A dkos Primer
This is a dkos primer, admittedly from an old-timer.
1. How to write diaries that make the rec list
A dkos Primer
This is a dkos primer, admittedly from an old-timer.
1. How to write diaries that make the rec list
The shorter the better. Two or three sentences, max.
Lots of profanity, because that shows real feeling and sincerity.
Lots of WTFs and f@%&*##$ and what-not.
(Hunter led the way on that one.)
Keep your topic to very global judgments. Like Obama is a sell-out.
Or Obama is the last true progressive standing deep down inside.
Make it personal.
If someone in your immediate household died, that is best.
If they are injured or dismembered, that would be good, too.
Don't worry about policy.
Diary about smack-downs! Yeah!!!
Or about something absolutely atrocious that some right wing nutcase said.
You can always depend on some quotes from good old Fox "News" to stir the readers and rec the diary!
It would always help if your diary is about a very personal situation, like your gay partner cannot get your health care records or you cannot visit them in the intensive care unit. You should always be sure to have a LGB issue in your diary.
Speaking of sincerity: to be a credible diary, you need to let readers know that someone else, usually someone who disagrees with you, is a snake, a sell-out, a moron, a stealth, a monster, a bastard, and a truly incredibly evil person.
So, in summary, the most likely rec list diary would be "so and so on Fox News, who has stock in (Oil Company) just said something on the air that killed my gay partner and now he will have a funeral the day after tomorrow, but then Jon Stewart really smacked him down and revealed to all the world what an incredible asshole soandso on Fox News really is!"
Knowledge: do not reveal any knowledge of economics, science, political philosophy, politics, campaigning, surveying, polling, or political strategy. That is a death knell. That is, like, sooo boring, so "inside", and so out of touch with like the "real people". In fact, if you write a diary that shows some knowledge of the process and some insight, others will quickly write lots of one-sentence and two-sentence diaries just to drive your diary off the list! If you write some strategic diary like "The probable endgame to the debt ceiling (with polling)" there will be ten other diaries entitled "The probable real endgame (without polling)" and "The probable end game WTF?" and "The probable end game ... this is no game!" and "It's a fu%*#$% game to you but not to me!!!!" and they will all be right there at the top of the rec list.
The compulsary bow: you made the rec list? Wow! Scream, yell, you made it! Make sure to let everyone know, like: "UPDATE: Wow! The rec list! First time! Can't believe it! You really care! You really really care!"
Other devices, such as BREAKING!!! Have gotten real old. Avoid them. Three years ago they were the key to getting on the rec list. Now they are old hat.
If you have a genuine and real cause that requires work (that's the key ... it requires work) and you urge people to "please rec it up!" ... well, forget it. That is soooo obvious. That's sort of like spamming people's email accounts. Sooo yesterday. Your diary will sink into oblivion and will be gone by the time you check back in two hours.
Okay, the thrill and the enthusiasm has drained out of dkos, so you can see some "LATEST NEWS" diary and it's like three days old. That's because Obama has drained every last drop of blood out of you and out of the Demcoratic Party. So, very few people post shit here at all, and diaries move down the list very, very slowly. Nope, it ain't the way it was in September of 2008 when you had fifty-four diaries every three hours telling Obama how to win the election.
Since then he has escalated the war in Afghanistan ("the good war"), kept troops in Iraq, persecuted whistle blowers, sold the public option down the Lobby River, failed to appoint Democrats as US Attorneys across the country and even nominated Republicans, kept Guantanamo open, failed to meaningfully support union and worker rights, constantly reinforced right wing economic homilies in his speeches, sidelined Volker, failed to provide a meaningful economic stimulus, and put social security and medicare cuts on the negotiation table to be butchered. All of that sort of took the winds out of the sails of the supporters that went door to door as true believers for Obama in 2008 (eleven-dimensional chess notwithstanding). Apparently Obama has not learned the lesson from Artur Davis in Alabama - double-cross your base, and you lose.
2. Comments
Past functions of comments have been taken over by diaries. If you wanted to make some quick comment (just a few sentences reacting to things) then the comments would have been the proper vehicle for that IN THE PAST. Not anymore. Now you write one-sentence or two-sentence diaries in the place of comments.
Comments are now reserved for intersticial flame-wars.
Proper comments are:
"Not necesssarily so ... my brother-in-law's case proves you are full of shit."
"O yeah ... ass-hole!"
"My recipe for apple pie ... "
The right way to use comments is to hijack the thread, that is to introduce what you really want to talk about. Don't be a wimp, don't let the diary dicxtate what you want to say, come on out say what is important to YOU!
So, say there is a diary on the CIA black sites and how the author disapproves of the US government "disappearing" people sort of like Pinochet did.
Writye a comment that says: "Well, it is all good and well to do a lot of moral posturing about disapproving of disappearing people, but the real atrocity that is going on in this country is that people are circumcised long before they can give legal consent!"
This will spark a nice debate with 700 comments for and against circumcision. That is the true purpose of comments.
3. Hide Rating
Hide rating is the best method to deal with people with whom you disagree. You should work hard to became a "trusted user" so you can hide-rate people. This is where the real power lies. Forget about writing diaries or comments, just hide rate and enjoy the ruckus!
4. Recommendations
The proper way to gain and maintain your high social position on dkos is to run down the list of diaries and recommend each of them, as many as possible. Do this at least once every 24 hours. Now in the past you might have had to do this once every six hours, but things have slowed down (see above). You do not need to read them. When you recommend a diary, you earn goodies, and the diary author owes you. As a result they are more likely to recommend your diaries.
5. Hanging around
When you do write a diary, some people have the insane notion that you should respond to comments. So, when you write a diary on current macro-economics, you need to hang around to answer comments such as:
"Your wife a stinking cunt!"
"What school do your children go to so I can harass them?"
"Who is your employer - I need to get you fired."
"I know for a fact your children are actually not yours."
Therefore it is obviously best to announce right up front: "I gotta go to work so can't hang around." . If you don't work, just make it shorter: "I gotta go, so can't hang around."
That takes the wind out of the sail of the worst commenters. But then, this also presents a great opportunity to show off
Not so good: "Can't hang around. I live in the single-wide of my mother-in-law. Gotta take her to the disability office."
Really good: "House is going into special session. I have to be there. The Representative (cant say who) really needs me."
So, there you have it. My guide to dkos.
Kinda tells you why I haven't posted much lately.