A good friend of mine recently asked me why it was so difficult to find ‘highlighted’ comments. I promised I would show her/him at this year’s Netroots Nation gathering, but I thought, why not just write it up so anyone in the Top Comments community who might wish to do it could do so?
So this diary will serve as a small primer on this approach to comment mining.
First a little bit of history about it all.
When Carnacki began Top Comments, all the way back in 2006, his approach was a very reasonable one. He would simply go to the comment recommendations history of Susan G (now Susan Garnder) and McJoan (now Joan McCarter), maybe Meteor Blades, and see what they (with their very busy schedules!) took time to recommend.
More below.
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It is not how most people encounter comments. Most people just reading out and about on the site just see whatever comments happen to be posted in the diary comment threads that they read. Then they recommend to hide-rate or ignore the comments based on their inclinations at the moment. Some engage in the comment threads while recommending very few comments, if any. That’s anyone’s prerogative. Recommending comments isn’t required.
I would say that most engaged Democrats on Daily Kos do recommend at least some comments, respecting the community culture on the site. It is similar to ‘hearting’ a tweet on Twitter. Except for submitting a comment to Top Comments, Daily Kos doesn’t really have a unique comment share feature. Anyone can share any comment they like, they just have to do the work of copying the link (special tip: a comment’s timestamp IS that comment’s hyperlink address on the web) and then pasting it wherever and to whomever they wish.
Even so, most people seem to think of the diaries as constituting most of the substance on Daily Kos, and sharing of diaries may be done directly to Facebook and or Twitter from dedicated buttons beside the Recommend button on every diary. They may be shared on other social media, as well, just not from a button on the page.
For me, the comment threads are the interactive soul of Daily Kos. They are where we can engage directly with other diary readers and participants. Some people don’t care for the hurly-burly of the comment threads. Some pick and choose their places. Top Comments has a reputation as being a friendlier micro-community than one might find in more controversial diaries and subjects. It means we can go where we like on the site and engage as we like, as should be.
I remember in the very early days, some TC diary visitors asked - quite rightly!! - what made comments that TC diarists ‘mined’ any better than comments that others might find? Of course, the answer is nothing. There is no objective standard for toppedness in comments. We pick things that catch our attention for one reason or another.
Over the nearly 13 years of Top Comments (it will be 13 later this month), I have picked comments of every sort. I have picked ‘comments’ in the body of diaries. I have picked comments that I loved. I have picked comments that set me off. I have picked comments that provoked me, comments that made me laugh, that made me cry. Comments that educated me. Comments that corrected me (in some fashion, even if not directly in that thread), that criticized me, even. Comments that touched me. Comments that made me stand up and cheer. Comments that made me feel empowered, comments that made me feel less alone. Back when comment titles appeared on every comment, I picked comments on title alone. I picked comments in an EMAIL I received one time (maybe more than one time). Comments I heard in a television interview. I think I picked a comment from The West Wing, once, maybe a comment or two from the Star Trek series.
Because we were serious in saying that anyone’s judgment about comments was as valid as our own, we started explicitly soliciting comments from our guests. This contained numerous huge advantages. We could validate the judgment of comment submitters, we could conceivably add readership and dialogue to fruitful threads, we could feature a greater number of comments, and, mostly, have more comments our community friends and family could read and process. I consider the move to soliciting comment submissions to be one of the best decisions we ever made in Top Comments. And it is a tribute to all of you that Top Comments has survived as long as it has.
I wish I could say that we had more time to mine, ourselves, than we usually do. I CARE about mining. I just don’t have the time I wish I had to devote to the task on a nightly basis.
So, where Carnacki always liked to ‘shadow’ prominent folks on the site to find worthwhile things, I tried a different approach. Since comments are quite searchable, I thought I would not limit myself to Carnacki’s luminaries, and would, instead, use trigger words on the part of replying commenters to lead me to worthwhile comments.
In other words, I would narrow my searches to comments that other users had already highlighted in some fashion.
