I know it's self-serving, but I like it when people read my diaries. It sort of fulfills the second half of the activity, and it validates the effort I spend on writing I don't get paid to do. Don't get me wrong, I'd still write the things, but the fun of it would drain away if it weren't for folks taking the time to give me a tip or a comment or even a rec. Knowing that I'm not alone in my passions, that the weird way my brain synthesizes unrelated concepts has an audience, this makes the hours reading Heritage Foundation briefs and Red State screeds worthwhile. And I thank every person who's felt compelled by a charitable bent -- or the bad taste -- to toss me a recommend for one of my pieces. Much appreciated.
But more of my thanks has to go to a group of selfless Kossacks who brave the cacophony of this site with the sole purpose in mind to put their finds up at the top of the front page for the whole world to see and judge. They shed light on the other 99 percent of us who don't have penetrative name recognition and a dedicated following. In doing this work, which I can't imagine receives much notice or praise, they keep alive the hope in every diarists heart that the labor of their minds will have a moment in the sun. This is incredibly important work if this site is to remain a vital hub for progressive thinkers to congregate. As my own experience proves, it's extremely effective.
I've had 12 diaries rescued to the Community Spotlight. Of those 12, 10 made the Rec List. By contrast, of the 17 diaries I've written that weren't rescued, exactly 1 made the Rec List. Now, it could be said that the diaries what attracted the attention of a Rescue Ranger were my absolute best, and that they made the Rec List was only a natural consequence of their quality, but the corollary to that claim is that the other diaries I wrote were of a substantially lower level, and that their failure to garner much attention was only right and proper. By my own subjective estimation, that isn't remotely true.
In surveying the diaries to be found under the Rescued tag, I found a similar dynamic played out in the profiles of other diarists. It seems that the average diarist on Daily Kos can expect to receive somewhere south of 10 recs per diary, unless they hit a nerve or get rescued. Now this is a function of the incredibly frenetic and competitive marketplace of ideas played out on this site every hour of every day. But it also discourages many who feel they have something to add, but don't want to put a lot of work into doing the research and the writing only to have their piece sink to the bottom of the Recent Diaries list without a ripple.
This is the vital service provided by the Community Spotlight and the great people who maintain it. By breathing new life into diaries that might otherwise not receive any attention, the Rescue Rangers, all of 29 people with diaries and lives of their own, have the incredible responsibility of keeping hope alive for us unknown and relatively unheard new voices. And by doing this work, they pretty much keep DKos the hotbed of progressive thought that it always should be.
So this is my paean to the heroes of the DKos underclass. They save good writing from oblivion, they keep space open to new voices and different perspective, and they encourage every writer without a following that it's possible to have their work acknowledged by a wider audience if they're lucky enough and good enough to make the Community Spotlight.
Thanks, Rescue Rangers. Much appreciated.