Greetings fellow Moose (and lurkers!). Welcome to our Insider’s Guide. While most of what one needs to know of the Moose can be found in our Posting Guidelines, FAQ, and About pages, there are lots of quirks of the Moose that are unwritten. Longtime moose are in tune with the spirit of the blog, and they’re familiar with the ins and outs of “getting around” in these parts. For new people, Moose formatting, settings, and culture may be quite foreign.
Not to worry. Motley Moose strives to be a highly inclusive, comfortable, open environment. As such, the last thing we want is for any of our newcomers to feel left out or confused. Hopefully this diary will provide adequate answers to any lingering questions you might have, and perhaps it will answer questions you haven’t even had time to think of! We hope the following tips help you get your bearings and find your stride. If any of your questions remain unanswered… you must be one creative moose! And you are always welcome to email us via the Contact Moose link at the bottom of each page.
Here at the Moose, there really is no such thing as threadjacking. Just about any thread on the Moose is a potential Open Thread, and no one is going to get fired up over a left field comment.
There is no such thing as Jumping the Tip Jar because we don’t traditionally use Tip Jars. Our diarists may not even leave a top comment (though, if a diary has JUST been posted, it is courteous to wait a few minutes before commenting in case one is being written).
Ratings on the Moose are more for fun and support than anything else, especially since we have such a courteous, well-behaved group of regular commenters. We do not tend to take ratings as seriously as other sites might. In the most general of terms, our ratings can be defined as:
Fierce = Anything from “Ayup” to “Oh hell yeah!!!”
Meh = “Meh.”
Fail = “Oh hell no!!!”
We really are pretty laid back as a rule. As such, Fail ratings are rare, rare, rare. If someone has Failed a comment of yours, odds are it was in error (easy to do on a laptop when rating multiple comments).
Think of our comment threads as dinner table conversations. We start with the assumption that all come to the conversation with good intentions and go from there. If you get upset or angry, get up from the table and step outside for a bit. Things can still get heated here at times, but we do tend to make peace quickly and continue working towards finding common ground.
The Moose does not allow retaliatory HR’ing. Do not exchange Fail ratings back and forth with anyone during an argument, and do not fail a “bystander’s” nearby comments because they HR’d one of yours. If Fail ratings are being passed around in earnest, something is wrong, and it’s time for those receiving them to take a little break from the computer.
The Moose moves at a slower pace than some other sites. Rather than lasting a few hours, a conversation may last for days (and/or be carried over into multiple diaries). Don’t be shy about commenting in a diary that is more than a day or so old. Chances are, moose are still watching it.
The Moose is an Anti-Flame Zone. Our interactions are more like casual discussions with family and friends. That said, everyone has a bad day now and again, and we just try to cut each other some slack when it happens.
Try not to drag drama and/or altercations from other sites over to the Moose. Odds are, the moose it would interest are already aware of it, and those that aren’t probably don’t want to be aware of it in the first place.
Users on the Moose are to be judged and rated based on the content and quality of their diaries and comments HERE only. Do not pick fights with people based on their behavior on other sites. The Moose also does not allow Hide On Sight (HOS) rating. Do NOT hide a comment that is not hide-worthy just because you do not like a user or his/her message.
Avoid excessively criticizing other blogs’ moderation, membership, or site content. We try to avoid bashing other sites in general (the obvious exceptions to this rule would be Rightwing and/or Hate sites). We see no need to build a divide amongst those fighting for the same causes. In fact, most Moose are active across the blogosphere. For example, many Moose diary and comment regularly on Daily Kos.
To follow what we are up to on DKos, jo
in and follow the Group Moose Tracks: Moose on the Loose. By looking at the profile for the Moose Group, you can click on individual Moose and follow them as well.
Moose have pretty thick hides, and many (if not most) comments have a healthy dose of snark in them. Almost universally, we tease each other out of affection. If you find snark aimed in your direction, just laugh and roll with it. Even if you’re new and not accustomed to this sort of banter, chances are it was well-intentioned and good-natured.
This is YOUR blog. Write about whatever you want. While our primary emphasis is politics, we also love food diaries, horse/pootie/woozle diaries, poetry diaries, science diaries, biographical diaries, photo diaries, funny clip diaries, and any number of other things you can think up! Music, books, travel, personal stories, and the occasional unicorn porn fansite are welcome. Whatever you feel led to blog about is fair game on the Moose, so long as it abides by our Posting Guidelines. Not only do we want you to join in on the conversation, we want you to start new ones!
While the Moose is indeed now YOUR blog, we understand that many people keep personal blogs as well. Moose with Blogs is a blog roll found in the right column that links to… you guessed it: blogs that belong to other Moose. If you have a personal blog that you would like added to the Moose Blog Roll, you can ask in any active thread or use the Contact the Moose link.
If you are plugged into social media, Motley Moose has Twitter, Facebook, and Networked Blogs accounts. You can find links to all three in the far right column beneath the Moose with Blogs section. Add us, Friend us, and Follow us!
It is highly recommended that you download the browser add-on Lazarus. It is available for both Firefox and Chrome, and it can be an absolute sanity-saver. It prevents the loss of a diary draft or comment (on any site) in the case of an errant click, power outage, or balky computer (and it also prevents the loss of forms and emails). Do yourself a favor and take the very brief time needed to add it.
Put quite simply: Our Search sucks. Try using the Advanced Options beneath the search box at the top righthand corner of the page, then hit teh Googles in case of colossal Search FAILure.
You will occasionally see a diary labeled The Lounge. The Lounge was an early forum for all things silly during the building of the Moose. Our resident snarkmeisters reigned supreme and kept us all from getting too serious. We carried The Lounge over to Motley Moose in the form of snarky and/or free form diaries. A couple of examples:
The Lounge: Flashback-Gate and part deux
Feel free to use the “The Lounge” as a subject header when you want to get your snark on. It is NOT necessary to begin a diary with that heading simply because it is apolitical or whimsical. The designation is really only meant to be used in cases of [how to word?].
Our comment threads tend to become “unmanageable” at about the 200 comment mark. Things get boggy and can really frustrate those with slower machines. So when a comment thread is hopping and has reached that point, just start a “Part Deux” diary to continue the conversation.
You may find that using Preview while writing a diary is a frustrating experience. The font, spacing, and general “look” do not accurately depict the way the diary will appear once published. In order to see it properly, select Draft, then Preview, then SAVE (as draft). Viewing the saved Draft allows you to see the diary as it will appear once posted. This process adds a couple steps, but in the long run, it can save time in editing.
To post YouTube clips, please select “use old embed” code when embedding. Soapblox does not accept iframes as valid tags. Also, when posting video OR images, please avoid using those which exceed 500px in width because it distorts the formatting of the site. Be aware of how far to the right margin you are in a comment thread — if it is a long thread, the images should be even smaller.
The front page of the blog has a Recent Comments section which displays the full subject lines of our most recent comments. Because of this, a subject line which is just a long string of characters with no break (e.g., “Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!”) can actually throw off the formatting of the entire main page. Needless to say, this should be avoided.
Nobody is perfect — not even the great Motley Moose — so I am sure there are many quirks of the Moose that I am missing.
I hope you all stick around to figure them out (and perhaps contribute quirks of your own!).