About SquareState

by: pacified

06/17/05 @ 09:49:15 PM MDT

After signing up, there is a day delay before you can write diaries. Comments can be written straight away.  Diaries (you can also call them stories, articles, or whatever you want) are just blog entries any registered user is allowed to post.  You can also recommend other people's diaries.  If a diary receives enough recommendations, it moves into the "Recommended Diaries" list.  The front page authors may also promote user diaries directly to the front page.  Join us and help build the community.

Rules

SquareState is a community and, as in any community, there will be people with whom you agree and disagree.  We can all manage to get along if we just follow some simple, common sense rules for our discussions.  SquareState has no objections to heated discussion or disagreement, and we welcome impassioned discussion, but there are lines that common sense should keep you from crossing:

1. The first rule of SquareState is DO talk about SquareState.  Our discussions and organizing can only be more effective with more participation.  Tell your friends, family, co-workers, and pets.


2. Don't be an ass.  This should be enough for most folks, but if that's not clear enough, keep reading.


3. Racism, bigotry, threats of violence and other hate-filled language is strictly prohibited -- from those on the right side of the political spectrum and the left.


4. No revealing of private information is tolerated.  This is grounds for immediate banning.


5. No sock puppets.  Posting under multiple blognames is grounds for immediate banning, ridicule, and outing.  This is a case where your personal information will be revealed so don't do it.  Similarly, if you work for a campaign or otherwise have a conflict of interest please disclose it ahead of time.  Ideally put such a disclaimer in your signature line.  More on that later.    We're going to find out anyway and it's going to look not only bad for you but also your candidate or issue campaign.


6. Stay on topic.  When responding to a diary or comment, don't hijack the diary with random issues.  Respond to the topic being discussed, write your own diary, or post it in an open thread.


7. No comment spam.  Advertising an unrelated site by posting a comment is not tolerated.  If it's not relevant to the blog, don't link it.  This rule is loosely enforced in open thread diaries where the purpose is a collection of odd and random thoughts and discussions.


8. Troll ratings are for trolls, not people you disagree with.  They play an important role in the community to self-moderate, so please use the ratings appropriately.


9. No personal attacks. This is one of these rules where the line is very gray and foggy. Your interpretation of a personal attack may be different than someone else's. If you write something all about yourself and include rhetorical questions, expect people may respond and in ways you may not like. Because of all this, this rule is loosely and hypocritically enforced. Should you be allowed to write a personal attack against Tom Tancredo? I should think so. Can you write about what you allegedly did with another commenter's mother? Yes, you can technically write that, but others might down rate your comment for it.

How to use this site

What is a blog?
A blog is a website in which journal entries are posted on a regular basis and displayed in reverse chronological order.  The term blog is a shortened form of weblog or web log.  Individual articles are called blog posts, posts, entries, or diaries.

What is SquareState?
SquareState (www.SquareState.net) is a blog about Colorado politics, written by a number of Colorado residents.  While we all have different political views and opinions, we generally consider ourselves to be liberal, or progressive if you prefer.  However, we welcome guests of all political views, as long as they engage in respectful dialog.

Getting started
Most features on SquareState require that you have a user account and be logged in.  If you don't already have an account, you can create one by filling in a desired username and a valid address in this form.  You will soon receive an email at the address you specified containing a temporary password used to log in. Check your spam folder if you don't get anything in a reasonable amount of time.  Return to www.SquareState.net , and enter your username and password.

If you forgot your username or password, you can retrieve them by visiting this page.

The password you receive by email will be randomly generated.  After logging in, you may want to change your password to something easier to remember.  In the Menu on the top right of the page, click on the link for your page.  If your username is pacified, the link would appear as pacified's page.  Next, click on the "Profile" link:

Then, click on the "Email/Password" link:

Finally, fill out the form to change your password:

Diaries
Once you log in, you can create your own "diary" entry. A diary is just an entry that anyone can write up and have appear on the website. Any registered user that is logged in can create a diary. Once a diary is posted, it will appear under "Recent Diaries" in the right hand column. Users can read any diary by clicking on its title. Diaries can be "recommended" by users by clicking on the "Recommend Diary" button within a particular diary.

If enough users recommend a diary, it will be promoted to the "Recommended Diaries" list, right above the "Recent Diaries" list.  Any of the front page bloggers may also promote diaries so that they are displayed directly on the front page.

To post a diary, click on the "New Diary" link in the Menu on the top right of the page.  Fill in the Title, Main Text, and Extended Text.  If your diary is more than 3 or 4 paragraphs long, place the rest of the text in the "Extended Entry".

Tags
Tags are a way of classifying diaries which serve as a search tool.  Appropriate tags include people, issues, races, or locations.  Tags should be separated by commas.  Some tips (heavily borrowed from Dailykos):

1. Use combinations of simple tags rather than inventing complex ones.


2. Try to think of what tags people might use to search for something and use those. Remember, tags are like categories. And people don't search for "humor" or "satire". They search for issues, races, locations, and people.


