remembering where on the site I read something I want to get back to. It is also a challenge to jump back and forth between comments from various diaries. But I'm working on being ept (as opposed to inept).
Thanks for all your work. I appreciate to site. And I'll make better use of the open threads too.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
afternoon lookout...
when the deluge of new users happened it kind of blew up the site in a number of ways. but, i think as folks get a little better oriented and start using the open threads to converse in, it will make the site easier to comprehend and navigate.
Thank you
Labeling this section will help I am unable to find it at times.
Nice. :)
Evening Blues already has a banner, so some indication, especially for new people, that it is an open thread would be good.
That is cool Joe! Thank you!
'Well, I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years, Doctor, and I’m happy to state I finally won out over it." Elwood P. Dowd "
Nice work Joe!
Let's start an art & design thread!
To thine own self be true.
I second that! More art and design please.
how about semi-open - at the beginning?
Starting with a little focus helps the writing muscles.
best, john
Strange that a harp of thousand strings should keep in tune so long
afternoon jabney...
all of the open threads thus far have had some sort of essay or focus created by the folks that volunteer to create them on any given day.
My take
In the early days when we were a small site, all the Open Threads had an essay by necessity to help spur discussion. Now that we are much larger, perhaps we do not necessarily need an essay attached to an Open Thread. I know that I volunteered to do one day a week in order to make myself write. But then, I think that without the Tuesday and Saturday Open threads, I wonder how many people would even know of and be entertained by hecate's amazing mind and wonderful writing? It is a balance that may need revisiting.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
heh...
i really like the open thread essays, i kinda hope that they continue.
down the road, we may grow to a point that we need to add open threads later in the day if traffic picks up to the point that the morning thread gets unwieldy because of its length.
Is there a way to see who
Has given thumbs up? If there isn't is this by design? Anonymous ratings I suppose has its good points as well as not.
“The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us”
― Voltaire
This is by design
for positive feedback to the writers. We do not have down ratings here and that is by design also.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Thanks for the reply
I usually use the rate function to acknowledge that I read the comment. I can understand though, by keeping it anonymous it helps to keep down posses or gangs and popularity contests, a good thing, though it leads to clutter of comments like this, but so what.
“The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us”
― Voltaire
Good.
Saves me from the embarrassment of having a sum total of negative votes.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” Voltaire
LOL!
This may have been asked before,
but is there a way to indicate to a poster that their comment has gotten a reply?
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
afternoon hd...
we are working on that now and that feature will be rolled out (hopefully within a couple of weeks) when we're sure that we've got it right. it will probably work similarly to what you are used to at that other site where you will see the number of replies to your comment on the "my comments" page in your profile.
Hopefully this week...
we'll get the reply notification system implemented. I'll know more tomorrow.
Wow! You're good! (n/t)
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
I believe that is in the works - n/t
Please help the Resilience Resource Library grow by adding your links.
First Nations News
I'd like 'Contact Us' to make a thread we can read
Using 'Send a Message' generates a thread so one can go back and read the whole dialogue. The Contact Us form disappears once it's sent, leaving no record that I could find.
The Contact Us form has a check box to send yourself a copy, but that sends the reply to my email, not to my c99 Messages.
I'd like for the Contact Us form and its replies to show up in my c99 Messages.
thanks for the input, cronewit...
we'll keep it in mind.
I haven't been reading the open threads
That's a habit I haven't yet acquired. So far I'm mostly lurking, though, and haven't written any new diaries. Thanks for the guidance, Joe. I've only been around here for a month or so, and am still a newbie.
Please help support caucus99percent!
afternoon dallasdoc...
we're hoping that the open threads will become a community conversation and discussion space where a lot of ideas can get attention, rather than having lots of short posts scrolling by where people might be unlikely to click on and participate in all of them.
I think the domination of the left by partisan dem sites is
a legitimate issue for the left just like corporate media censorship of authentic progressive voices. I wish someone would investigate who funds Kos, so we can learn more about motivation.
afternoon betterdemsonly...
following the money generally (to lots of left institutions) sounds like a worthwhile project. there is also the matter of influence through access that could be investigated as well.
i'd like to see somebody do that, too.
Probably a lot of the revenue comes
from the same corpo-hacks that fund all the MSM networks, and in particular, entites like Comcast which bring you your Internet connection. I imagine there's probably some donors that would rather not be outed (maybe campaign funding--like the DNC or RNC or something?)
