In an effort to provide more timely and varied news for casual visitors the Recommended List is moving to the top of the right hand side of the site. The Community Spotlight will move just underneath the Recommended List but it will be above the Most Shared and the Recent Stories lists.
You, as part of our community, are in charge of moving good writing to the Recommended List. Please use your ability carefully to promote things you like to elevate the community’s voice.
This is a good time to reiterate the value and power of your ability to recommend stories. Please look to the
Rules of the Road as a thorough list of dos and don’ts to thrive at Daily Kos. There is a special section on the art of recommending:
Brand-new users to the site may recommend posts and comments. To recommend a post, click the Star. To recommend a comment, click Recommend.
Users with some standing at the site can become Trusted Users. Trusted Users have additional ratings privileges: they can “flag” or “hide” a comment.
Users have an unlimited number of recommends, both for stories and for comments...
And something to emphasize since
Markos’s diary on the rise of fake news and propaganda is that our community’s reputation relies on the judicious use of the recommend button for diaries.
Read the whole comment or diary before recommending. And base your recommending decisions not on who wrote it, but on how positive a contribution to the discussion it is.
Please don’t recommend a diary or a comment just because you read it. Recommending means you endorse the content. Please don’t recommend stories that aren’t well sourced, promote conspiracy theories or that otherwise damage the community’s character.
Please DO recommend good stories that are worth reading. Help your fellow users find the good stuff and support the authors who produce it.
Many, many thanks to the Rescue Rangers who read every single diary to populate the Community Spotlight. Their job is to curate stories that have been overlooked by readers and have not made it to the Recommended List but deserve to be there. The Rangers are very pleased if a story they highlight gathers enough recommends to make it to the Recommended List. We appreciate their work in rewarding a writer who put a lot of effort into a piece but is not getting enough attention.
Happy writing and commenting and thanks to all who help the community thrive!