3. Try to re-use existing tags.


4. Keep it simple. Don't use tags that are redundant.


5. To identify congressional districts, use the format CO-##. To identify state house districts, use HD##, and for state senate districts, SD##. For the 7th Congressional district, you would use CO-07. For counties, use the full county name: "Jefferson County" rather than "Jefferson".


6. Use first and last names for all people. Believe it or not, people sometimes share last names.


7. Don't use tags that would apply to every diary like "politics" or "Colorado.

Any "Trusted User" can edit the tags in any diary. You attain Trusted User status by receiving high ratings from other users on the comments you make.

Comments
You must be a registered users to post comments. To respond to a diary that is on the front page, first click on the "Discuss" or "There's More" button at the end of a diary. Once within a particular diary, you can respond to it by clicking the "Post a Comment" link at the end of the diary. Fill in the Subject and Comment sections of your comment. Click on "Preview" to make sure it's formatted correctly. If it looks acceptable, click "Post", otherwise revise it and click "Preview" again. You can use HTML formatting. To reply to another's comment, click the "reply" link at the bottom of that comment. Your reply will be indented relative to comment above it.

Comment Ratings
All users can rate all comments except their own between 1 and 4. Users who have a history of comments rated above a certain minimum and who have posted a sufficient number of comments are considered "Trusted Users" and have the added capability to rate comments below the normal minimum rating (in other words, their rating scale is 0-4, rather than 1-4.):

Comments with an average rating lower than 1.0 disappear from view. Trusted users also get to nominate comments with "Funniest Comment of the Day." Ratings are intended to help elevate those posters who consistently make clear, good arguments and points, regardless of content, and to prevent trolls from invading our community. Rating commenters on the basis of agreement or disagreement with their arguments leads to a monolithic forum, free of new ideas and input.

So, please don't downrate comments just because you disagree with them!

Creating Your Diary
First off, if you can type an email, you can blog.  Most of writing a diary is simply entering text in a box.  But, there are some simple rules.  If your diary is only going to be a few sentences and a link, that's generally not considered enough content to make a diary. You may want to instead post that information as a comment in an open thread. Trusted Users and up can also post text and links to the Quick Hits section.  If it's still information you feel needs to be out there, try to add more content or analysis.  Once you have your diary, click on the "Preview" button to see what it will look like.  Edit as necessary.  Once you've clicked on preview once, you now also have a "Save" button.  You know what to do with that.  Of course if you make a mistake once you've posted your diary, there's an "edit" link at the top of the screen.  If you want to delete your diary, also click edit, then find the "delete" check box at the bottom of the page. After clicking that, a new page will appear asking you to confirm the deletion.

Finally, here are the most common html formatting commands:

<b>Bold</b> creates Bold

<i>Italics</i> creates Italics

<u>Underline</u> creates <u>Underline</u>

<s>Srike</s> creates Stike

A link is created like this:

<a href="http://www.squarestate.net">SquareState</a> creates this:

Squarestate

Of course, if you just want to put a link on a page, that can be handled too, as long as you include the http:// like this:

http://www.squaresta...

To include text from another website or news source use a blockquote like this:

<blockquote>Text to put in blockquote</blockquote>  creates this:

Text to put in blockquote

To post a picture use this:
<img src="http://www.squarestate.net/upload/crying-baby.gif"width=100> creates this:

Images wider than about 450 pixels can often make page margins go all wacky.  If your image is too big you can restrict it with width="x" where x is some number 450 or less.  If the image is sized appropriately that part can be skipped.

To host your own images, flickr works well.

What are you waiting for?  Blog away!

Update Soapblox now has updated diary editing tools called WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). You can turn this on as your default diary entry method in your profile page, or select it each time you create a diary. To change, click on the formatting pull-down menu just above the title entry box. The buttons to format text, create links, etc. are pretty straight forward.

The Blog includes links to other sites operated by third parties. These links are provided as a convenience to you and as an additional avenue of access to the information contained therein. We have not reviewed all of the information on other sites and are not responsible for the content of any other sites or any products or services that may be offered through other sites. The inclusion of these links in no way indicates their endorsement, support or approval of the contents of the third party sites by anybody associated with The Blog.

The editors of Squarestate maintain the right to edit, correct (generally for spelling), and move content above or below the "fold" for diaries promoted to the front page.

We have the right to edit, remove or deny access to content that is determined to be, in our sole discretion, unacceptable.  Please respect the rights of others to be heard and to be respected.  We welcome all viewpoints, but expect purposeful dialog, not childish shouting matches. If you want the latter, may we recommend the comments sections of the Denver Post. The moderators of The Blog retain the right to ban any user from posting at The Blog for behavior deemed inappropriate.  

You grant us the right to display any information or material you send to The Blog.  You also agree by posting at The Blog that any material you have posted at The Blog is part of the public domain and does not violate any intellectual property rights.

By accessing The Blog, you agree to respect the privacy of every user and the moderators.

The work of each author or blogger is considered copywritten material not for distribution with at least attribution, linking back to the original work, or authorization from that author.

This page is a work in progress, updated by several individuals.