ObamaFamily --
This is the *DRAFT* of a set of Community-Generated Guidelines & Tips for ObamaBloggers. The goal is to improve & enhance the ObamaBlog experience for individual Bloggers and the entire ObamaBlog Community.
Please click on "Read More" to see the full *DRAFT* and leave Comments & Suggestions in the Comments section.
Thanks!
GUIDELINES & TIPS FOR OBAMABLOGGERS1. GENERAL CONSENSUS GUIDELINES ON OBAMABLOG CUSTOMS & ETIQUETTE.2. TECHNICAL TIPS. (A) THE BASICS. (B) MORE ADVANCED.3. BLOGGING LEXICON & VOCABULARY. Please click "Read More" to view the full DRAFT.
GUIDELINES & TIPS FOR OBAMABLOGGERS
1. GENERAL CONSENSUS GUIDELINES ON OBAMABLOG CUSTOMS & ETIQUETTE.
2. TECHNICAL TIPS. (A) THE BASICS. (B) MORE ADVANCED.
3. BLOGGING LEXICON & VOCABULARY.
Please click "Read More" to view the full DRAFT.
1. GUIDELINES: GENERAL CONSENSUS GUIDELINES ON OBAMABLOG CUSTOMS & ETIQUETTE.
Tone and Spirit. One of the real strengths & beauties of this Blog is its tremendous diversity of voices - a virtual symphony of perspectives & viewpoints & opinions & hopes & beliefs, all unified behind and working toward a common goal: to help Barack Obama become the 44th President of the United States. This is a partisan site. The Community of Bloggers agrees that we come to this space because we support Barack Obama's candidacy. The ObamaBlog Community also welcomes all Bloggers who have not yet decided to support Barack but who wish to engage in genuinely open-minded and respectful dialogue about the issues. We warmly welcome all newcomers, to this Blog and to the act of blogging! Our great diversity of voices & perspectives means we will often disagree on specific points. This is as it should be. Dissent, disagreement, and debate are integral to the democratic process. So, following Barack's lead, we aim to disagree without being disagreeable. In fact, we aim for something higher: To disagree in ways that are positively agreeable! Constructive, mutually supportive, and mutually beneficial dialogue, accumulating material & political resources, and open sharing of information in ways that will assist Barack Obama's candidacy, are the ideals toward which the ObamaBlog strives.
Public Profiles are strongly encouraged for Bloggers who Comment with any degree of regularity. This is mainly about (1) Common Courtesy, (2) Trust, and (3) the Ease & Safety of Doing It: (1) It is only Courteous to introduce oneself before becoming part of a conversation. Isn't that just true? (2) Why should Bloggers Trust the opinion or information provided by an Unidentified Person? Usually Bloggers don't, and with good reason. Not making a Profile means a fairly high risk of being ignored or yelled at ("NO PROFILE!"). (3) Public Profiles are Easy & Safe to Make, requiring a few minutes and the disclosure of no more personal data than appear in a phone book.
• Right-click on the person's name to view their Public Profile.
• Because some Bloggers do not know HOW to make a Public Profile, warnings about a person having NO PUBLIC PROFILE! should be accompanied by a friendly word of encouragement that they create one and even an offer to help. (See below, Tips on "How To Make A Public Profile")
• All Internet-savvy persons are rightly concerned about issues of identity theft. An ObamaBlog Public Profile carries no more danger of identity theft than a city directory or brief Web-bio for your business. When making your Profile, just use common-sense caution so you don't include anything you don't want the whole world knowing about. There's nothing risky or potentially injurious in a prudently constructed Profile. Thousands of Bloggers have them here and none have experienced any problem because of it.
Replying. Bloggers are warmly invited to join in any conversation or reply to any post. Words of encouragement or support, especially for new bloggers, are always welcome.
• When replying to a specific Comment (and because the BlogSpace quickly fills up & things get messy quickly), it's often a good idea to direct your comments directly to the person to whom you're responding ("JaneDoe - Great post! . . .")
ALL CAPS is considered SHOUTING! Unless a blogger has a disability or injury that prevents use of the "shift" key, a post comprised of ALL CAPITAL LETTERS is generally considered rude.
White space (empty space) between lines in a post should not be exceed 2 or 3 lines. Posts comprised of mostly blank spaces consume a lot of blogspace & require bloggers to scroll & scroll & scroll to get anywhere. Excessive white space generally not a great idea.
For long and repeat posts (long announcements, lists of links, reflections, etc.), it's a good idea to compose the comment on a word processor or notepad first, and then copy-and-paste into the "comment box" (on copying-and-pasting, see Technical Tips). Some Bloggers keep a word processing file where they compose & store their posts. This makes it a lot easier to pop! the message into the comment box at the opportune moment. It also creates a personal record of comments made on the ObamaBlog.
