It's not often that a Top Comments topic drops into one's lap from the front page. After my initial pleasure at seeing Dante Atkins (fka hekebolos), Angry Mouse, and exmearden chosen to be Featured Writers here at Daily Kos (congratulations, you three!), and saying so (among other things) in kos's front-page announcement story (oh yeah—there was stuff about DK4, too), it occurred to me that I might have something to say about past Featured Writers.
Featured Writers is a fairly recent official category, created when Daily Kos officially became a group blog on March 9, 2007. But like the first two so listed—Bill in Portland Maine and Adam B—other users had also written for the front page without being asked to help with the backstage nitty gritty. You'll meet them below the jump.
When Daily Kos became a group blog, all Scoop-era front-pagers who had remained active on the front page and helped run the site became Contributing Editors, and Bill and Adam got the spiffy new title of Featured Writers, which those of us on the site discovered by going to the About page's masthead. Before that, we just called them all "front-pagers". Come to think of it, we still do.
But I promised you some Featured Writers from the era before they were called that. As I'm a man of my word, it's time for a section break, and then your first writer.
Many of you will recognize the name Jerome Armstrong, our first proto–Featured Writer. He was the founder of myDD, the blog that inspired Markos to start Daily Kos, and co-authored a book with Markos, Crashing the Gate. Further, his user ID is 5, which means he was either faster than Meteor Blades in signing up, or he was the last of the pre-assigned numbers and helped alpha test and/or set up the system on Scoop.
Even before Scoop, he'd been commenting on Daily Kos, and he wrote his first article there on July 3, 2003—Winning and the Internet—and another half a dozen articles on the California recall election, starting on August 24, 2003.
Once Scoop was up and running, he was the one who, three weeks later, posted the front-page story announcing the birth of Markos and Elisa's first child, Ari.
On January 16, 2004, Jerome was announced as one of two "Daily Kos Iowa caucus" bloggers, on the ground in that state, and he continued writing for the front page on a regular basis for two months, until mid-March. He made four subsequent posts to the front page, and then stopped.
The youngest Featured Writer was actually called the Daily Kos "highschool correspondent": Stephen Yellin, who signed up under Scoop as MrLiberal, was brought on to write "occasional pieces", and in the event wrote over fifty front-page posts between September 19, 2003 and August 14, 2004. His first solo post (on the Missouri Senate post shaping up for 2004) actually appeared half an hour before the announcement of his new role, though he'd previously had posts appear as part of one of kos's entries. Stephen was excited, motivated, and perhaps a bit too optimistic about our chances in 2004 (though he was hardly alone in this), but he knew his candidates backwards and forwards, and his enthusiasm was infectious.
In kos's site update of January 16, 2004, already alluded to above, a second writer was on the Iowa caucus coverage team. "As if that wasn't cool enough, I will also have political scientist and prolific op/ed writer Tom Schaller on the ground blogging updates." Tom not only wrote about Iowa, but he continued contributing regularly to the front page through the end of November 2004, after the election was over.
Those who have wondered what happened to Tom need only mosey on over to FiveThirtyEight, Nate Silver's excellent election analysis and prediction site, where Tom is one of the bloggers who have joined Nate on the front page.
Bill in Portland Maine's fabulous weekday diary, "Cheers and Jeers", was officially moved to the front page of Daily Kos on April 5, 2005, after over fifteen months of production in the trenches, the last eight of which found it hogging the Recommended Diaries list.
Cheers and Jeers (and Bill) were still around when Daily Kos became a group blog, at which point the appellation Featured Writer was hung around his neck, where it still sits today. (If you happen to know whether he takes it off when he showers, be sure to let me know.)
Adam B had been writing diaries on the Online Freedom of Speech Act and the fight with the FEC on whether blogs should be regulated under campaign finance reform rules, and these diaries were being promoted to the front page with some frequency. Finally, Markos bowed to the inevitable in early November of 2005 and gave Adam front-page rights to blog on those topics and others involving the Internet (back before it became Intertoobz), Congress (back before...never mind), and the law.
Like Bill, Adam found himself bestowed with the title "Featured Writer" when Daily Kos became a group blog in 2007. Adam's also the Chairman of the Board of Netroots Nation (as you'll know if you've been reading the front page this evening), and there runs the annual Pub Quiz of political trivia to raucous cheers and catcalls. He's also a lawyer who works on cases that end up in front of the Supreme Court.
The next Featured Writer was actually intended to be a Contributing Editor to the Daily Kos group blog: LithiumCola was drafted to the front page on December 4, 2008, but was moved from Contributing Editor to Featured Writer by early March. When you're working on a doctoral dissertation, it's hard to squeeze out the time to help with the site and write for it too.
However, it would seem that there wasn't enough time to write for it either; sometime this past fall, LithiumCola disappeared from the masthead. It looks like the dissertation wasn't into sharing him with the rest of us.
That brings us to today, and the appointment of three new Featured Writers, for a total of five current ones, and (arguably) nine since the site's founding. It's really something new: a group of people being brought on board, not to write and help manage the site, but to concentrate solely on writing for it into the future. A major commitment, but not a time-devouring one.
I'm looking forward to seeing how this works out, and especially looking forward to the interesting, intense, impassioned, and impressive front-page posts from Dante, Angry Mouse, and Exme. After all, there ain't nothing like a DAME.
For more information about who else was blogging on the Daily Kos front page and when, see the dKosopedia article Daily Kos Front Pagers, which I first wrote (in two parts) for Top Comments, but has been updated many times after initial publication.
