Miss Mayta was going to stay above the fray in the latest meta wars but she received two letters in her KosMailbox that made her think that there might be a way to fix the site instead of simply complaining about it.
Just to be clear, we do not mean "fix" like Grover Norquist does:
“[Democrats] will only become acceptable once they are comfortable in their minority status. Any farmer will tell you that certain animals run around and are unpleasant, but when they’ve been fixed, then they are happy and sedate.”
(Psstt: We
do have a common enemy and you don't really have to look too far to find it)
Please follow me below the Swirly Thing (watch out ... it tickles!)
After surveying the Great Orange Satan, Miss Mayta found, to her dismay, that the new vehicle of choice was the Combustible Clown Car (CCC).
Since it looked a bit, er, dangerous, we decided to check our heretofore neglected KosMail. Upon discovering 514 messages, most of which involved Group messages from months ago (we will let the Cranky Users address that), we did notice a few that required immediate attention.
So on to the letters ...
Dear Miss Mayta,
Sometimes I see diaries that really really anger me. I feel as though my hair is on fire and that millions of mosquitoes are landing on me and biting all at once. When I see that diary, I am embarrassed for the site, everyone who blogs here and the whole wide world. The only thing I can do is go into the diary, hide rate the Tip Jar and then leave a nasty comment calling out the diarist for daring to post a diary on the same Internets that I am on. Was that okay?
Signed,
Flaming [REDACTED]
~
Dear FA,
Oh, my! That was most definitely Not Okay. We understand your angst over being unable to complain about the diary without actually going in and defacing it mentioning your concerns. However, hide rating the Tip Jar of a non-troll diary that you simply disagree with is never okay (see the FAQ) and leaving a nasty comment would make Miss Mayta weep.
Miss Mayta would like to recommend to the DK4 developers that they add a Not Recommended button on each diary. This would allow the community to vote to not see that diary on the Recommended List. If the powers that be decided that would cause more fighting ("who would anticipate that?") the button would at least give readers the satisfaction of registering their disagreement in a non-destructive way.
∞∞∞∞
Hey you, Miss Mayta!!
I was in a diary the other day and I noticed there were people in there commenting about the diary's topic instead of discussing a topic that was important to me. I hate when that happens ... isn't it all about me and my issues? So people started yelling at me and hide rating me and using these words: "Off Topic". I ran the words through Google Translate and I could not find the meaning.
First, what does "Off Topic" mean and, second, why am I even bothering talking to you ...what the he** do you know about anything? And get off my lawn!
~
Dear Whoever You Are (John McCain?),
First, about your issues. The reason you could not find "Off Topic" via the Google Translate is because it is technically "English" which is the official language of DKos. It will be easier to explain "On Topic" as it is usually fairly easy to discern from the diary itself (it will require "reading", however). Many diarists spend hours or at least minutes selecting the best words to convey their intent, linking to appropriate outside references and adding graphs or photos to enhance their work product. "On Topic" would be a comment related to that work product. Second, we are sorry that every diary on DKos is not about the topic you want to comment on ... actually, we are not sorry about that. We were trying to be polite and since we cannot, we will just stop here.
Miss Mayta would like to recommend that the DK4 developers find a way to allow a diarist to disconnect an off-topic thread from a diary and re-attach it to a daily Bickering Diary. The Bickering Diary can be Automatically Published at 12:01 am. Each off-topic thread becomes a new comment thread in the Bickering Diary so that people may continue the arguments there and the original diary can return to its discussion of the diary content. Note that the Bickering Diary would always be available so that anyone who simply woke up needing to, er, leave their mark in someone's cornflakes could go there looking for a fight, or if there were no fights that "felt right" could start their own! This diary could not be Recommended.
~
Miss Mayta Confidential to s.c.:
Followup: it gets harder more difficult.
Do you have a question for Miss Mayta? The lines InterToobz are open...
About Miss Mayta: Born a perfect blogger in an imperfect Internet society, Miss Mayta is the pioneer mother of today’s EtiKos movement. Her tireless efforts to expand the understanding and exercise of EtiKos beyond the stereotypical terror of not having enough Cheetos will probably not only escape official notice but may result in cries of "NOT A DIARY!!". As a manners-free existence can lead to frequent HRination, dysfunctional online communities and keyboard rage we call out for, nay!, demand a return to common courtesy...and the fork on the left side of the plate (even though that makes no sense at all).
(With apologies to Judith Martin)