ARRGHH! Teh stoopid - it BURNS!
Those of you who pine for Trusted User "status", be careful what you wish for! My tale of Whoa! is below the crease.
I swear, Your Honor, I never aspired to Trusted Usership (well, maybe I did a couple years ago - until I got a taste of it); I was happy just to read the excellent diaries and content to snark at the lousy ones and at the more inane (less nane?) comments.
I guess that in recent months I have commented not wisely but too well. Apparently, enough folks in the dKommunity have uprated my little dKommentlets at a adequate rate where I now find a fresh stack of "Hide Ratings" (five, exactly, no more, no less) in my dKomputer each morning.
I don't know, and I'm too lazy to research, how many thunderbolts I have loosed upon the unwashed masses lately, but I'm willing to bet that if HR's truly are donuts, I have a whole case of rock-hard stale fried dough cakes.
I think I've been fortunate (since I don't camp on the site all day) not to come across a truly disgusting, reprehensible, outrageous effrontry to the dKommunity's well-being and sense of self while it was still fresh and steamy, the kind most likely to stick to my soul and get tracked all across the freshly-scrubbed floors of my intellect. I confess most of my HR's have been dispatched belatedly, ex post facto, and quite often retracted after the ten seconds of reflection that, would it have been applied before clicking any buttons, would have resulted in two fewer clicks zapping through the intertoobz. I don't pile on to the truly nasty stuff as long as the ratio of thumbs-down to thumbs-up keeps what ought to be hidden, hidden.
But enough! I will no longer play the ratings game. People who care enough to HR every opinion that is contrary to theirs are welcome to it; those who are truly vigilant and truly care about the face dKos shows to the outside world, I applaud your wisdom, temperance, and good judgment. I enjoy being able to endorse tip jars and comments I agree with or get a good grin from, but I longer care to worry about the seedy underbelly of hatred and sheer cussedness that has become so prevalent here.
So 'k, I have changed my profile so that I can no longer see hidden comments even if I click on the link. It's a Good Thing, a Thing I recommend to many of our more callow members (speaking in terms of your overall grasp of the spirit of dKos, not your UID - I could write another diary about "Reset My Fucking UID!" but I'll spare all y'all that rant).
I will now, or sometime later this afternoon, return to scanning the new diary headings (studiously avoiding the highly broken "Recommended" list), tipping and possibly recommending those that I enjoy, and applauding the comments that strike me as insightful, inciteful or simply mirthful. I am retiring my stash of "donuts". I will HR no more, forever.
Thank you, we now return to candidate wars and the rare, thoughtful diary posts.