Final semi-related note: in his diary today claiming that the new Featured Writers are bad for Daily Kos (funny how Carnacki seems to unearth problems with new front-pagers every time; who vets these people anyway?), Top Comments founder Carnacki added this comment: sardonyx is also bad for Daily Kos. As I noted in a reply, that's the ultimate validation for any Top Commenteer. ;-)
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With all the front-page brouhaha, people seem to have been distracted from the normal day-to-day of the site, including the desirability of sending us some comment writers to be featured. Further, I was distracted by my grand idea for a diary, which took more time than it should have (hence tonight's delayed publication). So our supply of comments from today is not large. Next time, if you remember that we love getting submitted comments, which should arrive by the 9:30pm Eastern Time deadline, we can be better stocked. Many thanks to all who took the time to submit their favorites. The address of our mailbox for top comments submissions remains:
TopComments AT gmail DOT com
(change " AT " to "@" and " DOT " to ".")
Anyone can send great comments to our address. Be sure to include the direct link to a comment—the URL—which is available from that comment's date/time; we need that to find your choice. Please always include your Daily Kos user name in the body of your message, so we can credit you properly. As I say every time, both link and username are important. (Again, one person forgot the link. Tsk.) If you send a writeup with the link, we are able to include that, too, though we reserve the right to edit if necessary; should you only provide the link, then you have to take whatever writeup we create...and we can be extremely creative. Today, I hardly needed any creativity at all.
From JG in MD:
We're always wondering what we can do to fend off the lies they're pelting us with. Here's a thought from thenekkidtruth.
From JanF:
This comment from addisnana in FarWestGirl's Morning Feature diary today gives us a great strategy for how to connect to the people we need to reach.
From RLMiller:
Dartagnan had a terrific translation of American Petroleum Institute talking points in my EPA diary today.
From sardonyx (your bad–for–Daily Kos diarist):
understandinglife gives a simple, eloquent comment on today's demonstration of the fundamental difference between Bush and Obama as leaders.
davidseth is a tad distressed by winter.
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Finally, we have today's top mojo using my revision of the cskendrick-devised mojo-to-Excel process.
First, Top Mojo excluding Cheers and Jeers, various pooties, search-identifiable tip jars, and first diary comments:
1) If There is a More Despicable Character by JekyllnHyde — 190
2) today? by UntimelyRippd — 146
3) Thank you Cedwyn. by One Pissed Off Liberal — 118
4) This is being replayed as a 9/11 sequel. by blueoasis — 109
5) ... by Nick Zouroudis — 106
6) Honestly, Obama isn't to blame by FishOutofWater — 105
7) It's a classic war propaganda campaign. by Eileen B — 103
8) Giving aid and comfort to the enemy by Dallasdoc — 103
9) The Hague by StuHunter — 100
10) An Angry Mouse by JekyllnHyde — 95
11) it turns me on by Cedwyn — 91
12) The buck stops here by Scarce — 90
13) Indians 101 by Ojibwa — 86
14) You do it by fighting for it. by lighttheway — 83
15) GO HEAD-ON! by ezdidit — 77
16) That last picture is haunting by Diogenes2008 — 77
17) Obama was handed a shit storm... by Bonsai66 — 77
18) although it wouldn't hurt by David Swanson — 76
19) Cheers for a waning negative oscillation by Blue Boy Red State — 76
20) Angry Mouse is the new MB by citizenx — 76
21) After all by Dallasdoc — 73
22) Here is my war propaganda campaign: by KingOneEye — 73
23) Of course not. The finger on the nose is a by Blogvirgin — 72
24) Keep saying it. by KingOneEye — 71
25) How amazingly in tune with by Lisa Lockwood — 71
26) Ain't Kharma a B**ch! by OIL GUY — 70
27) 'Bout damned time. by Crashing Vor — 69
28) Karma's a Stupid B**ch! by Bronxist — 67
29) And the real tragedy by rmabelis — 63
30) Hey, cool by david mizner — 61
Top Mojo with No Exclusions:
1) Someone needs to tell these traitors that... by KingOneEye — 673
2) Tip Jar by Scarce — 383
3) Tip Jar by David Swanson — 350
4) Tip Jar by Carnacki — 292
5) Warmer weather in the East Coast next week by FishOutofWater — 288
6) Tip Jar by Ojibwa — 226
7) Tip Jar by blackwaterdog — 226
8) If There is a More Despicable Character by JekyllnHyde — 190
9) Tip Jar by ericlewis0 — 190
10) Tip Jar by slinkerwink — 187
11) Tips for a Prosperous and Progressive New Year! by smileycreek — 185
12) *why BBQ you ask? by Timroff — 176
13) Tip jar by it really is that important — 174
14) I read, I ponder, I write by teacherken — 170
15) I am a Camera by Crashing Vor — 170
16) Tips? Flames? by Something the Dog Said — 164
17) today? by UntimelyRippd — 146
18) Tip Jar by RLMiller — 145
19) work harder by Turkana — 125
20) Tip Jar by Mother Mags — 122
21) Thank you Cedwyn. by One Pissed Off Liberal — 116
22) Tips for countering lies and providing by FarWestGirl — 112
23) This is being replayed as a 9/11 sequel. by blueoasis — 109
24) ... by Nick Zouroudis — 106
25) Giving aid and comfort to the enemy by Dallasdoc — 103
26) It's a classic war propaganda campaign. by Eileen B — 103
27) Honestly, Obama isn't to blame by FishOutofWater — 102
28) The Hague by StuHunter — 100
29) An Angry Mouse by JekyllnHyde — 94
30) it turns me on by Cedwyn — 90
31) congrats featured writers! by Cedwyn — 90
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