Though when I start to list the names of bands I’ve been on the road with, some people do tend to think I am that kind of a girl. Off the top of my head, and please remember the late 70’s and early 80’s were a bit of a blur for me, I’ve toured with Crosby, Stills and Nash, Evelyn Champagne King, Parliament, Foghat, Kenny Loggins, Bob Marley, Elvis Costello, Men at Work, Men Without Hats, Air Supply and probably a lot more than I’m just not remembering.
Did I sleep my way onto the bus? Well sort of. At the time I was married to a guy who drove a bus for a Canadian band called Rush. They owned 3 buses and when they weren’t touring they rented those buses out and the bus drivers along with them. So I did sleep my way onto the bus, but only with my then husband.
I’m into a much different kind of group now and I don’t mind being thought of as a groupie at all. I’m interested in Daily Kos groups. What they do, how they work, what they can do for me and what I can do for them. I probably don’t belong to as many groups as I should though I follow some that I don’t belong to.
Daily Kos groups have done so much for me in the almost 10 years I’ve been here. I’ve made fast friends with several people in real life, either in person or people I talk to on the phone every week.
I’ve gotten great advice from many of the groups, the health groups (MNCC and Kosability) and the political groups. I’ve gotten to let off steam in Cranky Users and WYFP. CUA has some of the funniest stuff I’ve ever read when I can get up that early (I’d love to go on the road with Thinking Fella). Hanging out on the porch at Black Kos can be pretty funny but there is also something very comforting and sustaining there. And the pootie diaries! I don’t often comment there but at the end of a long day I love the pictures!
I’ve discovered recently that a lot of the 1,400,000 here don’t quite know about groups yet or don’t know how they work or what they do. I’m not sure how much help I can be on specific groups, sometimes even after reading their profile I have no clue what they do. Others like Caregiving Kos are more self explanatory.
I want to encourage everyone to join some groups though. It’s such a great way to interact a bit more personally with your fellow bloggers. You can search through the group of lists or click on the names of people you like reading and see what groups they belong to. I don’t know what all groups we have here but I bet there is something everyone is interested in. There is a Shut Down the NRA group and a Right to Keep and Bear Arms group. I don’t know this for a fact but I bet there is a group about Fishing.
The most important group you can join, in my never humble opinion, is your city and/or state group. That’s where hopefully the movers and shakers are, the folks going to rallies, meeting with politicians and registering and educating voters. So by all means look for a group in your area and if there isn’t one, start your own.
I have found 2 glitches that can slow or prevent a person from joining or participating in a group. The first is the invitation to join a group. It can be daunting!
In case you can’t read this it says among other things:
I’d like to invite you to contribute to the group ‘Monday Night Cancer Club'
That right there is enough to freak a lot of people out. They would like to read what the group is doing, the might like to comment in diaries, they might like to contact members, but contribute?? With cancer screaming in their ears while they are going through chemo? Yeah, no thanks! They’d love to join but contributing is beyond them for now. We need a better invitation. This isn’t just for the people with cancer either. A lot of people would like to join a group but contributing just throws them off.
The second glitch that can mess up group membership is the group messaging. Here is what my profile page looks like when I have messages from individual people.
That’s pretty clear, I have 6 messages and I can hardly miss that message when I log in. 6 people have sent me individual messages that I can choose to answer or ignore.
Now this is what it looks like when I have messages from 6 groups or 6 messages from one group.
Kind of hard to tell isn’t it? You’ll have to take my word for it, there are 6 messages there. But if I wasn’t so OCD and checked messages no matter what it said every time I log on, I would never know. This makes it especially hard when you’re sending a message to your local group about a meet-up. You can send a message to the group but this is what they’ll see. “No new messages”. The only way to be sure they see the message is to send it individually and I only know how to do that one person at a time and even with cut and paste, if you have a big group, it’s a bitch.
Don’t let those glitches stop you from joining a group though, by all means join! Just don’t be put off by the invitation to contribute, the only thing we want you to contribute is your presence. And once you’re in a group, please, please check your messages!