How to reblog/republish DK diaries to DK groups you're in: a community tutorial.

        A key privilege of group membership is publishing your diaries there (with the group’s name following your own at the byline), and republishing/reblogging diaries there, too — your own and those of other kosaks as well. (Just without that by-line detail.) This puts all those diaries into the Activity Streams of all readers following the group!

    Editors and admins technologically can publish and reblog/republish on their own, but contributors (the rank when first joining a group) can only get partway. From there, they need editor or admin help to finish. That usually involves some kosmailing, which can cost time an effort on both ends. To save on that, admins of some groups immediately promote new contributors, point them to diaries like this one you’re reading, and to the official site document Groups: How to queue, publish, or republish a story, and then mentor the fledgling editors a little until they can reblog independently!

     DK has hundreds of groups. Some of’emindexed in:

     If you’re new to reblogging, it’s a good idea to keep these instructions in one browser tab and the to-be-reblogged diary in another, so you can jump back’n’forth to use the step-by-step

<big>[1]</big> At the diary you want to reblog, find the three-dot menu button.  Its items vary some, depending on whether you posted the diary or someone else did, among other factors, but Publish to Group will always be there.

     The 3 dots may appear in a coupla places, depending on what hardware you’re using, how much zoomed in or out, and other factors.

     ► ► ► One location is the top right corner of the diary (sometimes alongside the Edit button with its pencil symbol) — see the green arrow in this illo.

    ► ► ► Another location is near the foot of the diary, right margin:

<big>[2]</big> When you click on the three dots, you get this menu,

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<big>[3]</big> Click on Publish to Group, which probably will be topmost of the items in that menu, definitely with the almost-circular arrow next to it.

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     What next appears is a box headed, naturally, Publish to Group,

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<big>[4]</big> The bar just below that heading has the word Select in it. Click there to get all your groups displayed in the larger lower space.

     If you’re in just one or a couple, most of that lower space will be empty except for them.

     If you’re in a lotta groups, that space not only may be filled, but you may need the scroll bar on the right margin of the Publish to Group box.

<big>[5]</big> Click on ONE group in the lower section that you want to reblog the diary to (even if the diary is appropriate to more than one: this tech only works one group at a time).

    That group’s name will then show in the bar that previously had Select in it.

<big>[6]</big> If you’re an editor or admin at the selected group, click on the PUBLISH button—the right-hand one of the two rectangular orange buttons at the foot of the Publish to Group box… and click to confirm when you get an “Are you sure…?” query. (Well, unless you’re not sure, in which case click on “Cancel”.]

     If you’re a contributor, kosmail a courteous and appreciative message to a currently active admin or editor, headed something like “Contributor in Ocean&Sea group requesting reblog” with a message something like “Please reblog to the group my “How To Swim” diary now in the queue.” Or if it’s someone else’s diary, “Please reblog to the group Flipper’s “How To Swim” diary now in the queue.”

     You can repeat the process for other groups you’re in, if the diary is suitable for them. Please DO reblog diaries only appropriately, since admins might bust you back down to contributor if you pile a lot of irrelevant diaries into the group posting history that only they can weed out, a very annoying chore.

<big><big>SOME THINGS YOU MAY WONDER:</big>

Question#1. How do you complete the reblogging process if you’re a contributor and can only click on the left-hand QUEUE button?</big>

Go to your group’s homepage, click on the <small>MEMBERS</small> button…

to get a list down the middle column of the page, first admins, then editors, etc., each by order of how recently active on-site. Click on whomever among them looks most recently active, that’ll get you to that person’s own DK homepage, and from there use their Send Message button to get the kosmail form…

...and dispatch a courteous request, headed something like

with a message something like

The easier and pleasanter you make it for other kosaks to help you, the greater the likelihood that they will! :)  E.g., be sure to include the group name somewhere in the message title or body, because many admins are in a LOT of groups and don’t have time or inclination to figure out what group you mean if you don’t specify.

<big>Question #2. What if the group you want is not displayed in the Publish to Group box but you ARE a member there?</big>

     That usually means one of two possible things.

• either the diary is already reblogged to that group,
• or else it’s sitting in what’s called “the group queue” — waiting line, chute, hopper, etc, for publishing — . which itself can happen two ways:
  • it was put there by a contributor because contributors can hit the orange <tt><i>Queue</i></tt> button on the lower left side of the Publish to Group windowbox — the right-handPUBLISH button won’t work for them…
  • or it was put there accidentally by an editor or admin who mistook which orange button to use. Hey, we’ve all got rushed lives, right?

   If the diary is hung up in the queue, any editor or admin in that group can go to the queue and hit the diary’s PUBLISH button there. See QUESTION #1 above, about kosmailing a request to one or two of them about that.

     But you can tell if the diary has actually already been: Look for the PUBLISHED TO section of the diary, at the foot just below the blue box that says the diary is community content. The solid green arrow is pointing to the REPUBLISHED heading, where 3 groups are displayed. And the hollow green arrow is pointing to another Publish to Group button you can use … but that one only becomes visible after the diary has been reblogged/republished to at least one.

<big>Okay, there y’go!</big> Hoping it helps. Experienced rebloggers please add in comments your thoughts on useful points that may be missing. Or more questions and answers! (I’ll try to revise, with attribution to you, as conditions allow.