Keep up the wonderful job!
The days are getting longer just like the membership list... long live spring!
Progressive to the bone.
afternoon je...
thanks, from chilly maryland where the winds were gusting up to 60 miles an hour last night and the temperatures went back down below freezing on my back porch. happy spring!
Is c99p now just a (leftish-leaning) political blog?
I ask not only because of the great number of essays now dealing solely with US domestic (Democratic party) politics, but also because that is what a number of new members are calling the site and that does seem to be how it is portrayed in JtC's "Welcome, New Members":
From that it seems the site is focused on politics and "community building" rather than "issues, policy, and the world at large" as shaharazade (and I) had thought.
Some clarification would help.
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
Some of us are working on righting the ship
Join us. See also Gerrit.
http://caucus99percent.com/content/open-thread-friday-april-1-2016
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
I'm confused by your question.
Essays are written by members. So, you could write some about the world at large, or about natural cleaning products, or about ISIS, or about the cool people you met in Egypt, or about your cat.
Not understanding your question. Are you wanting a more policy/world at large focused site?
hi dr...
if you look through the various meta postings, you will find, and i will reiterate:
we are an issues-oriented site.
we are a non-partisan site.
this site does not endorse any candidate.
this site does not preclude individuals from discussing elections or advocating for a candidate of their choice. we ask, but do not rigorously enforce that discussion of elections and candidates be centered on issues and advancing the cause of the (global) 99%.
this is the election silly season and elections are on people's minds. it seems to follow that there will be much discussion of election topics.
if there are issues that you wish to discuss that you feel are not getting the sort of attention that they deserve, feel free to start a discussion about those issues.
Am not an admin, but
seems to me that
would certainly encompass discussion of
That most people here are left-leaning should be obvious in the name of the blog, but I'm sure there are other persuasions across the spectrum here. Encompassing "discussing all facets of politics" is up to the readers/posters. Is there something you feel like you can't discuss? I guess I'm not real clear on the question....?
Instead, what about a thread just for dkos?
Go there and vent, scream, dump, and then leave it there?
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” Voltaire
afternoon thrownstone...
we don't want to in any way give support to the idea that this site is living to react to dkos.
this site has a direction and a life of its own that is quite distinct in many ways from dkos. we just happen to have here a largish collection of people who have been there and are now here. we are assuming that folks will get over their attachment to that site in time and get back to the business of making change.
kk...understood and agreed
once again my brilliance fades into obscurity...
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” Voltaire
uh oh...what does the thumbs up mean here?
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” Voltaire
I think the thumbs are meant to tickle :)
They're just meant as an approval type thing, I approve. I like. This is great. etc.. or even hey, I read it.. thumbs mean everything and nothing. It only depends on how gives the thumb for why and who gets the thumb.
I don't know if this is true or not but I've heard a thumbee has sued a thumber for inappropriate thumbery. But that's probably just an urban myth.
Hope this help!
With their hearts they turned to each others heart for refuge
In troubled years that came before the deluge
*Jackson Browne, 1974, Before the Deluge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SX-HFcSIoU
Here's a sign for you!
Oh...
I was concerned that there was an emerging consensus that my brilliance is fading into obscurity. One less thing to worry about.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” Voltaire
It may be that the politics are so prevalent only because it is
a cyclical thing that builds up over a 4 year period. Seems like after November things will smooth back out again because so much will have been decided. Kind of like donkey passing through the belly of a python. Nothing left to do when it comes out but analyze the pile of shit...while discussing other things, of course.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” Voltaire
Made me laugh!
Great analogy. Let's think about this: what is the gestation time for political bullshit? I propose that this is the interval between ingestion of some theory of dubious worth and its expulsion from the body politic. Warning: stay away from the rear!
Nearly all of my Wed Open Threads
have been on serious topics involving policy issues. I do not know if you read the Open threads, but for several months, I have written about wars, police brutality, the media, creeping fascism, and censorship among other topics.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
dkos withdrawal is a real thing
For some of us, dkos was our online orphans' house. And if some of our siblings want to turn their backs on the memory of Miss Hannigan, I understand the feeling. But some of us need more time. Habits, you know. Like avoiding anything called, "Front Page" - even if it were dominated by Nobel Prize winners. Too many Miss Hannigans at dkos. And that sort of reputation carries over to the new orphanages, even though it's unfair.
best, john
Strange that a harp of thousand strings should keep in tune so long
we understand...
please take your time and decompress fully.
