On Oct. 15, users of the Fray will notice a new option when posting a message in some sections of the magazine.

In the spirit of the upcoming caucus and primary season, Slate invites you to express your political allegiance by choosing an icon representing one of the presidential candidates. Like the folks participating in caucuses in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, or convention delegates roaming the floor in Boston or New York, Fraysters will be able to brandish their affiliation in Slate's own virtual caucus.

How Does This Work?

It's simple. Here's what you do:

When posting a message in one of the Fray's News & Politics threads, you'll notice a new field between your Nickname and the Subject line. This is the Presidential Candidate dropdown menu.

The dropdown menu offers a list of candidates. You may choose one of these icons—or none at all. This icon will display alongside your posts in the News & Politics sections of the Fray.

Some Helpful Hints

• Once you choose a primary candidate, that icon will appear by all your News & Politics posts. If you change your affiliation—say from Edwards to Gephardt—all your previous posts will show the Gephardt icon (this works like a change of nickname). Please note, you need to post a new message to choose a new candidate.
  
  
• Concerned that you're not seeing your caucus icon next to your Culturebox Fray posting on the legacy of Johnny Cash? That's because we've limited the Slate caucus project to departments that appear in the News & Politics section of the magazine, as well as Best of the Fray and Fraywatch.
  
  
• To make it a cinch to find like-minded Fraysters (or, alternatively, those you wish to debate respectfully), icons will be visible to all, much like gold stars or blue check marks. The caucus icons will not supplant stars or checks, so a Frayster may carry both her star and her Dean icon on all her News & Politics postings.

The Fray will continue to employ standards of civility. Epithets, personal baiting, spamming, and wildly off-topic postings won't be tolerated. But please bring your finest rhetorical skills to the Slate caucus in support of your candidate. Do you have the power of persuasion to sway a Dean loyalist to the Clark camp? Which set of Fray delegates will win over the lovelorn supporters of the next dropout? Is the Fray community in step with primary voters across the nation? We'll find out.

Have fun.

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More slate fare The New-Look Fray Readers get some new user-friendly options. posted March 18, 2004 Kevin Arnovitz Really Simple Slate Our RSS feed lets you speed-read the magazine. posted March 4, 2004 Jonathan Epstein Participatory Book Club Katha Pollitt and Andy Serwer on David Denby's American Sucker. posted Jan. 22, 2004 Meghan O'Rourke Take Two Why we're changing the home page again. posted Nov. 5, 2003 Kathleen Kincaid Fraysters Don Their Primary Colors Introducing the Fray Caucus. posted Oct. 17, 2003 Kevin Arnovitz Search for more Slate Fare in our archive.

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