| Booman Tribune has been around for some time now, and I have begun to get some questions. First of all, this is a SCOOP site, and many of the questions are common to all SCOOP sites.
The greatest of all SCOOP sites is Daily Kos. This site is designed to be familiar to regular visitors to Daily Kos. It shares many features in common with dKos, and it may be useful to examine the dKos FAQ web page [especially for HTML related questions]. Just remember that a lot of the information there is specific to his site.
I will be developing a community guide for BooTrib soon. In the meantime it may be helpful to refer to Pastor Dan’s dKos Community Guide. If you have a question about what Trolls are, Pastor Dan explains it well. You can also look at Soj's user manual and Man Eegee's New User Guide.
For those of you who are familiar with dKos, some immediate differences between this site and dKos need to be explained.
During registration users are divided into ‘Americans’ and ‘others’ in order to allow a separate ‘Recommended Diary’ category called ‘Recommended World Diaries’.
‘World Diaries’ are those diaries submitted by users whose PRIMARY RESIDENCE is not in the USA. They are judged according to a different standard in order to compensate for the general tendency of Americans to show more interest in domestic issues. It also helps compensate for the fact that this site will have more American users than users from any other single country.
If I become convinced that an American has registered as a non-American in order to try to game the system, I will banish that user.
All diaries, irrespective of the residence of the diarist, are eligible for making the ‘Recommended Diary’ list. This will sometimes result in a diary being listed in both the ‘Recommended Diary’ list and the ‘Recommended World Diary’ list. This is anticipated and not considered a problem.
Another feature of this site that is not shared with dKos is the regional open threads. The regional open threads are accessible by clicking on the ‘Midwest’, ‘South’, ‘East’, ‘West’, and ‘Open/World’ buttons at the top of the Home page.
Anyone can participate in these open threads, but they are intended to promote coordination among users from similar regions. They are open threads, so anything can be discussed on them. However, if you want to talk about the Pennsylvania gubernatorial race you should probably not do it on the southern thread. And PLEASE don't waste time fighting over whether Kentucky is in the Midwest or Colorado is in the West. Let people decide where they live.
If you want to post an open comment for the whole community, use the Open/World Thread.
What's This Site All About?
This site is not affiliated with the Democratic Party. However, the Democratic Party is the only institution in this country that is capable of combatting the Bush administration's agenda, or of offering a realistic alternative to the GOP's control of both houses of Congress.
Therefore, this site is committed to building the Democratic Party, raising money for the Democratic Party and its candidates, finding and promoting promising candidates for state and local offices, helping to shape the Democratic Party's agenda, and holding Democratic office holders to account for their votes and their ethics.
The site is also committed to doing some of the investigative work that is so desperately needed with the GOP in control of the oversight committees.
If I don't consider myself a Democrat, am I welcome at the site?
Yes. You are. Everyone is welcome at the site regardless of political self-identification. I don't care how you are registered to vote, who you have voted for in the past, or who you plan to vote for in the future.
The only restriction on non-Democrats is that they be respectful of the mission of this site, that they don't post Bill O'Reilly-like talking points, and that they don't engage in trollish behavior.
If you are pro-life or anti-gun control, no one should down-rate your posts or make you feel unwelcome at this site, or in the Democratic Party. This site is not for the enforcement of any orthodoxy on its members. Principled disagreement is always allowed. Just don't act like Sean Hannity and be an idiot.
How do I post a comment?
If you want to post comments you have to register with the site. Right now, new users can post comments and write diaries right away. But someday I will apply a 24 hour waiting period for comments (to scare away trolls) and a longer waiting period for writing diaries.
To post a comment: find the comment you wish to respond to, then click on "Post a comment" near the bottom of the comment. This will open a new comment box. There will be a default title for your comment. If you don't like it, just erase it and put your own title in there.
Put the text of your comment in the large box.
Below the large box you will see the allowed HTML.
What’s with the Frog?
"It's of keen interest to me, to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs.'' - Joseph C. Wilson IV.
To learn the etymology of the term frog-march you can read this column by Bill Safire. He may have spent his career shilling for the Republicans and our intelligence services, but he is a reliable source on language.
In any case, Booman Tribune encourages its users to band together to do the investigative journalism that the mainstream media has forgotten how to do.
The frog is a reminder that politicians do occasionally get drummed out of office for corruption or unethical behavior. And we would like to speed that process along.
In fact, our motto is "We Won't Rest Until They're Frog-Marched Out"
So, even if the amphibian is a criminal, you must learn to love the frog.
So what about cross-posting diaries from other web sites?
I don't care if you cross-post. If you want to add a note that you have done so, go ahead.
What is the Daily Kos rule?
Criticisms in diaries of Daily Kos and their front-pagers is
permitted. However, if you want to post something of a personal
nature that casts aspersions on people's character and motives then
you must cross-post the diary at Daily Kos where they can see it and
defend themselves. If you are banned and therefore cannot cross-post
the diary there then your diary may be deleted here. This site is not
for Kos-bashing.
These restrictions do not apply to comments, or to criticisms of
substance rather than character.
Is there a limit to the number of diaries I can post in a day?
You are allowed to post two diaries per day. This was the old rule
from Daily Kos before they got too big. It was carried over when I
started Booman Tribune.
The only exceptions to this rule are for the purposes of the Froggy
Bottom Cafe and Lounge, which do not count against those that post
them.
What is the Froggy Bottom Cafe?
The Froggy Bottom Cafe is a virtual pub where site members can relax and
take a break from political discussion. New members are especially invited
to visit the Cafe and introduce themselves. Heavy political discussion is
generally discouraged in the Cafe; frivolity is more the order of the day.
Every Friday afternoon the Cafe hosts the Random 10 where members are
invited to submit ten random songs they are currently listening to. This
might be ten random songs from the member's iPod, or ten songs on a theme
close to the member's heart. Lists of baseball players and physical ailments
have been submitted as well.
Every October the Cafe sponsors the Booman Tribute Fotofair, where members
can show off their photography.
Who is Froggybottom?
When we find out, we'll let you know.
How do I post a YouTube video in a diary or comment?
- Go to YouTube.
- Find a video you like.
- In the upper right hand corner of the page you will see two text boxes, one labeled "URL" and the other labeled "embed." Copy the entire contents of the "embed" box. It should start with <object> and end with </object>.
- Paste that "embed" text into your post.
- Use "preview" to make sure you did it correctly. If not, go back to step 3.
- Click "post" to share and enjoy.
Why is my UserID:4?
Because my wife was too fast. And 1-2 were used up already. |
