I perceive a disease in the community, and wish its cure.
In light of recent diaries regarding the feared "DKos-erdaemmerung" due to alleged "intolerance" in the community, I step back sadly and wonder: if it's medically improbable for one to have constipation and diarrhea at the same time, does that mean that the intellectual equivalent is true? Can one be mentally clogged and logorrheac at the same time?
I perceive among some Kossacks a strange affliction: a hyperventilated worrying about DailyKos not being absolutely perfectly fit to their needs, and a sense of dread that the whole damn thing is going, in the appropriately sarcastic phrase of the insightful PsyFighter37, to Hell. (For the record, DKos is not going to metaphorical Hell, since Pinochet doesn't need a roommate.) The still, small voice of calmness - reflecting the sentiment that nothing is perfect, but much here is more than good enough - needs to get a little less still and small.
I won't preach here why DKos is more perfect than anyone has the right to expect it to be. Either you perceive its value and appreciate its style, or you don't. It is not unreasonable to propose major or minor changes to community rules, but it is unreasonable to take a self-pitying victimization attitude for the community to fail to adopt your change on your timetable in full, including specifically Kos himself as the leader of the community, the owner of this site and the payer of all the bills.
There are a number of cures to the horrors of DailyKos' abject failure to be perfect, its unforgivable failure to be your end all and be all, or to satisfy your every Democratic and liberal longing on your timetable.
- Form your own community (or group, or individual) blog and make that your arena for intellectual discourse. One of the great things about blogging is that almost anyone in the U.S. can do it essentially for free. You need a live email address to get the free Gmail address to get the free Blogger account(new and improved). Yahoo will give you an email address for free. So will many bloggers, if you ask nicely; many bloggers have excess email addresses on their accounts that they do not need. You don't have to own a computer if your public library is connected to the internet; what you need is bus fare to the library. Obviously, if you have a laptop and wireless internet at home, you may find it more convenient. If it grows, i.e. people are attracted to your site, you can ramp up. DKos started very, very small.
- Join another community or group blog already in existence. Again, millions of them. Odds are, if you are diligent and have something interesting or useful to write, 25 blogs right now would love to have you active with their publication. Maybe 25 hundred.
- Engage in politics online, but not in blogging. The netroots are not limited to blogging in their activities. The liberal, progressive and civil libertarian internet is not limited to the blogosphere, even broadly defined. You want to help out with data-mining, online strategizing, email solicitation (but ONLY to people who want to receive such email) - great.
- Engage in politics offline. There is a non-cyber world of non-virtual people who are playing non-cyber hardball, right now. They would welcome your help - in campaigns, think-tanks, strategy consulting firms. I hear some people are running for president in 2008.
- Do worthwhile things that are not technically politics. You want to work on a literacy campaign, teach English to recent immigrants, help an honest ex-con find honest work, even help keep Smallville litter-free - great. You want to help Mumia Abu-Jamal get a high-quality condo in Miami, or to do your part to make sure the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania inflicts the maximum penalty upon him, Saddam-style? Fine. Your call.
- Do what you feel like, fly a kite, ride a bike. Who can object, if you are honest and harm no one?
Markos Moulitsas is just a fellow - a smart guy, a driven guy who has built a great community infrastructure. The day that the community decides DailyKos is not for them, or enough individual members do so, DailyKos goes the way of the Edsel. But there is nothing about DKos that makes its survival automatic. Kos himself does not aspire be your political be-all and end-all; if I read him correctly, the very idea would embarrass and worry him. So if you go elsewhere, that is your right.
A few years ago, Kos was just another law school grad who, like many law school grads, for example, did not fall in love with big firm law school garbage. So he did something else. He is awfully talented and driven, but has no magic key to any magic door. He does not exist fundamentally to satisfy your every whim (nor we his whims) nor does this site. Believe it or not, he once knew as little about the Internet as Ted Stevens.
Every institution has rules, things it won't tolerate. Mature people expect this, and make their choices accordingly. A diversity of sites exists - and can be formed - to accommodate different desired community rules. You want to get loud, vulgar and drink a beer and a shot on a Friday night? You go to a honky-tonk, not an upscale bar. You want a white wine spritzer and smooth jazz? Stay out of the honky-tonk. Economists refer to this as "monopolistic competition" - where anyone can sell burgers, but you cannot buy a Big Mac at Wendy's. You want a Big Mac - you go to McDonald's and don't complain to Wendy. You have rules in your living room; I have them in mine. This is Kos' deck, his basement. The only people who have the moral right to complain are his paying subscribers, and only to the extent of their money back.
We are all here at Kos' sufferance, myself included. DKos is likewise in my life at my sufferance, and in yours at your sufferance. Moulitsas writes the checks, with real money. There is a reason why GBCW diaries get mocked; if you want nothing more to do with DKos, you don't have to write the blogging equivalent of a flaming bag of dogshit on Kos' doorstep; just stop arriving here. If you don't like your local pizzeria, you don't write a letter to its CEO and all of its customers announcing your future non-purchase of anchovy pizza; you just order Chinese instead, or make grilled cheese on your own stovetop.
The only cure for Constipatio Bloggorrhea is maturity. You need not "shut your piehole"; just don't expect anyone to appreciate the taste of your spewed, half-digested pie.
If you think that I am wrong, or am being fundamentally unfair in my expectations of DKos, tell me so. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe Kos does work for us and is morally required to do our bidding re: community rules, on our timetable. But as for me, I know Kos does not owe me a damn thing, and I owe him (and the community here at large) a great deal, and remain very grateful to be permitted to participate.