1. How to create your Username and Profile
Sign up process
- A Daily Kos user account is FREE.
- First, watch this one-minute video: Daily Kos Tutorial: How to sign up for a free account on Daily Kos
- Then, go to this link to set up your account: https://www.dailykos.com/signup
Username Guidelines
Your username is important—and permanent—so choose it with care.
We strongly encourage candidates and elected officials to post using their real names. It is possible to join and post here under pseudonyms, but building name recognition is critically important to any campaign. Writing under your real name also makes your posts easier to find in search engines.
Usernames can include only letters and numbers, no special characters. Spaces are allowed. The office you seek does not need to be in your username. You may, however, want to include your two-letter state abbreviation.
Customizing your User Profile
- After you create and confirm your user account, you can customize your user profile.
- Every site user has a “profile page” URL that will look like these examples:
Notice a pattern?
- Access your profile using the pull-down menu from the upper right corner—attached to the circle user avatar, which by default is a gray scale flag bearer image.
- Click on "Profile" in that menu when you are logged in, then click the "Edit my Profile" button you see in the left sidebar.
- This profile page is a good place to put contact information about your campaign—including, if you wish, your own avatar image.
Your user profile page will also serve as your content archive, where you can see your posts and comments in one place. It is also useful for keeping track of the “tags” you put on your stories. Think of tags as your own custom “labels,” which you put on your posts to note your office/district/state—plus any other keywords you want people to associate with you.
Additional details about your User Profile
Many sections on the User Profile page are automatically populated, based on your history of comments and stories on the site, as well as the recommendations you may make of other users' stories and the groups to which you belong.
But certain fields allow you to add your own details. Completing them is optional. If you do choose to complete any or all of them, you will then be able to decide whether to display your answers. We recommend completion and display of the fields listed below in BOLD.
User profile fields that are ALWAYS HIDDEN:
- email address (email of record for user account; logged-in user can change their own)
- zip code
User profile fields that are OPTIONAL. They MAY be shown/hidden/left blank:
- First Name
- Last Name
- Personal Pronouns (of your choice)
- Bio (This text box CAN include hyperlinks to your campaign website and fundraising pages.)
- Date of birth
- Occupation
- City
- State
- Country