I missed the announcement, but apparently today is "Meta Day".
The browbeaten hordes of irritated Kossacks are rising, and writing Diaries about how browbeaten and irritated they are ... and where the heck is Meteor Blades when you need him?
The irony is thick on the ground because, in my bones, I think he is taking a restorative break from the irritated, and the sources of the irritation.
The further irony of me writing a Diary too is not lost.
However, the die is cast so let's submerge beneath the squiggle.
Markos Moulitsas had an idea. It turns out that it was a good idea and like all good ideas that succeed, it had the benefit of timing. Daily Kos was born and went on to become the per-emminent Progressive website this side of the Resurrection (for those who believe in such things).
Daily Kos is on it's fourth official incarnation, each an improvement on the last, whatever Bob Johnson might say. More than once. Actually Bob puts it very well in his own, inimitable style.
It does seem, however, that there are areas of the site that cause Users some anguish. Let's look at them, and see if we can find a way to make those "features" work for us in a way that adds positives and reduces the irritation factor.
Just a few words about our reality
The site is what it is. There is a whole team of skilled folk working of every aspect of delivery. Technical staff, Editorial staff, probably someone to feed the office cat. They read Diaries and they hear the complaints. Boy do they hear the complaints. The result is that we are now on DK4, and that was no small achievement.
But here is the thing. It really doesn't matter how loud you complain, how many meta-diaries are written and how many times folk call for Moderation, none of this will help you today or tomorrow. The site is too big, the coding too complex even for the bugs to be quickly fixed. Structural changes, even if the Management agrees they are necessary, will not happen before supper.
In the meantime there is an apparent desire for a more peaceful kos, a friendlier kos, a kos we can show small children without them suffering nightmares.
All of that is available, you just have to know where, and where not, to look.
Set aside your unrealistic expectations, and let's examine what can be done, in the here and now, today.
I will confess that MY Daily Kos is a relatively peaceful place. I miss most of the Pie and learn a great deal from others, and from their Diaries and comments. Diaries come in by the hundreds per day, comments by the thousands and the vast majority are solid, helpful and often just amusing. So you need to find your version of that.
The Recommended Diary List
This will not be your peaceful haven. On this List you will find the very best, and the very worst of Daily Kos. The trick is working out which is which. Any Diary with 500 comments and 50 recommends is not a good place to start. By all means enter, but don the hard-hat first.
Why it is so is pretty simple. Many of those Diaries are hitting the buttons that polarise. They attract a great many comments, and sufficient recs to make the List. Once there they become a self-fulfilling prophesy. If you want rational debate, and folks who will listen, then those Diaries are not the best place to start. So read them, tip or rec as appropriate, and move on to the next one. There, a 500 comment flame war and you didn't even notice.
You can't just ignore the Rec. List. To do so would be to deprive yourself of some of the best Diaries around. Be selective. If enough people are selective enough then those Diaries will be washed away by the great orange tide that much quicker.
The Front Page
You can learn a lot here. Not just the content, which is invariably well researched and presented, but FP Diaries (for that is what they are) are usually free of flames. Not always, but usually.
Key to this is that the Front Page writers tend not to comment in their own threads. Some will, especially if you are nice, but they made a decision to generally not. The result is that they do not set themselves up to be either a target or a victim. Front Page articles are often challenging, frequently touching subjects that, in other parts of the site prove to be divisive, yet they remain calm. A few folk could learn from that.
Something is lost due to this, but the FP scrolls like a magazine, and those subjects come up time and again where the topic gets a good discussion.
Two areas of the site are your goldmine. They are the Recent Diary List, and your Stream.
The Recent Diary List
It came back due to popular demand. I spend quite a bit of time on this List, for reasons not pertinent here. Best point of entry is the "DIARIES" Tab at the top of the page.
Everything starts here. If a mouse farts and someone Diaries said explosion, you will see it here first. If a President Dies, or a Tripoli burns, then the Diary will appear first on this List. This is where you will see the Diary that is going to be a flame war, but is not yet even smouldering. If you start at the top of this List, YOU get to set the tone of the comments, by making the first, or the very early comment. You also, if you make a good comment, get the Mojo that flows.
I promise you this .... If you major on the Recent Diary List you will laugh, cry, cheer and scold. You will get the news first and your pithy comments will attract the most appreciation from others. You will soon learn to discriminate. Some Diaries you will "auto-click" and others you will rarely open. You will get to know the Diarists without the pre-conceptions that go with massive comment threads.
