ATTN: This is an idea I came up with looking for a tool which might already exist. I was unable to find it, and if it does exist here, I'll take this diary down and stand in the corner :)
UPDATED: 2:14PM Made some changes based on the feedback. Thanks everyone.
Just browsing around checking out people who commented on my comments, I really wish DKos had an OPTIONAL tool for users that would let them keep a list of friends. If people wanted, then they could create their own policy papers, and platforms. "Factions" would result (maybe this is a bad name for what I'm trying to express here) but I mean "Factions" in a good way, not in an infighting type way. Sort of in a way that makes people more productive on the site - able to create and belong to sub-communities as well as to the larger comunity. This is the kind of situation that evolves naturally when a group reaches a critical mass.
I mean why not? DKos seems so huge a place with so many varieties of "progressives" that to be a DKo's reader doesn't mean much anymore. I can't identify myself anymore, in shorthand, which makes it hard for people to get together without wasting a lot of time futzing around trying to figure out where they're coming from.
I started wondering about this possibility while browsing my comments, and noticing a few people that agreed with me, or uprated me. Okay, there was only a handful :) but I thiought. Wouldn't it be cool to tag them as "friends" like facebook does, and then message them as a group?
Since this is a political blog, and people are making political comments, then I starting wondering if this would lead to people making organic political connections through our site--and the de jure "factionalization" of Dkos might ensue. (the de facto factionalization already exists)
Now this might be a "bad" thing but I think it would be overall, quite cool, because names might be given to these emerging "clans" loosely organized around shared beliefs. Of course the usual "left-right-center" "hillary-obama" clans would exist, like they do now, but just in a more organized way, all within the DKos "brand" (for lack of a better word--I hate that word)
The cool thing is that I could be called a "Blue Team Dkos reader" or a "Legion of Progression DKos reader" or something which identifies me more specifically .
The other thing that might be cool is that Users could be tagged then by their orientations on a quiver of issues. Sort of like "political compass" but it would be a tool that would identify people by their broad beliefs -- and as people's positions change, they can update their compass. Actually you'd probably want to have multiple "compii" for a suite of issues.
I kinda think this would emerge organically if the engine allowed for "Friends" like Facebook does.