Random Thoughts on Us (the community) and Monitors
Written by Translator on August 30, 2008 – 8:25 pm -Crossposted at Dailykos.com
This is not written so much for us as for the much larger Kos community. But as we expand, it might be well to review.
This may be a bit disjointed, since I just ate a big plateful of fried okra, and that always puts me in a good mood. If you do not know about it, you should introduce yourself to it.
NOT the kind that comes in a bag in a freezer at the store. The kind that you have to cut from your own plants at least every other day.
It is wonderful, but now for more random thoughts.
McCain went with Palin. Big whoop. If she does not survive the vetting, perhaps Astro Boy can. At least his feet turn into jets when he flies. Seriously, the VP pick is rarely important in a race, but in this one it might be since he is somewhat decrepit. But that is for the voters to decide.
The hurricane is looming large. I denounce all of the “God’s will” statements, including the ones made my Michael Moore last night. Hurricanes are natural phenomena, and are destructive. To suggest that one is caused by Dobson, or not caused by Dobson, or any other temporal cause is just, well, dumb. I feel for the folks who soon with be in the path of it, and we (that is, all aspects of government and us as individuals) need to speed efforts to help those folks.
There is another one in the Atlantic, threatening the eastern seaboard. Not much attention there, but it might turn out to be nasty. Best thoughts for the folks who might be in its maws.
There are lots of three line (not three paragraph) diaries on here lately. Some have even had a salient point or two (rarely two, with only three lines). I say to those folks simply this: do not push off important posts because of your moment of realization. Your thoughts are certainly important, but with only a couple of lines, not as important as those who have taken hours of research to make a point. Please post your thoughts in an open thread.
That brings up the idea of real time monitors, as has been suggested by several Trusted Users. That is a bad idea, because giving one person the power to accept or reject a post is fraught with problems, such as a poor former interaction, not liking the topic, or any number of reasons. Thus, I would suggest an automatic screen that relegates very short posts to the most recent Open Thread. In that way, no voice is snuffed, no serious posts are pushed off by a comment, and the recent list is populated by more serious thoughts.
I can hear the protests, but I counter with this: if your entire treatment is only a couple of sentences long, then it is not very important, unless it is something akin to “Breaking: Obama and McCain engage in duel, both shot, more to follow.” I maintain that this sort of thing is better covered with the MSM, and not here. If you went into the reasons for the duel and the weapons that were used, it would be different.
Finally, I appreciate this community for allowing me to post thoughts that are not conventional, and I appreciate those who disagree and agree with me for commenting on them. I can not grow as a thinker without those comments, either supporting my ideas or punching holes in them.
We have a extremely eclectic band of ragged members here, and I do not want a moderator to act as a traffic cop. What say you?
Warmest regards,
Doc
Tags: Censorship, Community, Kos, Monitors, Nonsense, Politicook.net, Short Diaries
Posted in Diaries |
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On Saturday nights, I really like to go to DKos for the community diaries - particularly “What’s for Dinner” and “What’s Your F***ing Problem?”. This last week, there were convention diaries - and I really like the ones about the speeches I did not get to hear, or the ones with pictures (I am a simple person, liking pictures and big print). I did not mind the site being full of convention diaries…but this Palin nonsense has gotten out of hand.
I had to scroll through three pages of diaries to find “WFP?” and I have yet to find “What’s for Dinner”. There is just too much chaff.
What can admin do with this? Not knowing enough about the innards of the Tubes, I don’t know how filters work, but it would be nice not to have the pages cluttered with unnecessary tidbits of stuff that isn’t either covered by the TradMed or is not all that important.
Rag-tag we may be at Politicook, but I like to think of us as a diverse bunch of well-meaning rascals, with little or no meanness to need any sort of policing other than that we provide ourselves.
We are ragtag - like a band of pirates!
Or maybe it’s just that it’s late and there are air mattresses all over my house.
But I agree with Translator’s general sentiment. I fell in love with dKos as a place where I could read things I could find nowhere else - fairly deep, interesting, well reasoned diaries. Were it still that, it would be important to me to be there. But too often anymore, it’s anything but. Too much to wade through, and not enough time.
I think he has a reasonable solution.
Thanks for a thoughtful meta analysis, Doc. I’ll try to post some diaries here that have at least some substance. But back to your introductory paragraph, I too am growing okra, and in Oklahoma it does very well. It’s a “hot weather” plant and thrives here. Even with a very small patch of it, I’ve canned many pints of pickled okra, which are very good, and plan to do more. I’ve also been able to enjoy some of the fried okra, and have frozen some for soups and gumbos during the winter, when it finally cools off enough to be a good soup weather. Thanks for your posts, I do enjoy them, though I seldom comment.
I’ve been thinking of doing a series of “living light,” or perhaps “living cheaply” diaries. Would anyone be interested. I live that way because of my own circumstances, through my own choice, and although I’m just a beginner I’ve lived cheaply for quite a few years. I must say I’m happier now than I ever was before, even if I’m down to beans and rice and whatever I can dig out of my freezer or forage. Which does happen on a continuing basis.
Oh, absolutely do a series like that! This is a large part of what we are and want to be about.
I believe that I speak for everyone here to encourage you to post more often.
Warmest regards,
Doc
Looking forward to the series on “living light” and “living cheaply”. Mango and I have some experience with the cheaply part having lived in Mexico for a number of years on a limited budget. I am curious as to how others manage it..
I’ll bet that no one eats more tacos than we do!