As a DailyKos newbie, you're probably not yet familiar with all the conventions around here. This guide can help you find your way as you stroll around the grounds and begin to participate. Some users only comment, while others choose to create a diary of their own, which is roughly analagous to a big conference room in which you decide what's on the overhead projector, and anybody can stop by and write comments on the whiteboard.
I want to share with you something important to be understood about writing diaries at DailyKos.
Read on if you're still interested...
One important thing to be understood about writing diaries at DailyKos is this: Diarists aren't meant to be censored in their own diaries. That's how the system is designed. The system provides a means for trustworthy users to neutralize disruption: Hiding comments. If a user disrupts a diary, TUs (trusted users) can hide the disruption. Diarists, however, as the proprietors of their own diaries, by definition, cannot reasonably be said to be disrupting. It is evident that trusted users are not meant to censor diarists by the fact that diarists may include and update anything they have to say, within the text of their own diary.
So, trusted users have some say in what a user contributes to someone else's diary. To censor a diarist, however, is left to site management. The bridge between the automated system employing trustworthy users and keeping management out of the dispute resolution business is a principle called "if you don't like it, don't read it".
I, personally, have written a few dozen diaries, and in case you ever read another one of them in the future, there's something I want to be absolutely clear about something: My diaries are subject, at any time, to potentially referencing a certain, shall we say, topic, which, if you are reading something of mine for the first time, you've had absolutely no idea, up to and including this point, what that topic is. Ok, there's this subject, and a lot of people are, let's say, uncomfortable, talking about it. They see it as, well, kind of, shall we say... personal, and often they take even abstract discussion quite personally. So, this topic is a sore spot for them. That's why, to avoid uncomfortable exposure, it's very important that those users, and all users, know that my diaries are subject to exhibiting such references and discussions. To avoid the topic, avoid my diaries.
If, however, such users are concerned that skipping my diaries may cause them to miss other diary material that is of interest to them, I have a few ideas. One, they can ask their friends which diaries are safe for them. Two, if there's a need, perhaps some titling convention could be considered to help those wishing to do so avoid the topic.
Because the system is clearly intended not to allow censoring of diarists via community moderation, the next time I post a diary which aims to raise discussion of that topic, users systematically trollrating what I'm saying in my own diary will be clearly understood as disrupters, which, to my understanding, violates at least the spirit of the rules here.
If you are a new reader and you've read this far, I going to take the risk that you can handle what I'm about to say next. The topic, the cause of so much friction? How do I say it? How I frame this can intensify the discomfort some people experience at its mention. Well, those people have had fair warning. The topic is... involuntary non-therapeutic genital cutting. Yeah... Ouch. It's understandable that some people just prefer not to think about it much. Fair enough.
So, if you didn't before, now you know.
As the present and future are more the issue than the past, I'll kindly ask that in my next diary on the topic, all users be welcome and assured that those of us who opt to have an open discussion about it will, indeed, be able to do so.
One final thing, new reader, that I want you to be ready for in a diary on this topic, is that if future returns mirror past performance, some, perhaps even most, of the disrupters will be, how shall I say, very intensely angry or hateful. Please be prepared. It can be pretty shocking at first, but you learn to ignore it.
This diary is meant as a welcome to new users, and not itself to raise the topic per-se. If other commenters don't raise the topic itself in the comments, I won't either.
Welcome new Kossacks. Jump in.
Update I:
I've changed the tags back to these, as intended: Meta,New Users,Daily Kos,Community.
Please post a comment with an explanation if you remove tags.
Update II:
Please note that personal threats against users are strictly forbidden.
Update III (dynamic):
Top comment, per user: | 1 2 3 |
Other comments: | 1 |
Update IV:
I've changed the tags back to these, as intended: Meta,New Users,Daily Kos,Community.
Please post a comment with an explanation if you remove tags.
Update V:
All tags were deleted.
I've changed the tags back to these, as intended: Meta,New Users,Daily Kos,Community.
Please post a comment with an explanation if you remove tags.
Update VI:
All tags were deleted.
I've changed the tags back to these, as intended: Meta,New Users,Daily Kos,Community.
Please post a comment with an explanation if you remove tags.
Further tag abuse corrections will be here:
03:29:00 PM CDT, 03:37:00 PM CDT, 03:42:00 PM CDT, 03:46:00 PM CDT, 03:57:00 PM CDT, 04:22:00 PM CDT
Update VII:
Update VIII:
My response to the message in Update II:
Slates
*********, I'm really sorry you're offended, despite my good faith efforts to be kind and understanding. When you said this, long ago:
Honestly,,,,
I truly think RealityBites has a mental problem.
Told me I was basically an unfit mother because I had my 4 sons circed.
Geezuz.
I responded on the factual grounds:
Really? Please Link if true.
Because you're talking about me, yet
a) That's not something I would say
b) I don't recall every saying that to you or anyone
c) I find no record of you having every posted in any of my diaries
So please link to the comment you claim I made.
and then at length after you responded, here.
to which you responded:
I still don't get it,,,,
but this was a very courteous, concise explanation of your intent. I thank you for your civility, and it's obvious I owe you an apology for my misunderstanding of your past comments.
This is a disturbing subject for me, and I really would rather not discuss it. But I will refrain from mentioning your posts, or my interpretation of them, in any other threads.
Sincerely, I do apologize to you, and I appreciate the very decent manner with which you've addressed this.
I very much wish there were a way we could set aside bad feelings. My intent is in no way to offend you with the stance I take on what I consider to be an individual rights issue.