Spamming. This is posting the same message more than twice on the same Blog, or on more than three Blogs in a row (unless they are moving fast & furious, which they sometimes are). Spamming is generally considered inappropriate unless it's something really urgent or important. Just try to be courteous and Not Hog the Blog! Also, promotion of a private business, or any organization that is antagonistic to Barack Obama, or promotes an agenda at odds with his, is absolutely inappropriate.
"Hijacking" is the insertion of an unrelated comment or announcement into an ongoing dialogue or conversation between two or more people. It is generally considered rude.
"Trolls" are Pests. More specifically, they are Bloggers who are obviously & patently antagonistic to Barack Obama's candidacy and to the ObamaBlog Community. ("Trolls" are not to be confused with Dissenters; see below). No one knows exactly where Trolls come from. Some say they come from the brambly-thickets. Others suspect abandoned landfills, old rusty paint cans, and the Trilateral Commission. Regardless, Conversing with Trolls is Not Encouraged. It only eggs them on. The preferred response to a Troll is to Ignore It - or, if it is an Especially Egregious Troll, to report the post to the Web Adminstrators (the button "Report to Admin" next to the Comment Title line). The phrases, "Do not feed the Troll" and "Troll!" are the considered the Universal Warning Signs For Trolls. ("Feeding" a Troll means responding to their antagonistic posts with appeals to reason, or worse, antagonism. Experience has shown that appeals to a Troll's reason are a waste of good blogging time & space. Trolls also love being yelled & cussed at because it makes them grow bigger & sprout long unsightly hairs. Feeding attention & especially antagonism to a Troll is like feeding spinach to Popeye. Something to avoid.)
Dissent. Too often, Trolls are confused with Bloggers who wish to register dissent on a specific point, or bring up issues that other Bloggers think are inappropriate, or undecided voters who ask genuine questions about Barack's position on various issues. Alleging that another Blogger is a Troll is a serious accusation, so make sure you have good reason before making the charge. As noted above, dissent, disagreement, and debate are all encouraged, as long as they are offered in a constructive spirit and with the end goal of advancing Barack's candidacy and the ideals & values he espouses.
Cussing & Swear Words are to be avoided. The "s-word" has gotten people in trouble before, and anything stronger than the "s-word" is definitely a no-no. Any words describing sexual activity or innuendo or reproductive anatomy are strictly prohibited. Violation will get you a slapped with a Warning from HQ. The Rule is: Two Warnings and your Account is Terminated. In general, Bloggers should avoid cussing & swear words & vulgarity. There's lots of ways to say what you want to say without being a potty-mouth. Remember, children & young people are reading these ObamaBlogs and we want to use reasonably clean language & set a good example.
Derogatory Labels & Ephithets and Stereotypes should also be avoided. Anything that makes a gratuitous or insulting reference to a person's ethnic, racial, or religious background, or gender or age or disability, or anything else that most people would consider insulting or offensive should be avoided (e.g.: "angry old women", "stupid white people," etc.). Name-calling is also considered rude ("Well that's an idiotic comment!" "Look what the moron wrote!" etc.). (One exception is late at night on the Open Thread it's generally okay to call Mitt Romney a Peanut-Head). Ask yourself: If Barack were to read your message, would he approve of its tone and spirit? Our goal here is to bridge divisions, not nurture them.
Intellectual Property Rights. With respect to copyright laws and the rapidly changing field of Intellectual Property Rights on the Internet, individual Bloggers and the ObamBlog Community agree to respect the intellectual property of others and to abide by all applicable copyright laws. We agree to give credit where credit is due.
ObamaFamily: What other Guidelines? Please leave suggestions in the Comments.
2. TECHNICAL TIPS.
(Note: These are mostly for PCs right now. Mac people are INVITED to send in their comments & suggestions for TIPS! Browsers vary - these Tips are for Internet Explorer ("the Evil One"); others use Firefox & others. It's helpful to become familiar with your particular browser's main features.)
2A. TECHNICAL TIPS: THE BASICS.
What is the ObamaBlog? How does it work? Okay - when you go to the Home Page of the Website you see a series of links across the top: Learn, Issues, Media, etc. "Blog" is second from the furthest to the right. When you click on "Blog", you get a series of stories posted by the Website staff - maybe 6 or 8 or 10. (These staff include Sam Graham-Felsen, Caitlin Harvey, Christopher Hass, Amanda Scott, and others.) Usually the Beloved Staff posts anywhere from 12 to 24 new Blog stories every 24 hours. A new one pops up every 2-3 hours (it varies). If you scroll down, you'll see that each story has "Comments" associated with it. That's us! That's where 99.9% of the action is on the ObamaBlog - in the Comments section of the Blog Stories posted by the Website staff. (The other 0.01% is in Bloggers' Individual Blogs.) Click on "Comments" and there we are!!
