Meet the Front Pagers:
Jack McCullough Co-founder Jack McCullough is a lawyer who lives in Montpelier, Vermont. He is involved in mental health advocacy and local and state politics. He is also the current Chair of the Washington County Democratic Committee and the Montpelier Democratic Committee.
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Julie Waters was an environmentalist, a gay rights activist and a general supporter of the rights of everyone to live well. She was also an avid bird photographer and musician who did other work (primarily consulting and teaching) to fund her hobbies. Our Julie left this world for whatever lies beyond it on April 8, 2012. Her presence here will always be greatly missed.
Examples of Julie's photography and music can be found at her web site: juliewaters.com |
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Sue Prent Sue Prent was born in Chicago in 1950. Together with her Canadian-born sculptor husband Mark, she has lived in Montreal, Berlin Germany and finally settled in St. Albans in 1987. Together, they own and operate a fine art molding and casting business there, make a little art and mostly manage to tread water. Sue is a confirmed believer in social responsibility and environmental stewardship. She is proud to be a member of the Northwest Citizens for Responsible Growth.
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
JD Ryan, formerly known as, "That guy with the crazy hair at the DNC " is one of those not-a-Democrat front pagers Odum warned you about. Has a penchant for bad Italian Western movies, outdated music, going into abandoned mental asylums, activism, and general rabble-rousing, all of which he torments people with on a regular basis over at Five Before Chaos. Also prone to funky bass playing and atheistic rantings. Do not take with other medications, strong side effects may occur. Not as crazy as Ed Garcia (see above), nor is his resume as remotely interesting as any of the other GMD FP'ers.
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Front Pager Emeriti:
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Caoimhin Laochdha lives in central Vermont, is a life-long civil liberties activist and offsets his carbon footprint by growing his own energy and riding his bicycle without a helmet. Every election cycle, since Gerald Ford's social promotion to the Oval Office, Caoimhin has volunteered for at least one Democratic presidential campaign that ultimately finished in second (or lower) place. He operates a really small farm that raises 
Kagro X (David Waldman) Sorta co-founder (From dKos:) A participant in online communities since the early 80s and a former Capitol Hill aide and Hotline staff writer, David now works in marketing so that he will not be eligible to answer telephone surveys. He has developed a particular interest in lending to the discussion the procedural knowledge he gained from C-SPAN immersion therapy during his days on the Hill, and as a result holds the world record for Longest Online Series on Parliamentary Maneuvers that Didn't Happen, namely, the Senate's "nuclear option." David is married to a moderate Democrat who once helped launch FOX News, and worked for the parent company of Eagle/Regnery Publishing, though in fairness, she was young and needed the money. The children are being raised as Democrats, so there is no need to call the authorities.
Da Rules (largely lifted and re-worked from Daily Kos, 'cause who wants to re-invent the wheel?):
Green Mountain Daily was started by progressive activists in the Democratic Party, and maintains that focus. It is our intention to promote both left-minded policies and candidates. It is believed that no institution can be healthy without a capacity for rollicking self-criticism, and part of the purpose of this site is to provide such health to the Democratic Party for its own good. We're all sure it will thank us for this some day.
On the other hand, the criticism of Republicans is not done for the health of their institution, but rather to try and do our small part to protect the state and the world from utter destruction at their hands. Perhaps they'll thanks us some day too, but we won't wait up.
The current crop of front pagers includes some who do not consider themselves Democratic Party activists, and the site remains open to all, but don't expect a parade if you've come to evangelize about the evils of all those who call themselves Democrats. You're liable to get back as good as you give, no matter how much you might chose to whine about it. In other words, if you can't take it, don't shovel it. Please remember this is not a newspaper, public park, government service or political party. That means there are rules. If you dont like them, you are encouraged to start your own blog. There are lots of free ones.
So, here's how it works:
How can I post here? First, you need to create an account. You can post a comment immediately after logging in with the password you receive from your registration email, but you have to wait a day before posting a diary.
The User Menu When you log in, you'll notice a user menu on the top of the right-hand column. There are links for creating your own diary, as well as going to your own user page, where you can create a profile for yourself that can be as detailed or as skimpy as you like. Explore the links and you'll find that most of the options are reasonably intuitive to someone accustomed to using computers and interacting on the web. For technical tips, see "Technical tips" below (well.. as soon as I write those up – they're not quite available yet)…
The front page The first thing that you see when loading the site is the front page. Most of the stories on the front page are written by designated front page posters, but we frequently "promote" good user diaries to the front page, especially when we're all feeling to lazy to write anything. On the right hand side, you'll see the "recent diaries" column, which is where user diaries appear. If you are logged in and you click on a link opening up a user diary, you'll have the option of recommending it via a button on the right hand side. Recommended diaries get highlighted a bit higher on the page and do not scroll off as new diaries are written, giving them special emphasis for a few days. Most of the action takes place inside of diaries where the user comments appear.
Comment ratings: Comments can be individually rated logged in users on a 1-4 scale, with 1 being "unproductive" and 4 being "excellent", with the rest covering the range in between. If a user receives a small handfull of "excellent" ratings, they become a "trusted user" and have the abilit to rate comments with a zero, or "troll rating." This is a rating reserved for comments which are not designed to add to the discussion, but serve to disrupt or derail it, usually (but not exclusively) by calling other posters names, posting defamatory material, etc. If a comment receives a handful of troll ratings, it becomes "hidden," causing it – along with any responses – to be visible only to trusted users. Troll ratings are not to be handed out because of disagreement with a posters ideas, for retribution for other ratings or conflicts, because of personal dislike of a poster, or because somebody was simply being crude in a jovial way, with no intention of offending.
How to get kicked off the site Troll rating vindictively is considered ratings abuse, and can be grounds for banning from the site. Receiving excessive troll ratings on multiple comments indicates a desire to disrupt conversation, and can also be grounds for banning. Posting defamatory material can also lead to a user being banned. If a banned user creates a new user ID and attempts to return, they could also be subject to banning (although if you're actually trying to participate in discussions,we'll probably look the other way on that one)
ON THE REPRODUCTION OF COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL: Unless you're satirizing (making a "transformative" use), it is against fair use laws to reprint in toto a news piece, or any other copyright-protected article on the web. Such diaries or comments will be removed. Repeated violations may subject a user to banning. Click on this link for details.