Well, I guess it's reached that time.
I appreciate and admire the front-pagers on this site to an incredible degree. The people who devote their time and effort to crafting out a well-written front page clearly take their work seriously, judging by the quality of the pieces published. They do great research; they hit the points that are almost always relevant to the news of the day; and they also regularly author and publish longer pieces that take a broader look at an issue. Not only is the quality typically consistently high, but the volume of output is fast-paced. I refresh this page frequently, and there is almost always something new and interesting on the front page that informs (and sometimes entertains). If you think about it for just a moment, the work done by the people on the front page of this site is amazing.
But the front page of DailyKos.com is a different world than the recommended diary list.
I came to DailyKos because it was here that I could get not only the kind of information provided by the front page, but also analysis of issues that not even the most prolific and resourceful front-pager could attend. There are simply too many issues and too few hours in the day for even a highly-dedicated regular staff -- producing at the extraordinary rate seen here -- to cover everything.
So it was with a real sense of eagerness that I would come to DailyKos.com to read, for example, denegre's uniquely informed pieces on Jack Abramoff, or Jesslyn Radack's pieces on the intersection of civil liberties and national security, or teacherken's exceptional pieces on education and (I dare say) philosophical outlook, or bonddad's educational outlook on the economy. I could go on.
Many are still here (some have left of their own accord), so what I have to say next is not meant to implicate or impugn them in any way.
The problem is that they are outnumbered. For every diarist like them, there are now 10 more who use diaries purely to rant, to gring axes, to piss on territory, to rail against a particular viewpoint. There are a lot of pissing contests. It's amazing, the amount of urine being tossed about here these days.
Let me pre-empt the obvious: Yes, I can simply not click a diary, or read only the front page. Much as I frequently choose not to pick up a copy of The Star when I am in a checkout line, in favor of, oh, say, People Magazine (look, mate, checkout lines are not what they used to be), it is perfectly analogous to tell me that I can simply not click a diary that I don't want to read (provided the topic is clearly headlined). No one's making me read anything. Fair play.
But it is also perfectly fair to compare this site not to a series of articles, but to also compare it to a place where I go to have discussions to enrich, as it were, my enfeebled little brain. It is apt to compare this site to a newspaper, but it is also apt to compare this place to a club or bar or any other place where people gather to discuss ideas, except, sadly, that alcoholic beverages are not freely available.
And, in my very most humble opinion, it's a club that's gotten all crapped up. Rather than come in, if I may carry the analogy, to have a discussion about Topic A that has been diaried, there's little group X over there screaming about what little group Y thinks. And vice versa.
Look at the rec list of late. It's insane. I don't need to give examples of specific instances where the meta has gotten way, way out of hand, because you would disagree with my citation to a particular diary, and then you would go and diary about how I am wrong that the diary I cited was a meta diary.
And worse -- and this was really the sort of deciding thing -- I hate coming into a diary to participate and seeing that people who have made comments similar to what I would have made are being shot down as fools, pie-eyed dreamers, reverists, haters, pony-wanters, purity trolls, and everything else along the gamut. I didn't realize that life was so didactic that an opinion could be fundamentally so baselessly wrong. I don't want to go into a discussion thread on a progressive site only to be scolded for not being progressive enough...or too progressive. But I've done it, too. It's easy to get drawn into at times. And it's madness.
So, time for a temporary hiatus.
I am certainly not the only one to voice these concerns. And like most other people, I don't have a solution to the tone of this most beloved place.
So what's the point of this, then? What's the point of my announcing my temporary hiatus in a meta diary that bemoans the profligation of unpleasant and anger-filled meta diaries? I don't know. Maybe it's like announcing you are on a diet to your mates, because that helps you keep the promise to yourself.
But I also hope it adds a small straw onto the back that ultimately breaks, helping people realize that the atmosphere has gotten unpleasant. Consider it a sort of letter to the editor that the newspaper I read every day needs to change before I'll read it again (I've done that, and it feels like this). Consider it the drop by to a once-favorite bar to have a drink with the barman and let him know you're moving on, because the old place isn't what it once was, what with the new DJ that spins nothing but house music, and the influx of riff-raff (I've done that, too).
Anyway. Be good, and try and play nice.
Be seeing you.