You are. You may wonder how I know that you're missing it... Simply put, it's because I was missing it, too.
I have seen Kos emphasize, both within the context of site controversies and in general comments, the following (taken from a June 8, 2005 diary):
This is a site about electoral issues, the netroots, and Iraq.
We all write a variety of diaries on this site, wonderfully covering a vast breadth of subjects. It's important to remember, however, why it was founded. Although I wasn't here in the hallowed "beginning days", electoral issues continue to have great prominence on this blog. It was in reading other diaries about electoral issues that I realized I was missing it.
More after the flip.
Today I came across
this diary by yomoma2424. It wasn't a recommended list diary - just had a few visitors and thoughtful comments. In essence, it was an analysis of Democratic Senators who will be running for re-election in 2006. I asked the question in the comments of which Republicans were running and whether or not anyone had an idea as to the relative vulnerability of a Senator like Santorum (PA) or Allen (VA).
Just for giggles, I went over to the dKosopedia and began poking around. dKosopedia is what most of us have been missing.
Now, if you follow the link provided, it will take you to the main page of the dKosopedia. It's a wiki site - a wiki is:
Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly.
Wiki is unusual among group communication mechanisms in that it allows the organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself.
Like many simple concepts, "open editing" has some profound and subtle effects on Wiki usage. Allowing everyday users to create and edit any page in a Web site is exciting in that it encourages democratic use of the Web and promotes content composition by nontechnical users.
(from wiki.org)
My first encounter with a wiki was with
Wikipedia. If you haven't seen it, head over there and poke around. All the content on Wikipedia is user-created and edited. The same is true for the dKosopedia.
Now back to the dKosopedia main page - it's not especially user-friendly, I'll admit. But a determined Kossack can poke around and really find stuff. I was after 2006 Senate election information. I scrolled down and on the right I found Elections - main page. I took a risk and clicked it. Paydirt!!
Right there, right in front of me was the Election of 2006 page. Further, I clicked again and found the 2006 Senate Elections link. It was all the information I was after and it had been right there, a link and click away, right under my nose and I had missed it.
I live in Virginia and one of my Senators, George Allen Jr., is up for re-election in 2006. I clicked to his section of the page and was confounded to see that a probable challenger, Don Beyer, was missing from the list. So I edited the page. I added Don Beyer. I hyperlinked to him in the entry and found, when clicking on the hyperlink I had created, that Don Beyer didn't have his own page. So I created it - it was quite simple because when I clicked on the link I created and it tried to find a Don Beyer page and didn't, it prompted me to create one. I entered the rudiments of information that I found in a brief biography on the web. In writing the Don Beyer page, I linked to Doug Wilder, former Virginia Governor. He doesn't have a page, either - so my task this evening is to go out and edit the dKosopedia wiki to include information on Doug Wilder.
Here's the thing. A lot of people write a lot of fine diaries about a lot of candidates. Some of those diaries get noticed, recommended, and even promoted. Many of them, however, just scroll off the list. It's really a matter of fortuitous timing and kismet that determines whether or not you will see any given diary at the appropriate time that's relevant to you, citizen activist and reader. dKosopedia solves that problem by giving information in one place.
The information, though, is only as good as the people accessing and endeavoring to vet and add to the dKosopedia itself (case in point - my addition of Don Beyer).
We have so many brilliant people with a wealth of knowledge and abilities who post diaries on Daily Kos. But politics are local, and will be especially so in the 2006 election cycle. I urge you - implore you to go to dKosopedia and check out the elections section linked above. Go to your state and check the information. Add to it. Be responsible - be sure you observe copyright laws and endeavor to give especially accurate information. If you create a link to a person or event or place that is unlinked, create the entry for it, even if it's a small entry, so that others can add to it.
This will be an invaluable resource to us all as we organize to take back control in the legislature.
Please?? Pretty Please??? This information is only as good and as useful as each Kossack's willingness to contribute.
Final note - many of you already use dKosopedia. The rate at which Daily Kos has grown in 2005, however, means that we have many new users on the site as well as older ones who just never made it over to the dKosopedia. Let's face it - the diaries are more exciting. But the dKosopedia is the foundation - the resource, the static information, updated as appropriate, that serves the entire community. I, for one, am a new convert some ten months into my tenure at Daily Kos.