How to Make a Public Profile. This is pretty easy but it takes a few minutes. Go to the very front page of the Website (www.barackobama.com) Notice how the website is divided vertically into two parts? The main part on the left has all the stories and stuff. The part on the right has a series of items starting at the top ("Make a Difference" at the very top, then "Next Up," "Delegate Countdown," etc. Scroll down to where it says "My BarackObama.Com Login" (This is "MyBO" or "My Barack Obama"). Click on that. It should take you to a page where you fill out the form for your Public Profile. If you still can't figure it out, put out a posting on the main Blog that says something like "Help! I can't figure out how to make a Public Profile!" and guaranteed you'll get a dozen helpful responses in a couple minutes!
• Including a photo or image of yourself - this is pretty easy. First, make sure you have the image you want to use on your hard drive or on a storage device (floppy disk, CD-ROM, flash-drive, whatever). To upload the image, click on "MyBO" to get to your Blog. The very top line says "My Profile". Click on the little grey arrow just to the right of "Edit Profile" and it takes you to where you can edit your Profile. Scroll down to the very bottom. There's a little box there next to where it says "Browse." Put the cursor in the box - click "Browse" - and go to the drive or disk on your computer & fetch the image you want to use. Click "Save Your Profile" and you're all set! (Also, it's a good idea to check the box called "Check if being searchable to others is acceptable" - otherwise nobody will be able to view your Profile.)
MyBo Individual Blogs. As noted above, one of the cool parts (& privileges) of having a Public Profile is having your own personal "MyBO" Blog ("My Barack Obama"). How to Write a New Post, how to Edit Your Posts, and how to Manage Your Blog - all this stuff should be pretty self-explanatory. Play with it. Take notes on a separate piece of paper so you remember the "Recipes" or Pathways for doing certain things. Try to figure it out for yourself. Follow all the pathways and see where they take you! Think of it as an Adventure into Unknown Lands! If you still have questions about any aspect of the MyBO Blogs, just post a question on the ObamaBlog and guaranteed somebody will come along lickety-split to help you.
• To make "boxes" on Individual Blogs, just click on the icon at the bottom for "indent" and it automatically makes a box for you. Especially useful when quoting extensive excerpts from copyrighted materials, so it's clearer to readers that these are not your words but somebody else's, and so that all copyright laws are respected.
"Read More" Function on MyBO. Use the Read More Function to put the Long Part of a longer posting. When people visit your Blog, they want to be able to scroll from item to item without having it take forever to get from one Posting to the next. If your Post is longer than 1 or 1.5 screens, all you need to do is COPY & PASTE the Long Part of your post into the Second Box (officially called the "Extended Post Text" box). In other words, when you're in your Personal Blog and click on "Write New Post," two boxes show up on the page. The TOP BOX is for the brief part. The BOTTOM BOX is the Read More box (Extended Post Text Box) and is for Longer Stuff. Just like this Posting was made. When you look at my Blog as a whole, this posting is very brief. You are in the Read More part right now.
Copying & Pasting. This is a Super-Important Basic Skill. Highlight the text you want to copy using the mouse (take the mouse & hold the left button down as you move the cursor over the text - the Cursor being the thing that moves on the screen). With the text highlighted, hold the Control Key down and press "C" (for Copy). This is called CONTROL-C FOR COPY. That temporarily stores your selected text. Now go to wherever you want the text to go (in the Comment Box, say). Put the Cursor where you want (left-click the mouse). Hold the Control Key down and press "V" (for Paste). This is called CONTROL-V FOR PASTE. Violà!
Putting Links in a Comment. A good first step is put two asterisks with 3-4 spaces between them: * *. That way you have a "target" for where to place your Link (making sure there's AT LEAST ONE SPACE between the asterisk and the thing you're going to paste there).
• If your Browser has Tabs at the top, then that's the easiest way to jump back & forth between Websites and go Copy the address to which to you'd like to link. Just go up top of your Browser, open up a new Tab, and go to the Website you want to link to. Then highlight the entire URL (the address: http://, etc.). COPY the entire URL. (see above on Copying & Pasting). Then switch Tabs and go back to the ObamaBlog Comment Box. Put the cursor where you want the link to appear * HERE * and PASTE the URL. It appears in the Comment Box as a big long string of letters & numbers, but it magically turns to "Link" when you Submit your Comment. (Except, as you see here, within an individual's Blog.)
• If your Browser does NOT have "Tabs" at the top, just "Minimize the Window" you're on (click on the little dash "―" in the upper-right corner so the window zooms down to the bottom of the screen and is "Minimized". Now just open the Browser as if you were starting from scratch, and go to the Website you want to link to. COPY the URL. Minimize that Window. Open back up the Original Window again, where your Comment is going. PASTE! Presto-Change-O, zipping back & forth between Websites!
