How To…

A quick how-to guide to some of the new features here at SSP.


• Create a User ID: Go to the section toward the top of the right-hand sidebar titled “Menu” and click “Make a New Account.” This is important because your old TypeKey IDs won’t work at this site.


• Post a comment: You’ll need a User ID for that. To write a new comment on a diary or front-page post, click the “Post a Comment” link in the grey bar at the top or bottom of every comment area. To reply to a particular comment, just hit the “Reply” link that should appear beneath the name of the person whose comment you want to respond to. If you do this, then your comments will appear “threaded,” making the conversation easier to follow.


• Post a diary: Again, you’ll need a User ID. To write a diary, just go over to the “Menu” section again and click on “New Diary.” Easy as pie.


• Find old SSP posts: You can visit the our “legacy” Movable Type site at http://www.swingstateproject.net/. (It may look a little out-of-whack at the moment while we finish the transition.) We plan on moving over all old posts to this site soon, so that we’ll have a complete archive here (and so that old links won’t break.)


• See all the comments & diaries you’ve written, and make changes to your account: In the “Menu” section, click on “[User ID]’s Page“. This will take you to a whole host of options that’ll let you look at your user history and change your account settings. A couple key things: 1) To add a public e-mail address or signature, click on the “Profile” link. 2) To set your time zone and how many diaries and front-page posts you see, click on “Profile” then “Display Prefs“.


If you have any questions, please just ask. And you can also consult the SoapBlox main hub or the SoapBlox Wiki as well.

Welcome to the New & Improved Swing State Project!

Welcome to the new SoapBlox-powered, diary-enabled version of the Swing State Project! If you’re seeing this entry at the top of your screen, that means we’ve just switched over to the new site. Things may look a bit “empty” around here at the moment, but new stories will be appearing soon.


Please feel free to sign up for a new User ID (your old TypeKey IDs won’t work) in the right-hand sidebar. Once you’ve done that, go ahead and start posting diaries! Our only request is that you stick to diaries which relate to the topics that this site covers: campaigns, elections, electoral strategy, polls, etc.


In other words, If you want to write about the Iraq war, you are probably better off doing so at DailyKos. But if you’ve got, say, a poll which shows how the Iraq war is affecting the race in a particular state or district, then by all means post about that here.


No matter what, just go have fun!