Stories that have several votes (meaning, some folks have already read them and found them interesting) will appear on the front page as "Published News", with the newest post at the very top. Because they are arranged chronologically and not by number of votes, it'll be just like reading a blog, with the most recent stuff at the top. If you want to see the posts in order of number of votes, you can check out the "Top Today" section.

Posts that haven't received several votes yet will appear on the "Upcoming News" page. They will also be displayed with the most recent first, just like a blog. If you want, you can change the sort order to have the oldest first or the most popular or even the least popular first. Just click on the "Sort news by" choices in the yellow bar above the news.

So depending on how much time you have to browse, you can hit the main page, then the upcoming stories. If you visit often, you just have to check the top of the upcoming stories to see what's really new.

You don't have to register to read the "news" or follow the links to people's blog posts. You do need to register if you want to vote for news stories or post links of your own.

There's a box for registering yourself as a new user in the lower right hand side of the main screen. Pick a username and a password and you're all set. Each time you visit the knit pligg, you'll need to login with that username and password.

Just as there isn't any need for you to be anonymous on your own blog, you don't need to be anonymous on the knit pligg. Post as yourself or using whatever web alias you normally use. Don't post about who exactly your pal is though!

The only time you need to be using an anonymous email account is when you directly contact your pal or post on their blog.

Once you are logged in, you can click on the "Submit a new story" link on the yellow bar above the news. That will take you to a screen to enter the URL of the link you are submitting (use the permalink to the specific post and not just your general blog address so that folks will be taken directly to the post you're submitting). The system will check the link and bring back a title. You can edit the title and write a description that will help tell folks what your link is about. Choose the proper category (there's "sockapalooza" for our updates and a few others for non-sockapalooza stuff that you want to share) and click "submit". You'll have a chance to preview your post and then "submit" one last time.

You can post links to your own sockapalooza posts, but you can also post links to someone else's blog. See something cool online about sock knitting? Find a knitblog post that was just so cool, you have to tell someone? Share it with us on the knit pligg!

Once you are logged in, you can browse the stories and if you think they are interesting, all you have to do is click on "Vote" to the left of the story. The new vote count for that story should appear.

You can vote for as many stories as you like, but you can only vote once for each story.

Because it helps other folks find the most interesting stories quickly!

Think of the voting system like the rating system on Amazon. Amazon has hundreds of thousands of books to browse and having lots of reviews and ratings for each book helps folks decide which books they'd most like to read. With 1,000 participants, there could be hundreds of sockapalooza posts to view each day and the voting system helps readers decide which posts they'd most like to read. Of course we'd all like to read all the books at Amazon and all the sockapalooza posts, but most people just don't have the time for that. This way if you only have a brief amount of time, you can hit the "top stories". If you've got more time, you can check out the other stories on the front page. If you find yourself with still more time, then check out the upcoming stories. And remember always to vote for the ones you find interesting to help others with their browsing!

The more votes we have, the more "fair" the voting is and the better sense we get of what cool stuff is going on out there. Essentially the votes are doing the work that I and the sock sisters did last time, going through updates and highlighting the most interesting.

The voting system is just a tool to help folks find what they want to read. The front page stories aren't listed by number of votes - they are listed in chronological order with newest at the top, giving newer posts a chance to get more votes. With new posts coming in constantly from hundreds of participants, the front page will be constantly changing.

Think of it this way. On one day, Knitter A posts pictures of her half-finished sock and Knitter B posts links to some yarn she's considering using. Knitter A's post will probably get more votes, because there's some progress to see and an actual picture on her blog. Folks who check in to the knit pligg that day would see that Knitter A's post is more popular and probably go there first. If they've got more time, maybe they'll visit Knitter B's post. If they like it, they'll vote for it too and more people will be encouraged to visit it that day. Then a couple of days later, Knitter A may have a post that says something like "I didn't make any progress this week" with a picture very similar to last week. Knitter B however might post more progress and have a sock to show. Now Knitter B's post will probably get more votes and folks who check the knit pligg that day will probably visit her site first. Then the next day Knitter C will post about a contest and Knitter D will post a free pattern and they'll get lots of votes. The "popularity" shifts from hour to hour and day to day.

And remember, none of these posts are ranked by poster or anything like that. They are always presented in chronological order. And the "less popular" ones aren't hidden or anything like that. The original Digg site bills itself as "a media democracy". The idea is that all posts start out equal and votes from a large number of people rate posts in a fair way.

If something is interesting, it will get votes! People want to read interesting stuff! The vote count is only a relative measure of how popular a specific story was at a certain time or on a certain day. It doesn't say anything about you or your blog or your socks even. You are great, your blog is great, and your socks are great!

Bury is like giving negative feedback to a post or comment. The knit pligg is open to everyone and someone could post something totally irrelevant or even offensive. The bury vote allows other readers to decrease the popularity of that post or comment.

As administrator, I will remove any spam posts or pure advertising posts or offensive posts. If you see any of these, contact me so I can remove them.

Karma was something the developers put in there to use for some purpose but then didn't end up using. It does nothing. It doesn't change. Everyone has the same karma.

Blogger can't handle this many members, but the pligg system is designed specifically for a large number of people to share info in a practical way.

If you have a blog, you don't have to double post on your blog and then on a second blog. Just submit a link and brief description to the knit pligg and wait for folks to come visiting!

It's easy to browse all the updates and find the ones that interest you most. You can use the chronological sort order and just read the newest posts. You can use the number of votes to decide what's most interesting. You can use the categories and tags to determine what you'd like to read. You can read the brief description to choose what most interests you. All these things should really help you go directly to the posts that you want to read.

Everyone can see all the posts that have been submitted in a much more manageable way than all in a row on a single blog. Furthermore, I'm not deciding what's worth linking to. Sock sisters aren't deciding what's worth linking to. Even the voting system doesn't make any decisions for you about what you should read. It's a way of helping you decide what you might like to read first, but you still have the option of browsing all the posts.

No, not at all. Anyone can register to use the knit pligg. So those of you not in sockapalooza can still participate by following progress updates and voting for interesting updates. You get all the fun without any of the knitting! You can also register and submit stories. They don't even have to be related to sockapalooza, but let's keep 'em knitting related, 'kay? If you see something interesting about sock knitting, share it with us - just use the "sock talk" category. If you see a post on a knitblog somewhere that is just so cool you have to share it, post a link - just use the "knitblog" category. If there are other categories you think we need, let me know.