(A lot of you have been asking for this for some time, so we asked David Poms, our new intern and an OpenLefter himself, to put it together. He did a great job. If you have any useful tips to add, feel free to leave a comment.
I also added a link to this in the red header at the top of the page, next to “about & contact”. If you’re ever working on a new diary/comment and need some help, click on it and it will open in a new tab so you can use it as a reference without closing your diary/comment window. – promoted by Adam Bink)
You asked. We answered. A user’s guide to commenting at Open Left using HTML commands!
Open Left is powered by Soapblox, a blog platform that allows community members to easily participate and publish on the site. Anyone familiar with blogs, especially of the lefty variety, should find the layout of the site fairly intuitive. However, not everyone is quite as familiar with creating content as reading it. A simple block of text is fine for getting a point across, but Soapblox provides an array of extras that allow you to communicate with highly readable posts or comments. The best way to learn how to do this is to learn basic HTML commands. To help everyone learn the basic tricks of the trade for creating excellent posts, I have provided a list of HTML commands that are commonly found in posts. If anyone can think of other commands that work in Soapblox and are useful for posting, please leave them in comments below.
Full list of useful commands in the extended entry.
There have been, and will be posts here on openleft, that call for real pressure, strong pressure, on the drive to 'reform' our healthcare system, and what that 'reform' should be.
But there have been no diaries, the frontpage thrust of the debate here at openleft is on the economy, the debates and calls to action, such as the necessary calls to primary those who stand ion the way on necessary legistation are on jobs and laws. There are calls to organize around accuracy in reporting, the history of progressives and Keysian economic plans, calls to reinstate civil rights protection and a threatening survielance society.
But the debate on healthcare is lacking.
That is a shame. This is the time for 'economic, jobs and worker rights progressives' to listen closely to what 'health progressives' are saying, have been saying, will be saying louder and louder in the months and years to come.
The opportunity, the responsibility, right now to act desicively is greater than at any other time in our history. The ongoing lurch of history will beging to have turbulence, the debates about other significant issues will heat up, the situations in other crisis will press for attention. Right NOW is the time.
