Last week, several of us were vexed by a particularly annoying little glitch - we couldn't see about half the images on the site. No Tom Tomorrow, no masthead for Cheers and Jeers or NightOwls, no avatar pictures... and no diary rec or post a comment buttons. The site looked like this to us. Sucks, huh?
I did something that was simultaneously no big deal and pretty extraordinary - contacted the help desk. After my initial report, another half dozen users joined in to say they were having the same issues. It was fairly limited in scope - you could tell by reading comment threads that pretty much everyone else could see the images just fine. Within minutes of each other, both elfling and ct checked in to say that they were looking into it. They kept us posted, asked questions to pinpoint the problem and talked us through some troubleshooting. By Thursday, they isolated the problem and had it fixed.
That's why I'm glad to be a subscriber.
Looks like your connection is okay, so you'll have to try the Help Desk.
Not because you have to subscribe to get tech support - you don't. (I was the only subscriber in this group.) No, it's because I know that subcriptions help fund this support. They worked to isolate a problem that affected a tiny group of users and stuck with it until it was fixed. (If only Earthlink was that responsive.) At another site, I wouldn't have bothered contacting them about a glitch like this, figuring there'd be no response. Tech support has always been good here, but the Help Desk that came with DK4 is even better - it also lets us help each other. (That's something we're pretty good at, I've noticed.) Let's hear it for the team that keeps this joint running so smoothly, and who jump in so quickly when it doesn't.
Lurker? It's okay - the Help Desk is still there for you.
Seeing the site without its images was a nudging visual reminder of how many things I appreciate about this place. What if it wasn't just a missing masthead for Cheers and Jeers or Open Thread for Night Owls - what if Bill and MB weren't there either? Hunter? The comics? Jed? Pundit Roundup? Talk about sucky...
After all the coverage of Wisconsin here, this was like a celebrity sighting when I visited family in Madison.
Where did you turn to for coverage of Deepwater Horizon? (or Katrina, for you 5-digit UID's?) How about the Fukushima clusterfusion? The Arab Spring? Wisconsin? Occupy? And really, were any regular readers here surprised by the financial crisis? Hell, I even read about Sully's landing here first - I still remember seeing a diary that was something like "A plane just landed in the river outside my office!" within minutes of the event. DKos scoops CNN.
It's a harsh world out there - so it's good to have a safe place to test your wings.
Writers get to build their skills here. Some get promoted here, some get famous elsewhere. Remember when Nate Silver was just a guy named after a pepper? Or the Angry Rakkasan? Rachel Maddow knew where to find good information on the gulf - she went to fishgrease. If you're a good writer, you can find a receptive audience here; if you're a budding writer, you get a chance to work out your chops in front of an audience who will sharpen your skills with critiques both kind and pointed. I use it as a place to distill thoughts for my LTEs. (And to post pictures of birds whenever I get a chance... there's room for that, too.)
Got something to say? You've found your podium... this is the ultimate Speaker's Corner.
If we are more than generous with our opinions here, it's because we're more than generous, period. This is an absolutely great, caring community. I'll admit that it used to make me slightly nuts to read about peoples' dead pets here, especially on the rec list. But I came to see the bigger meaning behind that - when a big hurt has happened in our lives, like loss of a friend or family member or beloved pet, we need to talk to someone about it. Sometimes it's just too hard with friends and family when they're in the midst of that same grief - it can be too raw. Coming here lets us choose our words carefully, talk to people we know, and strangers who have walked the same path. When trouble hits, like a job loss or illness or foreclosure, we can find someone here who's been through it before to give us some pointers. This caring community has, quite literally, saved some lives.
Maybe the "Bluebird of Happiness" is too much to hope for, but you are likely to find a shoulder to lean on.
We've also helped a lot financially - both Kossacks and strangers. When one of us is in need, people rise to the occasion and give that little boost to tide them through a rough spot. (Sometimes it's both financial and spiritual, as when we donate to create community quilts.) We have bought fuel for families on reservations, packages for troops serving overseas, education materials, ShelterBox tents for earthquake victims... the list goes on.
This group of Kossacks put the fun into fundraising - a birding trip in Northern California doubled as a pledge drive to raise funds to buy fuel on the Rosebud Reservation.
I bought a lifetime subscription just a few months after signing up. It wasn't about blocking ads; it was about supporting a place that I already knew I liked. In the years since it's become an important part of my daily life. (Kinda like how I used to feel about pledging to NPR before they became a bunch of total RNC shills... but I digress.) Getting rid of the ads was a bonus - at the family cabin, there's no high-speed internet, so the sub made it much much easier and faster to connect. It was a gift I gave myself.
If you don't have a sub, now's the time. My lifetime subscription was a great deal - I got it in the summer of 2007, so it paid for itself two years ago. If you have a slow connection, you'll be amazed at the difference it makes. If you can do it for yourself, do it. If you can't, drop a hint. There are a number of folks waiting in the wings looking for someone to help.
Brighten someone's day, if you have the means.
When you give a gift subscription, you're not only giving it to that person, you're giving it to the whole community here. Your gift encourages the recipient to keep writing. It's like a mini-Kos Fellowship, and you get to be the one to award it. How cool is that?
You can buy a subscription for yourself or a friend on our subscription page. If you would like to make a donation to the site, you can do so on our donations page.
It's always nice to have a little orange on your computer...
A list of kossacks who could use a gift sub, per Susan from 29's most recent update.