I don't think it hurts with "recruitment" either.
I know I send lots of people from the GOS over here and it helps for them to see occasional posts on the reasons why we are here and why they should be here too.
I agree we don't want it to become wall to wall version of Dkos's Trump coverage but I don't see a big problem with people occasionally talking about why they like this place better.
It's kind of cathartic in some ways too, like talking about a loved one that has recently passed. Many of us feel like we did indeed lose a loved one when the cancer that has riddled Dkos came out of remission.
"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me
Is it OK to post music?
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
I believe so. As a matter of fact isn't that the premise of
one of the open threads?
"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me
What you talkin' bout Willis?
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
never...
just don't do it.
How do we do that. Post Vids?
Forgive me, I am old and basically computer illiterate
Orwell was an optimist
I wanna reply because
I am old too and not technically proficient. If you look at the tool bar immediately above the comment box, you will see all sorts of formatting buttons. Going from left to right are the buttons for adding a photograph, inserting a video, and creating a link. To insert a video is fairly easy. You click on the insert video button and in the drop down box, you put the video's link, not the embed code, but the link. Easy as can be. Even I can do it.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
It is EASY
The pictures, videos, and links can be posted more simply than anywhere else I have seen. Truly brilliant.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
Kewl. Will have to try it.
Kewl. Will have to try it. Love posting music vids
Orwell was an optimist
Kewl. Will have to try it.
Kewl. Will have to try it. Love posting music vids
Orwell was an optimist
They've made it easy for you, if you want one
video, and it will appear after all of your text: You just take the URL from the video (e.g., the one you get if click the Share button on YouTube) and paste it into the box that says Video URL.
What does NOT work is any attempt to control the start time for the video. YouTube allows you specify any time point in the video for it to play, but the c99 code that processes the URL strips that info off.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
if you want to control a youtube start or endpoint...
you have to use the embed code. you can modify the embed code by inserting &start=n after the video number in the code inside the quote marks (where n is the number of seconds into the clip that is your startpoint). the same works for &end=n.
Huh
I thought I tried every combination of embed vs shared, yadda yadda.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
will try that youtube trick later but might need an example
no, no, let me figure it out myself first, if I can! Gotta work but will make an attempt before too long.
It's not just OK, it's kind of a tradition around here!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
I, for one, would not even TRY to stop you !
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
I am very glad thesis place wants to be issue oriented.
I used to write on union things but they often got lost at Dkos. As this place grows in readership, it can help be a megaphone for organizing drives, boycotts, protests, etc.
afternoon tom...
we would very much welcome posts about labor issues, i hope that you will consider posting those sorts of articles here.
Greetings
from the Teamsters. I must have missed your union diaries. I miss a lot of things working nights.
Yayy! I sincerely hope that union things become
very much in vogue in the very near future.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” Voltaire
Thank you all for all of this. It means so much to me.
This place truly feels like my new home!!!
“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”
― Harry Truman
afternoon sensetolisten...
glad you are enjoying the site.
Thoroughly, Joe! Thoroughly!
Haven't been commenting as much as I'd like, but I check/read here 5 to 10 times a day, tipping and reccing, tons. Still checking TOS but MUCH less than I used to, and only do it now to keep a tab on the DNC MEME's being spread there and REC & TIP a select few comments to combat their BS narrative. As soon as this primary is over, I shall never visit TOS again. FULL STOP.
Love Love Love this place!!!!
“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”
― Harry Truman
searching for new comments
Could the New marker have an added character to make it possible to search long threads for new comments? Even a dot prior like .New would work. Currently there are always too many instances of the word new and even Cronewit. Thank you.
afternoon olinda...
good suggestion!
Will this meta essay...
deflea my pet possum?
it's pretty damned useless that way...
i have been trying to get it to go make me a sandwich and it just lays there on the screen and gathers more comments.
see ya after lunch.
No, but
it might help save what little is left of your hair.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Too late for that...
so now I use Pete, my pet possum, for a toupee, thus the need for defleaing.
....spew!!!!!!!!
That was part of a cookie that I was eating that just hit the monitor.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
See, gg
if you had a pet possum, it would clean that up for you. You really should think about getting one. They're a very versatile addition to any household and make magnificent toupees.
Pages