GBCM (Good-bye Cruel Meta)

I hardly know where to begin at this point.  I would guess I'm your average-joe reader around here and I'm tired of all the meta.

I've been reading this blog for over a year and I have always been impressed with the FP's and the "community" aspect of this place.  One of my favorite ways to kill some time was to run through the diaries and comment on things I found interesting, so just read through what other people thought was interesting enough to use a diary entry to discuss.  

The last few weeks have been different.  I saw the FP post by kos about trimming down the blogroll and really didn't even give it a second thought.  No big deal.  Wow.  I was wrong.

I'll admit that I haven't exactly been keeping up with the controversy.  I don't come here and read diaries to read about how much you think kos sucks, or how pissed off you are that you might actually have to provide quality content to drive people to your blog because you're no longer linked on dailykos' front page. I don't come in here to read people bitch and bitch and bitch about the site owner's decisions regarding what he puts on his front page.  

I. Do. Not. Care.

What I do care about is getting Democrats elected and having a news source where I can read about the latest Republican scare tactic and get some ammo against it when people around me bring it up.  Guess what... Every diary that's been dedicated to this whole blogroll controversy (including this one) is one less diary that is actually useful or informative.  In the last few days/weeks, there have been a LOT of diaries in the Recommended Diaries section that have been covered this over and over and over again.  The comments always degrade into shouting matches with people attacking those that don't feel the same way they do.  (I'm sure there will be those that read this and think "F*ck You", even if they don't post a comment to express it.)

Right now, there is a diary covering an attempt make everyone happy.  Your own personal blogroll!  What a concept!  I thought it was great when I read about it and I was looking forward to perusing the comments to see if it was well received and this whole thing would be over.  Nope.  More "it's not good enough, I want to be on the front page, bitch bitch bitch."

Here's an idea.  Why not start contributing solid diaries that I and other "average users" will want to read.  That way, we will be taken out to your diary where I will be able to see your own person blogroll!  Right there in your diary!  (It's interesting that people started trashing this solution before they realized that their blogroll was listed in their diaries, NOT JUST ON THEIR PROFILE PAGE!)  

At this point, I'm just ready to stop readin the diaries because comments have begun getting so caustic it's not worth the effort.  

So from here on out, if it even LOOKS like it might be related to this issue, I won't bother reading.  Who knows what the average user is missing because they're equally tired of this.  (Not to mention what the NEW visitor must think when they stumble across something like this.)

•  Are we done yet? n/t

  by Johntastic on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 04:33:01 PM PDT

  •  No.

    Kossacks like to spend WEEKS on such things.

    by JenAtlanta on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 04:34:26 PM PDT

  •  not anymore

    Thank you SOOoooo much for extending the conversation to yet ANOTHER diary.

    Stop the cycle people!  Walk away.

    by a dumb dreamer on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 04:53:50 PM PDT

    •  Read my diary on Provoking Iran

      and get to work on stopping the next war!

      by FishOutofWater on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 09:56:25 PM PDT

•  You are obviously

  a very dangerous person.  You WILL be assimilated.

  by Grannus on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 04:36:38 PM PDT

•  Not by a longshot

  Knowing this crowd, they're just getting warmed up. This one's going to be a long bitchfest, of epic proportions.

  Grab some popcorn.

  by The Raven on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 04:37:42 PM PDT

•  Isn't this diary meta?

  I'll say the same thing here I usually say when someone is complaining that someone else's post is a waste of time.

  If it's not important to you, ignore it.  Simple as that.

  If Kossacks want to worry a theme to death, let 'em.  You don't have to be a part of that train wreck.

  by A Mad Mad World on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 04:38:18 PM PDT

  •  Yep... It's a meta diary.

    I'm just tired of all the blogroll meta.  

    How appropriate that my good-bye to meta is, itself, meta.

    by Johntastic on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 04:50:35 PM PDT

    •  So that makes it meta-meta, right?

      I may just have to write a diary about how much I hate (or love) your diary ...

      Actually, like you I hadn't cared much about this current shitstorm - but the personal blogroll in the diary feature is really a neat enhancement.  So something good came of this.

      by jrooth on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 06:00:27 PM PDT

•  You're just a shill for Kos!

  All this talk about getting Democrats elected.  How stupid and pointless.  How much did he pay you?

  /snark

  by matthewpm on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 04:38:28 PM PDT

  •  That being said

    (yes I'm reply to my own post, cuz I'm just that lame), of course it's always nice to see Dems turn on the circular firing squad, cuz that means that we haven't started marching in lockstep (like the other side) yet.

    by matthewpm on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 04:39:29 PM PDT

    •  Or maybe it's just that

      only one of our legs is marching (think of a canoe with all the paddling done only on one side).

      by A Mad Mad World on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 04:41:19 PM PDT

    •  heh... not lame

      I respond to my own comments all the time.

      by Johntastic on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 04:51:15 PM PDT

      •  See... I'm doing it right now. n/t

        ;-)

        by Johntastic on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 04:51:37 PM PDT

•  Good diary but I don't

  know the answer you seek.  I think it has to do with control and ego's but I don't even know for sure. I just tend not to read them or if I do I don't store them for future memory.

  by Owllwoman on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 04:44:40 PM PDT

•  There's complaining the new idea?

  Amazing. I was reading DKos a few hours ago and the consensus was that PB's were a great idea. What has happened since then? I probably don't want to know. Still feeling mellow from dinner. Kossacks waste a helluva lot of very fine IQ points sometimes...

  by anotherCt Dem on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 04:54:05 PM PDT

•  Ah meta...

