I have been balls-to-the-wall (an expression, given that I'm a girl and therefore do not actually have balls) for the last eight days. As such, with the exception of one day last week, I have literally not had access nor time to check in with Daily Kos on a daily basis. I've had periods like this before - super-busy times where I just literally couldn't spend time here.
Oddly, when I reconnect after some period of days absent, something always seems to have gone down that people are writing about and I am, consequently, totally lost due to my absence. The first time that happened was during the Pie Wars. The second time was during the Great Banning. I come back to Daily Kos to find some kind of uproar that I have to back up and figure out so I'm not out of the loop.
It appears another of those times has happened - I have signed back into hand-wringing and lamentation and I have backed up and gotten a sense of its origin. Which prompts me to write about how and why I came here to Daily Kos. Please make the jump.
I came to blogging during the 2004 Presidential election cycle. I can't remember how or why I heard about it, but I opened an account with Blogger and started my own blog which, of course, no one read. I had no concept of a community blog such as this one and others. I didn't know such places existed.
I was at lunch with a colleague in September of 2004 when we got to talking about politics. Now let me tell you - I live and work in the Washington DC area and the vast majority of my work centers around the Federal Government. Contracts, contractors, vendors, you name it - the Feds are the focus of our attention. As a result of this, it's pretty much (or was) strictly taboo to talk politics in professional settings. Particularly after Bush took office, those who were Democrats learned to be quiet about it as we were all calling on and competing for business being ultimately conceived and issued by Bush appointees.
With that little snippet of context, let me return to my lunch. It was with a professional female colleague who has a personality very similar to mine (e.g., pretty direct). I was flipping through my notebook and a Kerry/Edwards sticker was on the inside back cover of it and, somehow, it caught her eye - which opened the door. She was a committed Democrat. She had been volunteering for the Kerry campaign and working her ass off to take Bush out of office in 2004. We chatted over lunch, some about politics and much about business. Before we said our goodbyes, she told me about this site called Daily Kos, said I should really give it a look, and gave me the website address which I wrote down.
I didn't think much about Daily Kos again until the day after the election. I had done a lot of volunteer work for the Kerry campaign, mostly centered around a pretty intense and time-consuming effort to build a database of large to tiny media outlets in key states. My focus state was Ohio and, along with about six other volunteers, we assembled a comprehensive database of everything from large newspapers to college newspapers to church newsletters, researched and added all the contact information, and then undertook getting information out to those outlets. It kept me busy, and I felt like it was time well spent.
The day after the election I was devastated. Crushed. I had been so high all day on election day, with good numbers coming in and victory seemingly at hand, only to have the rug pulled out from under me. I was literally in tears (and I don't cry all that much). I had to work, and I was flipping through my notebook when I came to the web address for Daily Kos. I typed it in. Here was the first thing I saw:
'Don't Mourn, Organize'
by Meteor Blades
Wed Nov 03, 2004 at 06:10:13 AM EST
I read it. If you're relatively new or not new and missed it, go back and read it. Put your mind in the place that was the day after the 2004 Presidential election and read it.
I signed up for my account after reading that diary.
I lurked for a time after that. I read - a lot. I got a sense of this place, of how it worked, how comments worked, how ratings worked. I'd say I lurked for a good two months before I actually posted a comment or got involved in any way. I have to say - I was pretty in awe of everything that I read. In January, I became an avid follower of SusanGs for, among many other things, these diaries:
Plame leaked by fake news source?
Plame Leaked by Fake News Source? Part II
Plame leaked by fake news source? Part III
Plame Leaked by Fake News Source? Overview: Part IV
Plame Leak/Fake News, Summary/Process: Part V
Plame Leaked by Fake News Source? Part VI
Plame Diaries - Roll Call, Newbies Welcome: Part VII
The titles should make it obvious - this diary series was about the Valerie Plame issue as well as our fabulous Talon News reporter "Jeff Gannon". SusanG and other diarists here at Daily Kos were WAY ahead of the mainstream media not only in talking about it, but in investigating it and putting forward real work and facts about both issues. I was officially hooked on Daily Kos.
