I had a little bit of free time today. My company, [company name withheld], has a mandatory closure between Christmas and New Year's. That would be neat if it weren't for the fact that I am literally forced to take three of my own vacation days despite the fact that I actually had to work half of Wednesday, all of yesterday, and half of today, but I digress.
So I wrapped things up at noonish today (so that I could have at least one half-day of the three days I was forced to take - oops - there I go again!) and sat down with Daily Kos. I went through the front page, as I typically do, and then started scanning the reclist. This diary, Dkos Traffic Trending Down - Thoughts?, caught my attention. I know why I think it's trending down, and if you follow me over the fold, those thoughts will be revealed... (muahahaha)
The diary itself was pretty accessible - it laid out the traffic, garnered from SiteMeter, and showed a declining trend from a high in August to a low in December (so far). The comments were interesting as well. Some commenters feel that Daily Kos no longer represents their voice. Others feel like Daily Kos has become overly nasty. Here was my response:
I'll give you my take on it.
And I apologize in advance if this offends anyone as that is NOT my intent.
The vast majority of times I open Daily Kos and scan the recommended list, there are anywhere from 2-4 diaries (25-50% of recommended diaries) that are candidate-oriented. Most often the split is between diaries in favor of Edwards or Obama. Occasionally I'll see an anti-Hillary diary, and very rarely I'll see one that is Dodd-related.
And it's just - I don't know. Stale. The information contained in the diaries, while referenced and well-written and heartfelt and passionate, is nothing new. So the diarist likes [Obama/Edwards]. So the diarist thinks something [Obama/Edwards] said or did was brilliant. In my view, so what? It's nothing I haven't seen reported on on CNN or MSNBC ad nauseum ad infinitum. Heaven forfend a dive into the comments of these diaries, where one can find the worst, most insultory and mean-spirited arguments possible as to why [Obama/Edwards] sucks.
The front pagers have continued to do great work - and the diarists who write the pro/anti diaries are well within in their rights to write what they believe and feel and think. But two diaries on the reclist that simply repeat well-known, overplayed news headlines? Sometimes four diaries? It's just too much. I know it has cut down on the time I spend here, and that's a shame - because I love this place.
I'm hoping that once we're through the primaries regardless of the outcome, we can focus on the kind of content we had here coming into the midterm elections, where local races and fundraising and dorr-knocking and activities were covered more effectively here than anywhere else.
My $.02.
Run, Mark, Run!!
by RenaRF on Fri Dec 28, 2007 at 02:52:38 PM EST
SIDENOTE: I meant what I said at the opening of the comment. I'm seriously not trying to offend any particular diarist or group of diarists with my comment. I'm merely speaking about how I have felt lately when I open Daily Kos and go to the reclist.
So - I got super-geeky and wanted to look at exactly how many recommended diaries either advocated for a candidate or advocated against a candidate. Here's how I arrived at the numbers you'll see shortly:
- I used Jotter's excellent "High Impact Diaries" Diaries (ooh - that's awkward)
- With the exception of 12/7, I counted up, for each December day (12/1-27/2007), the number of diaries Jotter listed as having made the reclist (represented in BOLD in Jotter's roundup diaries - 12/7 excepted because the bolding was unusually low so I went in to each to get the recommended count).
- I then visually scanned all diary titles. If it was obvious, TO ME, that it was about a candidate (e.g., it mentioned a candidate's name, pro or con) AND it was obvious, TO ME, that it was election-oriented, I added it to a "Candidate Diaries on the reclist" column.
- I got a percentage of Candidate diaries that made the reclist.
Here's what December looked like:
If you're more of a visual thinker, here's this:
That's a LOT Of candidate diaries on the reclist. The LOWEST day had 20% of the reclist dominated by candidate diaries, pro or con.
So I moved on to November and quickly ascertained that there was NO WAY I would go day-by-day (as I did in December) - rather, I used Jotter's weekly "High Impact Diaries". Below is a chart of the results from 9/8/2007-11/30/2007:
And again, for you visual thinkers:
Now - breaking down recommended candidate diaries (expressed as a percentage of total number of recommended diaries) by month and comparing them to the monthly sitemeter traffic for the same period, we find this:
AHA!! See - there it is. As the percentage of candidate diaries on the reclist has grown, the traffic to the site has declined. Mystery solved, and I have empirically (at least in a corollary sense) provide the comment I made in the original diary!! Mission accomplished.
But seriously - it IS overload here at Daily Kos. The candidate diaries that make the reclist, as I said in my comment to the other diary, are well-written and passionate and heartfelt. But honestly, none of the information seems, TO ME, to be much different than what has been on the news. I've seen a particular candidate have two or three pro diaries on the reclist that essentially say the same thing!! So I just move along - because while you may support [candidate name], and I support or oppose said candidate, there's not much convincing either of us can do with respect to the other side. To me, it's a bit like shouting into a windtunnel. And let me tell you - I'm not even going to go there with respect to the nastiness and bad behavior I see in the comments to even the most positive and pleasantly informative diary. It's shameful, and this community is way better than that level of discourse.
And while my tongue was planted firmly in my cheek for the majority of this diary, I do have to admit - the pro/anti-candidate saturation and the verbal pissing contests HAVE caused me to back off somewhat.
But that's me. Carry on.