Oh, and the Diaries will open faster too!
Your Stream
Sounds a bit dirty, put like that but in reality it is your personalised version of the site. Find it behind the "My Page" Tab, or in your box on the right.
In here is everything you have asked to see, which has to be a good start. All the Diaries of those you Follow, Tags you Follow or Groups you join go here.
If you are selective about Following, and spend some time building a list, then you will get all the stuff you really want to read. Combine that with the Recent Diary List and you won't miss much. If you are in voluntary purdah, then you can follow the "Meta" tag.
As a little aside ..... There is a great way of finding things you might not even know existed.
Every time you open a Diary, there, on the right, is a list of Diaries recommended by the author of the Diary you have open. It's a fascinating stroll through Daily Kos to start clicking some of those links. I think the site is running around 200 Diaries plus per day. That means that every ten days there are in excess of two thousand Diaries waiting to be discovered, and most of them do not have a Hide Rate in sight.
All of the above should help you navigate away from that which you abhor, and steer you towards the reasons you are here. There is something else though that is crucial:
Commenting, Replying to Comments and Comment Rating
This is where the trouble starts.
For these purposes we can pretty much ignore the out-and-out Troll Diaries. They are generally spotted early, and Hide Rated. Often someone will leave a message that remains visible to non-TUs when the Tip Jar has long disappeared.
The more difficult area is when making or replying to comments. This is an art that has to be learned, and an art that many have not yet learned however low their UID.
It's very hard to be prescriptive about this but there is an excellent "Rule of Thumb" that works, most of the time, for me:
If that person was sitting in front of me, would I make this comment?
This is simply a recognition that the distance between us, both in geography and information, tends us towards making comments that can be misunderstood, deliberately or innocently.
Yesterday, for example, I wrote a Diary. There was nothing in that Diary that should attract negativity, then this comment appeared. Given the text of the Diary I was shocked! Shocked I tell ya! In my younger and more stupid days I would have fired off an angry reply, completely missed the point and annoyed quite a few others.
Read the comment thread. I asked a question, got a very genuine reply and actually learned something useful. Do I always get it right? No, of course not, but I can get it right and so can you. If others fail to learn this, then simply move on, it's not worth it because they are not listening. There will be no discussion if we are not listening, so why waste the bandwidth?
The other trap we fall into is in assuming that we need reply at all. In the face of an obviously inflammatory remark there exists the desire to fire back. Resist that urge! Even if, and especially if the hurtful, obtuse or just plain rude comment was directed at you. Do not make the mistake of thinking you are the only one to see it, and you have to be the one to answer.
You are not, and you do not. Others are reading the threads too, and they will have your back in a way far more effective than you can manage yourself. What might become just another pissing contest can, if allowed, become very effective "Community Moderation".
Meet rudeness with civility, taunting with "sorry you feel that way", or somesuch. Look them in the eye and make your point, politely, humourously whatever ... any way except the way that perpetuates the angry exchanges.
If we all did this we would not be demanding the return of Meteor Blades, or a cabal of Moderators, we would be wishing him a happy retirement, and enjoying our time here.
Be very generous with Comment Tips. Often, the fact that you tipped a comment helps the User better understand your reply. For my own part ..... If I write a Diary and do not tip your comment, then either the comment count is over 200 and I can't get to it, or I really disagreed with you. Everyone else I will Tip as a thank you for taking part.
I will almost always Tip any comment I reply to. Above exclusion applies. I have to really not like what you said .. heh!
Spread the love around, we are, at heart, all on the same side and people who are given positive reinforcement tend to act more positively. If you get a reputation for behaving that way then, when the time comes to give someone a well-earned rebuke, then your words will carry a great deal more weight.
Finally "Hide Rating"
Don't!
What I mean is that if you never use any of the five a day you are allowed, then you will never become embroiled in the flames.
With experience comes the ability to judge when, and more importantly when not, to Hide Rate a comment. Hrs are a useful tool, but one that needs very careful application.
Never HR a comment in your own Diary. Never HR someone you are arguing with. Only ever HR when that is the only option remaining. I quite like pointing out that a comment is HR'able on it's merits, yet not actually dropping the donut. Once you HR a comment you shut down any possibility that you can engage the User in a productive discussion.
If you did all that, and the User persists in the ass-hattery, then deliver the finely judged pastry.
Thanks for getting this far, I hope it helped.
UPDATE:
Hat tip to DaNang65 for this comment on my glaring omission