There are a lot of people who read Daily Kos as something that pops up in their Facebook feed every now and then or as a casual, every week or so kind of thing. And that's great. Every so often I get to watch one of my posts be shared widely enough on Facebook that I know people for whom Daily Kos isn't a destination in itself are seeing it, and that's fantastic. The fact that practically every day,
someone's Daily Kos post takes off like that on social media, whether it be on the front page or in the diaries, is a reason traffic has been so great this year. It's a way we, all of us, get the word out past our circle of in-person friends and Kossack fellow travelers. It's something to celebrate ... but it's been a long time since I was one of those casual drop-ins around here. Daily Kos has reshaped my life, and I know I'm not the only one—a whole bunch of you are in the same position. That's why I'm asking you to
subscribe, give someone a gift subscription, or
donate.
So this is my entry in the War on Christmas fundraiser, a fundraiser about which Markos said:
We’re closing out the best year of our existence—whether in terms of traffic or actual results. We’ve got insanely great things planned for 2013 and then it’s on to 2014, when we buck history and retire John Boehner. But with changing web economics, we’ll need you more than ever to help fund our efforts.
Please subscribe or gift a subscription or donate a few bucks. Thanks for everything you do, and have a great holiday!
I could tell you about the first time I saw the name Daily Kos or the first time I commented here. But the moments that seem most significant are the moments I first felt like I was part of a community. The first was when Markos
let us—what I now call "the community"—know that Meteor Blades had had a pulmonary embolism but was recovering. I burst into tears ... and then thought "hmm, maybe I'm more attached to this place and these people than I knew." The second was April 25, 2004, the day of the
March for Women's Lives. I'd had ankle surgery a few days before and was laid up in bed, watching on C-SPAN, and I realized that Daily Kos was giving me a community of reasonably like-minded people to talk to about what I was seeing, a community in which when I compared Eleanor Smeal's speaking style to Richard Trumka's, someone would know just what I meant. (Incidentally, Trumka is a very different speaker today than he was back in the 1990s.)
Eight and a half years later, Daily Kos has moved from being the place I get my news and the set of faceless usernames I chat with late at night when I'm procrastinating to an increasingly intense set of online friendships to the center of my life. It's my job, the place I met many of my closest friends, the place I met the love of my life. And I know I'm not alone. I've seen people come here when their worlds were falling in, and seen them build the kinds of deep relationships that so shape my life today. As a community, we've celebrated election nights and personal events together. And now, as Markos explained Wednesday, Daily Kos needs the support of its community to keep doing what it does, growing, and changing America for the better. Please subscribe, gift a subscription, or donate.