The purpose of this diary is to respond to Markos' post about the ad policy on DailyKos.
I don't disagree with the policy, but I think there is a much, much larger issue here that needs to addressed. Now that the Democrats have won a huge victory in the 2006 midterm elections, it appears that the mission statement of the DailyKos has become obsolete. And with the posting of the ad policy, I think we have inadvertantly stumbled onto a much larger problem that should probably be addressed: What Is The Purpose Of This Site?
Here's the current DailyKos
Mission Statement:
This is a Democratic blog, a partisan blog. One that recognizes that Democrats run from left to right on the ideological spectrum, and yet we're all still in this fight together. We happily embrace centrists like NDN's Simon Rosenberg and Howard Dean, conservatives like Martin Frost and Brad Carson, and liberals like John Kerry and Barack Obama. Liberal? Yeah, we're around here and we're proud. But it's not a liberal blog. It's a Democratic blog with one goal in mind: electoral victory. And since we haven't gotten any of that from the current crew, we're one more thing: a reform blog. The battle for the party is not an ideological battle. It's one between establishment and anti-establishment factions. And as I've said a million times, the status quo is untenable.
So, I've highlighted the part that is obsolete. We have now been delivered a huge victory, so...what now?
Markos seems to suggest in his ad post that the purpose of this site has changed. One of the new goals is to raise money through an advertising business model to fund "fellows." What are these fellows? Are they fellows to help the Democrats win elections? To bring about reform? Not sure?
In raising this point, I do not mean to question the site, but merely to draw attention to something that will probably begin to undermine this place if left as is.
What should be the mission of DailyKos?
My sense is that this is a progressive movement site and that should be reflectedin the mission statement.
I invite you all to make suggestions for revising the Mission Statement in this thread--and remind you all that these should be suggestions, provocative if necessary, but not demands.
Update [2006-11-14 13:12:14 by Jeffrey Feldman]:
Should the word "netroots" be added to the mission statement?