How do I post a comment?

You have to register with the site to post comments. You do this by clicking "make a new account" in the Login box in the upper right-hand section of the page.

How to post a comment: to reply to a diary, click on "Post a comment". To reply to a comment, click on "Post a reply"

This will open a new comment box. If you  "post a comment" to a diary, add a title for your comment in the title box. If you "post a reply", the title of the previous comment will be placed in the title box. You can change it.

Put the body of your comment in the large box. Use any html formatting you want to (see below for examples).

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What are comments' ratings and how do I use them?

 At the end of the title of each comment, there are brackets that look like this: (none/0), (none/1), (4.00/3), (2.33/6) or some other variation.

 This is the rating of the comment by other users. It is the average of the ratings that have been given and reflects what they think of the comment, with the following table of available ratings:

 4: Excellent
 3: Good
 2: Warning!
 1: Troll
 0: Super Troll

0 is only available to Trusted Users (see [here] to know what that is); the other four are available to all users.

1 is used to rate a comment "trollish", i.e. disruptive of dialogue, insulting, or really inappropriate. Such ratings should never be used to indicate that you disagree with the comment. If in doubt, wait until another member uses this thankfully seldom used warning. If several members give this warning, the comment will be removed (see below "Community Policing")
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2 is a warning that is occasionally used for comments that are unnecessarily aggressive or disruptive in their tone. Again, if in doubt, wait and see what other members do. There are usually experienced members around to quickly spot such comments. Remember that you or the commenter might be having a bad day. Count to 10 and think before using. Or ignore.

3 is almost never used. It was originally included for interesting, but imperfect comments.

4 is used to reward informative, smart or otherwise useful comments. It also encourages commenters by showing that they have been read. It is a social device for the community.

Community Policing
There is a very practical use of the ratings, which is to get rid of trolls. Comments with an average below a certain value will be hidden and only visible thereafter to Trusted Users. This is a very effective way for the community to self-police and avoid disruptions and thread hijackings caused by trolls.

 There are also "Tip Jars", which are another way for diarists to be rewarded. A number of diarist traditionally write the first comment to their own diary, either with some additional content, or a small comment, or simply with a "Tip Jar" title, and it is traditional to give "4" to that comment to show your appreciation of the diary or the diarist, or to show him/her that you read the diary. This can be done in addition to the recommendation of the diary.

 In order to rate a comment, use the small menu at the bottom of each comment. There is a drop down menu with "none" as a default value, and a Rate All button next to it. Choose the rating, and click on the "Rate All" button. You will be sent back to the top of the diary.

 You can rate many comments in one go and then only press "Rate All" once. All your ratings will be saved in one go. But if you post a comment in between, your ratings may not be saved.

 You can go modify a rating (but currently not delete) at any time simply by going to the relevant drop down menu, changing the rating and pressing on the "Rate All" button.

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What are recommended diaries?

 Diaries that you find deserving of more attention, because of their quality, the quality of the debate it has sparked, or because it is a topic that you think is important to spread as widely as possible, can be "recommended". (see below How do I recommend a diary?)

 The most recommended diaries appear in the right sidebar, in the "Recommended diaries" box, and they are thus more visible to site visitors than regular diaries.

 All users have the exact same voting power as regards recommendations (no user has extra voting weight), but the timing of recommendations matter, as they "decay" after a certain period of time so that there can be a reasonable rotation of recommended diaries.


You can't be me, I'm taken