• URLs CANNOT BE MORE THAN 82 CHARACTERS LONG or they won't work. Sorry that's just The Rule.
• One way around the 82 Character Rule is to convert them at a Website called TinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/ . Simply paste the long URL into the box provided and they provide a small one you can use in its place.
• TITLE YOUR LINKS so people know what they're clicking on! Even a 2-3 word description is minimal courtesy. People want to know what they're getting into. Links standing alone, without any description, should be avoided (unless you trust the person).
• If you hover the cursor over the link, the destination of that link will appear in the "progress bar" at the bottom of the screen).
Searching for Your Comment or a Specific Word in a Blog. Most browsers have a "Search" function that lets you find a particular word on a particular page. On Internet Explorer 6.0 and higher, it's in the upper-right corner (the little magnifying glass thingy). On older versions of Internet Explorer, it's under the "Edit" tab on the top. Another way (for most PCs anyway) is to hold the CONTROL key down and press "F" (for "Find"; this is called "CONTROL-F FOR FIND). A little box called "find" should pop up on your screen. Just type in the word and press "Return" ("Enter") or click "OK".
Right-Clicking. Great for checking people's Public Profiles, for making Comments, and for following any link without losing your place in the Blog. By Right-Clicking the mouse you don't lose your place in the Blog - all you do is open up a new window that you can close at any time, and end up right where you started. Just as the name implies: "right-click" the mouse on anything that's hyperlinked. Go to "Open in New Window" and Left-Click. The new page or Website opens up! Do your business on that page or Website and then Close (click "X" in the upper-right corner), and you're right back. (To see your own comment you have to "Refresh" the page, sometimes more than once. Refresh is another really handy tool - it basically updates the page).
• Another way to do the same thing as "right-click" is to hold the SHIFT key down as you LEFT-CLICK. A new window opens up that you can close and end up in the same place as you started.
Checking Profiles. It's usually a good idea to know who you're talking to. A quick right-click on a Commenter's Public Profile can tell you a fair amount about that person and why they support Barack Obama. It's also a handy way to check people's credentials and ensure they are not Trolls or Fakes spreading false or misleading information. Check for the part that says, "Why I Support Barack Obama". If that part is missing, or not very convincing, that should tell you something.
2B. TECHNICAL TIPS: MORE ADVANCED.
Bold, Italics, Underlining. This is a simple & very handy trick (that HQ says is not permitted, by the way, though they seem to be tolerating it for now (sshhh!) [That's Rule 1: don't overuse these things!] Okay, assuming we were on another site making a comment, all you would need to do would be to put in the Secret Code.
• The basic idea is to use html "tags" to tell the Website to do certain things with your Comment text. For bold, italics & underlining, you basically "open" the special feature with <X> and then close it with </X> (no spaces).
• Bold: <b> text you want boldfaced </b>
• Italics: <i> text you want italicized </i>
• Underline: <u> text you want underlined </u>
• Or any combination thereof!
• Please be Careful to "Close" the Tag! If you don't, all the comments after yours will be bold, italics, or underlined (called "runaway bold" & "runaway italics,") - and then the Blog Staff will have to come along and fix it and boy will you feel bad then. Ouch.
Special Characters. There are tons of these, and each has its own unique html code. The easiest thing to do for hearts, ♥ musical notes, ♪ ♫ etc., is to COPY & PASTE the special character into a word processor or notepad, then go back to that "reference file" when you want to use the special character in a comment.
Being FIRST! This is a very silly thing. It is also INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT!!! If you have to ask why, you obviously do not understand the Sheer Firstness of Being First! Here's a link to a YouTube Video that helps to explain some of the whats whys & wherefores associated with actually Being First! * http://grassrootsnewmexico.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/about-being-first/ * Now that you understand some of the whats whys & wherefores, here's a Link to some Tips on Actually Being First! on the ObamaBlog - http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/MichiganMike/gGBJR9 ). These tips focus mainly on technique, but Good Karma can also really help.
What else? What other Tips would be useful? Is anything unclear here?
BTW - By the way
Emoticons: : ) = smiley face. ; ) = wink. <|; >- = I am a winking goofball sporting a Dunce Cap. Etcetera.
FYI - For your information
IMO / IMHO - In my opinion / In my humble opinion
LMAO - Laughing my ass off
LMBO - Laughing my butt off
LOL - Laugh out loud
MSM - Mainstream Media
OMG - Oh my God / Gooodness / Gosh
POTUS - President of the United States
ROFLMAO - Rolling on the floor laughing my ass off
WTF - "What the [expletive]"? (some people say it means "where's the fire?" but that's kinda dubious!)
(((((HUG))))) - You guessed it!
Finally, here's a link to an offsite source for all these acronyms and a zillion more:
* http://www.netlingo.com/ *
You guys know these better than me the only other one I know is WTFDYTYDYFA.
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