I wish I could say that I was super fast at it. That every highlighted search lead to a treasure trove of quality comments. But the reality is that a search only throws up a small selection of possibles. Some nights, a given search doesn’t find any, and I have to try another.
To get to the search window for comments, I click on the side of a diary window where my ‘stuff’ may be found. I click on the down arrow next to my name, then on My Comments.
Then, on the page of my comments, I click on GO button for the search window, upper right.
That opens a search window.
Then I click on Comments, change the Posted Between date at the bottom of the search field to today’s date. (The second date field doesn’t have to be entered, it won’t search future comments! :wink: ) Then I enter my search term, and tell it to search.
Almost invariably, I search on the terms Top Comment first. Some people try to alert us to comments by using those terms. (I wish I could say that we reliably check that search every night, but even I don’t, so please keep sending them to our kosmail or gmail, to be sure!)
This link is to that search, again, limiting the search to today’s comments only.
Then I usually try to search on the terms ‘great comment.’
Then I may search on ‘best comment,’ or ‘well said,’ or 1000.
Why do you search on 1000, BeninSC? Good question! I do it because I have noticed that many times (like tonight!) people will say I wish I could recommend this comment 1000 times! Or this times 1000!!! Something like that. If I have the time, I may search on the term ‘laugh,’ because we can all use some humor in these trying times. Or maybe LOL, or ROFL. Sometimes ‘excellent’ can be a fine term to search on. ‘Brilliant’ can work, but it is often used ironically or sarcastically.
Clearly, if you look at the results searches like those yield, you can see I am never able to screen that many possibles in a given night. All too often two or three found comments is the most I can manage. I apologize for that. It’s just a fact of how my life is at this point in time.
(Sadly, tonight, getting the screenshots and things together have precluded me from including ANY of the great comments those searches pulled up. By all means add any you like in the comment threads! If I have time, I will capture a few and update the diary accordingly.)
Once one of the searches pops up, then I have to go through the comments. Many that are ‘found’ by ‘great comment’ have the words great and or comment somewhere in the body of the comment, but they don’t really highlight a plausible find. So filtering through what pops up takes some time. And if I don’t agree that the comment is worthwhile, I don’t include it. If I do think it is worthwhile, then when I format it, I credit that person with the highlight. Since without them it is a certainty I never would have found it.
I am sure there will be questions about the process, I will be happy to answer in the comment threads, below! Also, I have not had time to proof all of this, so please alert me to errors and I will try to correct and update diary as I go!
Thanks for reading! On to tonight’s comments!
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
Note: Please remember that comment inclusion in Top Comments does not constitute support or endorsement by diarist, formatter, Top Comments writers or DailyKos. Questions, complaints or comments? Contact brillig.
From Albanius:
(This comment was found through the above-mentioned search, but CwV submitted it directly to be sure that Albanius got credit! Most appreciated!) This comment by Fatherflot contains possibly the most crucial question from the entire Russian-compromised election story, and no one is asking it.
From ZenTrainer:
This was from late last night regarding the shooting.
QtMCPO is Susan Hippen, a candidate in Virginia Beach, a military veteran (who knows from guns) and a DKer.
The comment by her is from
her own diary.
For some reason though it was
this comment by
OnlyTheBestEmoluments that made me cry (and does again now)
You know, we are all affected more by things that happen on our backyards. With Daily Kos we have one really big back yard and what affects one of us can affect all of us. (or effect)
From BeninSC:
I am submitting these three comments from my TC diary last night. With this comment, Holgar talks about handicap, with some fine insights. Then WildIrish composed an excellent comment about handicap, and appreciation for the Unseen Art initiative. And, with this comment, Arel1 told of the fine reaction Are received when making a special effort with a handicapped friend. Wonderful!
TOP MOJO
Top Mojo for yesterday, May 31st, 2019, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
TOP PICTURES
Top Pictures for June 1, 2019! Thanks so much, jotter!