Now - the two examples I've given so far of what I saw here at Daily Kos that drove me to become more active in the community are issue-oriented. But there was some great meta during my first active year as well. mentaldebris' OverKos Series was, is and remains (for me) the definitive handbook of meta:
OverKos-Scrolling into Oblivion-Part 1
OverKos - In Diaries - Part 2
OverKos - In Diaries - Part 3
OverKos - Questions & Poll
OverKos - In Diaries - Part 4
OverKos - In Diaries - Part 5
OverKos Miscellany - Part A
OverKos - Miscellany - Part B
OverKos - Epilogue
Again - if you're new or not new and you missed this series, it's definitely worth going back and reading in order. It was a great guide for me as I became more active in this community.
Another great diarist I followed avidly in those earlier days was emptywheel. To this day, in fact, I will always open one of emptywheel's diaries because they are researched, thoughtful, scholarly and (imo) worthy of any newspaper in America. I met emptywheel through these diaries:
Novak talked--and probably lied
Anatomy of the WH's Smear Defense
Why Bolton would have testified to the Plame grand jury
Is this Judy Miller's missing article ... ?
What Judy Miller did as an embed in Iraq, Part I
What Judy Miller did as an embed in Iraq, Part two
What Judy Miller did as an embed in Iraq, Part Three
What Judy Miller did as an embed in Iraq, Part Four
What Judy Miller did as an embed in Iraq, Part Five
What Ahmed Chalabi Did While Judy Was Embedded
What Judy Miller Did as an Embed, Conclusion
My Magnum Opus on the Plame Scandal
This was all SERIOUS work. emptywheel wasn't the only Daily Kos diarist doing excellent work like this by any means - but I single him/her out because the series and all of the diaries and effort and sources and links left such an impression on me as to what it means to put out quality. I can only aspire - it's the best I have.
And finally, perhaps the one diary that I remember the most was this one by Devilstower:
This Diary Could Cost Me My Job
by Devilstower
Sat Apr 23, 2005 at 09:48:49 PM EST
I learned more from that diary, which took an incredibly inside and complex subject and made it totally understandable to the most novice reader, and sent it to more people than I can count.
I am leaving out many diarists and diaries that influenced me. To list them all would take more time than I have to assemble it and than you have to read it. The five diarists and their related work that I focus on above are singled out to make a point. I see a lot of talk over the latest dustup about unsourced diaries making the recommended list and general complaints about generic sloppy blogging. If you read through even a representative sample of what I linked above, you'll see what shaped MY idea of what it means to participate in this community - the bar was very high and remains so because of who I had as my influences.
I will also point out that each of the diarists I highlight are still active. Meteor Blades was on the front page when I first encountered him. SusanG asended in 2006. Devilstower is now in our new class of FPers. emptywheel continues to post excellently researched articles. mentaldebris still posts diaries. I definitely think the cream rises to the top here.
I have referred consistently to the Daily Kos community. And that's what we are. We're our own group, with our own standards of content and conduct. As our community grows, those standards may shift. Sometimes the shift will work out to be good - sometimes there will be diaries and comments and people that we think are bad. I guess it's a question of where your bar is set. I know that after reading each of the diaries I link above, I knew absolutely and unequivocally that I had to have my shit together before I made a statement and declared it as fact. Period. I knew that I had to be prepared to defend whatever position I put forward and provide some evidence to back up any assertion I made. I knew that (for the most part) the best diarists and commenters rarely engaged in attacks on other diarists and commenters. I guess strength and hard work fights for itself leaving the author free to debate and not argue. (shrug)
I can't envision leaving this place, simply saying or thinking "Wow. It really sucks." And I'm counting on each of you to help ensure it doesn't suck. I echo the sentiment in some of the other meta-diaries, particularly Bite the Newbies!. This place is only as good as we insist it be and that insistence is only as good as the quality we demand of ourselves.
Happy New Year everyone - I'll be gigging at a ski resort wearing a formal gown and surrounded by rich people. ;-)
Update [2006-12-31 15:8:10 by RenaRF]: I'll be AFK for about an hour getting ready for this gig but I'll check back. I would also like to send a totally off-top shout out to Kestral9000 and LadyKestral for showing up to my gig last night. ;-)
Update [2006-12-31 16:50:0 by RenaRF]: Thanks for all the comments, folks. I can read (but not post) on my Blackberry and I am headed out the door to the gig. If you're going out tonight to ring in the New Year, please drive safely or don't drive at all if you shouldn't. Talk to you all next year!