Every diary I've read today, the diarist's tip jar comment is being jumped. Sometimes out of neglect/apathy, sure, and sometimes because it's a good diary and a slow-posting diarist who doesn't know the dance for getting out ahead of your public, but sometimes because it's a blatant attempt at karma-whoring by some schlub who didn't put in the work, but wants all the bennies nonetheless. Yes, even DKos has its equivalent of the "first!" crew.
Markos isn't launching t-shirts at us through a vacuum cannon, so these little recs, karma, and points are the one "tangible" reward anybody gets through the system.
So why not change the system to ensure that the diarist's comment appears first after the story?
It wouldn't take much. There are a number of ways this could happen:
a) Simply add the comment form to the diary form. Fill it out with TJ, post everything at once.
b) Make a checkbox that, if checked, shows the first comment form.
c) You could even set it up so that the thread started by the diarist's first comment, whenever they make it, is put at the top. Until the diarist posts a new comment, whatever is first, is first.
On the one hand, everything would be better for the diarist that earned the first post, and motives of jumpers wouldn't matter because the act itself can't happen. Each of these alternatives is possible through code, and depending on how it was implemented, would solve the problem to various degrees.
On the other hand, this isn't a big deal to some people, nothing's idiot-proof (or apathy-proof), and maybe it can't happen for ambiguous code-related reasons.
Anyway, I figure having all the meta here is better than extending the distance between diarist's tip jar and first position with another reply, so I thought I'd stop being part of the problem.