It's November 20th, 2004. 18 days after we all put our shoulders together and fought the one of the hardest fights of our lives....
and this bulletin board, this blog, this crossroads for Democratic activists, this place to test ideas, share the latest news and get feedback from some of the best minds in the blogosphere is broken.
You may not think so. Because, technically the site is still here, functioning and humming along quite nicely....but those of us who've been here for awhile, many of whom helped build the culture here...well, we know.
For me, the funny thing is that it didn't happen because of trolls or hackers...
we didn't arrive at the state of affairs due to sabotage from the outside. It wasn't freepers or lgf'ers or bored cyber-hackers with a crypto-intellectual anarchist agenda and curious screen names...
hell, it wasn't even popcorn and his godawful interminable polls, execrable spelling and hatred of John Kerry that I almost feel nostalgia for, laugh out loud...
it's been us. All of us.
You see. There are too many of us, old and new, to make this community work as it has been flowing in its present form imo, esp. with the culture we've laid out this past month. We are beginning to fail to live up to what made dKos great in the past and what might make it strong for the long haul...and it is all of our job to fix it the best we can.
Now, if you are asking me if it's the "fraud" issue that has broken things...the answer is only partly yes. If it hadn't been fraud then it would have most certainly been something else...anything where enough folks felt strongly enough about an issue to sincerely, and no doubt, unintentionally, subvert the very reason for dKos to exist: you see, dailyKos is the discussion and conversational crossroads for the community of Kossacks, ie. us. And, at the end of the day, we are individuals visiting a blog for the reason all individuals visit blogs: community, information, humor, wit, discussion, and to be part of something online and cool, someplace where we can make a difference.
Now, because I want to be clear on this...let me give a snapshot of what dKos is as its best, ie. "when it works" and where we are at:
#1: dKos has always been a place for smart blog readers who cared about building an open, small "d" democratic culture.
Do not underestimate how frickin' intelligent and blog-savvy the base Kossacksphere is. It's stunning just how knowledgeable folks are here on just so many topics. And there has always been a culture here of "thinking for yourself" that made it worth coming here for discussion and debate, even if you disagreed.
Fwiw, being in the 'second wave' (the post-2000 user ids) I think I came along at just the right time to realize that those who were "early adapters" here...not me, by the way...were folks who were pretty uniformly smart, sardonic, hip, computer literate and invested in building a cool Kos culture. That doesn't mean they didn't have moronic debates and snark sessions...it just meant they had read a ton o' blogs and decided that this one was worth some effort.
This was the hallmark of dKos, that effort: intelligent, insightful, funny writing...the open threads were like the meeting point of some really sharp minds. The open threads were, in and of themselves, a reason to come here. Whether to talk politics...or whatever was on your mind....when you came to dKos, you came to someplace where other folks were building something cool...and we all knew it and worked at it...worked at making it better.
#2: the Open thread used to be where we 'hashed things out'....
Before diaries were instituted and tip jars and recommended diaries got popular....dKos was a community that talked to itself on the front page.
We all read most everything...we all were familiar with most of the voices here...and it was not uncommon for some folks who are now pretty well known bloggers in their own right to jump in with some thoughts.
This created a community and a culture in which you really could disagree because, paradoxically, it is is easier to disagree with someone you know well than someone you don't. ie. It is ironic that the more people we have here...and the less that we know each other...the more important it is that we all somehow "tow the same line" for this thing to work and not descend into groupthink and/or dissension. I can't emphasize this last point enough.
You'd think the opposite would be true. But it isn't....
- anonymous disagreement and downrating
- bad behaviour that used to get called out (like vulgar idiocies and frat boy smack talk)
- groupthink
- a gradual devaluing of the importance of humor, wittiness and snark...
have turned dKos into less of a community for intelligent and humourous discussion
and disagreement than a place for:
- earnest, exclusionist netactivism
- lowest common denominator interaction
Sadly, that just seems to come with the new territory.
#3: ratings, recommendeds and the enormous growth of users has gradually reduced some of the democracy and meritocracy here...and created a climate that favors hype.
The more folks we have here..the more important it is to be able to "stand out" and the more "public" and "known" you have to be to win credibility.
In the past someone could come along and, over a couple weeks, post a few insightful and funny comments in the open threads and get noticed enough that you might want to read that user's diary. There were no recommendeds...but you could easily see all the diaries that had been written in a single day....so that didn't matter so much. Even if you NEVER or rarely posted a diary...you could still be an extremely valued and respected member here. Some of our strongest members fit that mold: pithy, witty, low key. Some of them no longer post here..but you wouldn't know that if you were new here.
In the current climate, the incentive is to build up an identity with hype and boldness, not the slow build. (Witness the ludicrous attention-grabbing and self-hyping recommended diary title trends which go against pretty much the entire culture of dKos..... lol.) Sadly....the enormous number of members simply makes taking a "hyped and clear" stand seem to be what it takes to cut through. The large number of members, comments, and diaries also, paradoxically, seems to reward brash stepping on community standards...a kind of "dare you" bluffing where you can "get away" with stuff you couldn't before.
#4: the raise hell machine has been a two edged sword
I invented the term the "raise hell machine" to name an activity that was already common here and that I endorse....basically, net activism.
The idea is that you can DO THINGS and MAKE A DIFFERENCE from your computer and home...with letters, faxes, petitions, phone calls, google research, and google bombing. ie. You can change things instead of just blogging. This reached its height with the TANG and Sinclair campaigns..and has arrived at its logical conclusion with Bev Harris' call for "home tallyers" to "do our own math" and independently tabulate the election results in a hunt for errors from our own homes.
The effect this has had on dKos is one in which netactivists have begun to use the diaries, ratings, and recommended functions not as community building tools...but as agenda setting tools for their activism.
That may be alright in the zero sum game of activism...but is has changed the culture of the dailyKos. And maybe it is time for those on the net activism side, including me, to realize that there is something amiss in thinking that folks will keep coming to dKos if the "activist agenda" board becomes all this is. The activist mentality and mindset (exclusionary, single-minded, obsessive, focused on the next battle) is not the same as the culture of humorous, intelligent, small "d" democratic discussion that formed the core of the dKos blog imo.
So, what next?
I don't know. In some ways, what is done is already done...it's not like Marisacat and Rick Robinson are going to jump back on board....and tens of thousands of readers here haven't had the privilege of getting to know who they are...so, imo, we do need to put our heads together and have a conversation about this. I would guess that there are many thousands of folks out there who, if they don't agree with me, do see my point. Things have changed.
DailyKos will be, at the end of the day, what Markos makes of it. And we all know that. But we have some say in that, just as we always have. I throw this meta-diary out there because as a semi-long time Kossack, I do feel that we are at a crossroads here.
We used to joke about how after the election, we would get back to the "good old days" here (sugar smacks and oatmeal, lol)....and I know that there is a great culture here still...especially all those "night crew" folks who pretty much schooled me and encouraged me to write the diaries I've laid down this last year.
But...if the "good old days" talk was just a pipe dream and a ruse....what about building some "good new days" instead? What about returning this blog to some of what were the very best qualities of it roots? What about making sure that experience is available to all its members and readers?
I think that's a discussion worth having.