The ultra-short version:
A new group, and a new diary series: #kt2 : Kossacks Tweet Too! Our diaries will be dedicated to publishing "follow-me" buttons for one-stop follows, and promoting the hashtag #kt2.
This isn't meant to compete with TwitterKos, but to complement it -- TwitterKos is much more about sharing what's on twitter. This new group will have a very narrow purpose: making it easy for us to follow each other. And, then to follow TwitterKos, too.
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Feel free to skip the preliminaries. The important part starts with Here's How below.
Like many of us, I occasionally venture into the twitterverse. Well, more than occasionally. It's addictive. And fun. But more importantly, it's USEFUL. It's an amazingly effective way of amplifying your voice, of getting information out quickly, and to galvanize others into coordinated action. It is, and likely will remain for some time, the world's greatest echo chamber.
But to be effective on twitter, you can't simply hang your twitter shingle out there and expect the world to find you. You have to find the people, groups and information sources you think are interesting, informative, and reliable, and follow them. And hope that they then follow you.
It takes time. And patience. And lots of tweeting. Time is something that most of us don't have in extra abundance.
And, then there's that incredibly annoying twitter rule that prevents you from following more than 2,000 people until such time as you, in turn, are being followed by some, maddeningly unspecified, number of followers.
BUT here we are, a community of kossacks -- and while we are wonderfully diverse in many ways, we share even more: we are progressives. We believe in science, equality of opportunity, fairness, community, and making the world a better place.
And many of us are on twitter -- but not as a community, as solitary individuals. Why don't we change that? It's easy to do, and we can start it right here. Hence, a new group, dedicated to making it dirt simple to follow each other on twitter. And, not incidentally, to make it much easier to get enough followers -- but most importantly followers who you WANT as followers, to amplify our voices -- and to get over that hump imposed by twitter that stops you from going beyond 2,000 people you follow.
Here's How:
twitter makes it very simple to create "follow me" buttons not only for yourself, but for anyone. So, I propose a new weekly series of diaries. The post-orange-croissant space will always be a list of our own follow-me buttons, which I'll create from your comments. You can then go down the list of buttons, and click away to your heart's content.
The only rule will be this: let's keep discussion to a minimum. If you want more followers from the ranks of kossacks, simply make your comment your twitter name (preceded with @), and then I'll go through the comments and turn those into buttons right in the diary. I'll add your daily kos username before the twitter button, since some of us use different names here and on twitter. See below for examples.
You may need to be currently logged into twitter on the same browser to be able to go down the list and click, and have your new followees entered. If you aren't logged in, the first time that you click on a button, it should open twitter for you, and you can log in. When you're logged in, the buttons will change shading to indicate who you're already following.
Of course, first you need a twitter account. If you don't already have one, it takes only a couple of minutes.
Since the diaries will be published by the new group "Kossacks Tweet Too #kt2", they will be easy to find. So, even if the diaries don't make the Rec list, you can find them easily, any time.
(We'll have to see how this goes -- if the list gets too long, in subsequent weeks, we may ask that if you've recently added your name, that you skip a few weeks. Of course, if this goes "THUD", we'll have to see if there's enough interest to continue.)
When you post on twitter, please add the hashtag #kt2. Nice and short, not currently being used by any other group -- and only 4 precious characters. Easy to remember. Then, anytime you want to see tweets by fellow kossacks, simply search using #kt2, and there we'll be. I've added the hashtag to tagdef. Other groups on twitter have done this strategy very successfully.
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UPDATE: Speaking of other groups, please read Angie in WA State's comment below on the new DK group (which I missed finding), and its excellent introductory diary, DKosTWEETers.
Angie also posted this very useful comment about how to add a twitter "follow me" button to your sig line (especially if you were dissuaded by the sig character limit).
Note: The list below is now out of date. It will be kept here for historical reasons, but please see the most current listing, which can always be found at the top diary published by Kossacks Tweet Too.
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DKos Name |
Twitter Follow Button |
Each new name from the comments will be added to the TOP of this list, so it's easy to come back and follow new people: |
suesue: |
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remembranceDK: |
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Wayne LaDerrière: |
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Glen The Plumber: |
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Free Jazz at High Noon: (new account ->) |
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DeadHead: |
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sheiladeedee: |
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eztempo: |
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WarrenS: |
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Angie in WA State: |
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cyncynical: |
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ericlewis0: |
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flitedocnm: |
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In the spirit of promoting Daily Kos, here are a couple of accounts we all may want to follow: |
Daily Kos: |
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Daily Kos Radio: |
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And, here are a few other prominent DKos bloggers: |
kos: |
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Meteor Blades: |
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Greg Dworkin: |
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Joan McCarter: |
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Barbara Morrill: |
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David Waldman: |
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