Step 1: Sign up for an account

You can read all the posts you want without signing up, but if you really want to participate fully, sign up for an account. It’s free, it’s easy, and it takes about 10 seconds. And once you’ve done that, you can post comments, write your own diaries, rate other comments and diaries, etc.

To register, just click on the "Make a new account" link in the menu box on the right-hand side. After creating a username, you’ll be emailed a password, and your account will be activated immediately.   (Oh, and don't worry -- we're not going to spam you or anything like that, we just need your email to send the password.  Besides that, we will keep email to a minimum, just for occasional updates, and you'll be able to opt out at any time).

Step 2: Start commenting

By clicking on the "There's more" or "Discuss" link on any story or diary, you’ll be taken to a page where you can leave your own comments and respond to the comments of others. Then just click on "Post a comment" or "reply" next to existing comments. A box will pop up – just enter a "subject" and then put your comment in the box. Feel free to use basic html if you want – “Bold,” "Italic", etc. Then just click "preview" and "post." It’s that easy.

Step 3: Rate comments & Diaries

See a comment you love? See one you hate? Click on the drop down box next to "reply" and give it a number rating (note: "0" is reserved only for troll comments -- ones that are so disruptive, they deserve to be hidden).

See a diary you love?  Click on the "recommend" button to the right of it.  Diaries that get enough "recommends" end up in the "Recommended diaries" box on the front page.  Diaries that REALLY get a lot of recommends and comments are promoted to our progressive communities on Facebook, putting them in front of tens or hundreds of thousands of people.

Step 4: Write Diaries

Want to go beyond comments and write your own diaries? Something longer and more substantive? Just click on "New Diary" in the menu box, and start writing. If you’d like, you can put all your text in the "main text" box, or you can just put a few teaser sentences in there and then put the rest in "Extend text." As with comments, you can use basic html here.

Note: diaries must be substantive - if you just have a clever line or two, post a comment somewhere. 

Want to make it even easier to format your diary?  Where it says "formatting" just above the diary, use the drop-down arrow to change it to "WYSIWYG."  That will let you easily bold, italicize, hyperlink, insert pictures, etc. 

Also, if you’d like, you can add a poll question to the diary by filling in the "poll question" and "poll answers" boxes below (but this is of course optional). Particularly good diaries may be promoted to the main column, and promoted on our Facebook communities. The more "recommends" a diary has, and the more "comments," the greater the chance it will be promoted.

Remember, highly recommended and commented diaries can be promoted on Facebook, in front of tens or hundreds of thousands.  So make sure to tell friends when you've written something, and ask them to comment and recommend.

Step 5: Explore

There’s more you can do here, but frankly, you’ll have more fun clicking and exploring yourself. But if you get through even the first 4 steps, you’ll be 99% of the way to really enjoying Left Take in a big, big way.

A Few Rules & Tips

• Troll rating: 3 in a row, and a comment will be hidden.   Please use these only to hide comments that are truly disruptive.
• Leave comments:  Diaries are great, but it's the back and forth that really makes things fun.  So... leave them often.
• Recommend diaries:  Look for the "recommend" button on the right, and if you like a diary, use it.  That helps us choose the best diary (and it's cool for the diarist)
• Be nice to each other... but it's okay to mix it up.  Just use your best judgement as to where the line should be drawn between the two.
• No inappropriate comments -- racism, ethnic slurs, homophobia, you know the kind.  Mixing it up is fine, but these kinds of slurs aren't.
• This is a mostly progressive blog, but... all perspectives are welcome.  Frankly, we need some wingnuts around here to give us some sparring practice.   :D
• The editor reserves the right to make up additional rules as necessary, or just on a whim.