  Shit...I like meta...and even I'M fucking sick of it after this week!

  by Elise on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 04:55:26 PM PDT

  •  Ok.. I will probably keep reading SOME meta.

    Like jotter.  

    Love me some statistics....

    by Johntastic on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 05:00:29 PM PDT

    •  Well, I enjoy jotter as well...

      but I also like the funny meta...that I'm definitely not sick of. I am sick of the whining and griping meta though.

      by Elise on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 05:09:44 PM PDT

      •  Elise

        The Meta has gone on for fucking ever -since December began.  It's so fucking pointless.  

        I visited here the last three days after avoiding the place for several weeks--nope, it was the same old time wasting.  

        It's laughable that there's a blogroll meta war over the loss of ad revenue traffic to essentially traffic parasitic linkage sites.  Kos may have been trying to return to topics like news and legislative action and politics.

        by Rolfyboy6 on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 06:00:58 PM PDT

        •  Well...

          there was a resurgence of meta in the last 3 days...it had tapered just a little bit for a few days there...sort of. But yeah, I know what you mean.

          I think some of the things people whine about here are rather pathetic really.

          by Elise on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 06:05:50 PM PDT

•  Whenever you have a number of folks...

  ...who have, for whatever reason, garnered a certain degree of attention, they grow accustomed to it. It becomes a source of validation - and in a case such as this, it seems to have been not only a validation of their ideas and their writings but quite literally a validation of their very selves.

  I suppose we all seek out such validation in various arenas. Historically we do it via our friends or families or, in the case of the famous, via book sales or record sales or television viewership or concert attendance.

  This internet thing, though, has engendered the creation of a new paradigm that allows damn near anyone to attain a significant level of attention. And when one feels that this attention is liable to dwindle - be it negative or positive, it really doesn't matter - they're liable to react. Loudly. And if they have someone to blame, so much the better, and so much the louder.

  All in all, it just kind of makes me sad.

  by turnover on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 04:58:38 PM PDT

  •  For the record...

    ...I'm as apt to do such as well. God knows I like it when my comments are uprated or a diary I write gets a few comments. I don't mean the above comment as an indictment - just a observation.

    by turnover on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 05:02:51 PM PDT

•  What I think is really funny is that

  the blogrolls get more exposure know because they show up right away when you click on a diary.  You know what others are reading.  It is like a recommendation for specific blogs.  It makes all the whining seem so stupid now.  

  by Boppy on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 05:15:09 PM PDT

  •  heh...

    as if the whining wasn't stupid in the first place :-)

    by Elise on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 05:21:03 PM PDT

    •  Agreed.

      And if someone wants me to read their blog, they can write a great diary that says "cross-posted at..." and I will take a gander and see if other writing on that blog is of as high quality as the diary I was reading.

      Truth be told, I don't think I've EVER visited a blog because it was on the blog roll.  Every other blog I've visited was linked through a diary or signature line.  I always thought the "Blogroll" was just a collection of other blogs, independent of the site owner's interest in that blog.  

      by Johntastic on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 05:28:02 PM PDT

•  You Have the Right Idea

  I think that longevity on Daily Kos can be attributed to 1) having a tough skin and 2) ignoring a lot of people.

  by bink on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 05:37:59 PM PDT

  •  my bitch

    Is when I'm reading a diary I like and it gets hijacked and ripped apart in awash of META that doesn't even have a thing to do with the diary. I found myself trying to find safe ones today cause I didn't want to have to be flung into hot head land., and I'm a hot head too.

    by shaharazade on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 05:55:33 PM PDT

    •  Eventually

      All of them used to end up being about Armando.  And then he left.

      by bink on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 06:07:01 PM PDT

      •  Armando would have stopped this fuss

        by diaring STFU already about the blogrolls. I think Hunter's fuse must be longer before he blows.

        by doinaheckuvanutjob on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 08:27:55 PM PDT

•  I have yet to make a single post

  to any diary or comment bitching about or supporting Kos' postion on the blog roll and I see no reason to start now.

  by aggieric on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 05:55:48 PM PDT

  •  Oh! Damn. Messed that up, eh?

    ;-)

    by aggieric on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 05:56:39 PM PDT

    •  Nope.

      This diary is not about bitching about or supporting kos' decision.  It's a diary bitching about everyone else bitching endlessly about who got knocked.

      A subtle difference, but I think you managed to keep yourself safe.

      by Johntastic on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 09:10:09 PM PDT

•  You summarize me

  Yep, feel the same way. I've been here for ages (UID 893) and I've always been here for the content, election insights and info, and that's it. I seldom know what the latest crap controversy is because I just don't read that stuff, I don't bother. I don't have the time. I certainly don't have the interest. I read the FP stuff and if there's substance, I read it. As for diaries, I just skim and again, if there's substance, I read. But if the thread devolves into high school blather, I just opt out. Yes, I have no clue about who said what and the various pie fights so half the time when I get here, I have no idea which slight was said by whom and what the beef is. And I don't care. Because they don't matter.

  by Kestrel on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 06:58:57 PM PDT

•  People! Take your Meta-Mucil! ;)

  by Pandoras Box on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 08:24:13 PM PDT

•  Wow.

  A meta diary, saying he's sick of meta diaries, and announcing he won't be reading meta diaries.

  That's just adorable.

  by TheBlaz on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 08:53:58 PM PDT