Thank you for reading the diary. We at Courtesy Kos welcome questions and messages. If you want to reach our group, you can do so by sending the group a message. If you would like to join, please toss me or any one of our admins a private message. If you want to see the diaries from Courtesy Kos in your stream, click this link to follow the group.
Courtesy Kos is dedicated to raising the level of discourse around Daily Kos. We ask that if you have a comment that includes personal attacks, viciousness, or past personal fights, please keep it to yourself. This is not the venue to re-litigate old meta matters.
With the 2012 election in the rear-view mirror and a new, contentious hot-button issue dominating the rec list, recent list and front page, I would like to take a moment to re-introduce to you Courtesy Kos, a group dedicated to furthering the causes of civility and respect
right here at dailykos.
In May of this year, a diary kos wrote about meta got me thinking that we needed a group of commenters and diarists willing to put the nastiness and pettiness of the Meta/Flame/Pie wars aside. So, I founded a new group called Courtesy Kos, a group dedicated to upholding the ideals of comity and good faith with all kossacks.
We are a group that have made deep personal committments to respect, civility and courtesy while commenting and diarying at dailykos. We believe that these are the values that make this place a community, and not just another random gathering of users on a website. Our goal is to provide examples of courtesy through our actions and not by wagging our collective fingers at people.
This group is also here to provide its members a reminder of the commitment they have made to the cause of courtesy, but make no mistake, everyone slips up, has a bad day, and gets heated. We at Courtesy Kos completely understand that, and we are here to offer our members, or any kossack for that matter, a means by which to discuss ways to de-escalate meta drama, tone down the tenor of angry comments, and generally provide support for everyone during times of high drama at the GOS. If you are interested in becoming a member or following our group, or just have a question for us on how to advance the cause of civility, please feel free to send our group a message.
Civility is important to the very fabric of the community that kos and all of us have built over the years. I know it seems simple -- just don't click -- but flame wars spill over into all sorts of diaries. Comment threads get derailed with endless personal drama over this or that from years ago. This new group will be dedicated to breaking the old cycle of name calling and bitterness, because it helps our community remain vibrant, diverse and open.
Our motto is "Killing the Flame Wars - with Kindness"
I believe that the members of Courtesy Kos will become known for their understanding, empathy, and respect. This group will be run as democratically as possible, with proposals on how to raise the level of discourse not only among ourselves, but within dailykos itself, being proposed from the bottom up, not enforced from the top down.
Another way to put it is our group is dedicated to following Wee Mama's "Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?" courtesy guidelines (the latest republish of that fantastic diary can be found here). I recommend that all kossacks, whether you are interested in courtesy or not, read this diary.
Again, I would like to reiterate that we are not a group that will go from diary to diary wagging fingers and telling people how they should behave. We lead by example. If this sounds like something you are interested in, again, contact one of the group admins and we will send you an invite. You can also follow us as well.
Thank you all for being the beautiful people you are, and I hope you can enjoy special time with those you cherish most during this holiday season.