Let's Make A New Rule

Let's make a new rule for ourselves and pledge to ourselves to keep it - for every diary you write attacking a Democrat, you have to write two other diaries - one supporting or thanking a Democrat (without attacks), and one attacking a Republican (or other baddie).

Why not?  This should be pretty easy to do, and it would manifestly change the character of DKos as of this moment.  Not to mention it would be better for your soul - too much bile is bad for you.

Plus, I can see increasing puzzlement from the undecided Democrats (let alone undecided independents) - all the candidate supporters seem to have nothing good to say about their own candidates.  But they all have lots and lots to say about other Democrats, and almost all of it is negative.

And I'm going to be taking my own medicine - no more diaries complaining about the tenor of DKos.  From here on in, until the nominee is decided, no matter how unpleasant it is here, I'm going to blog about nothing but (1) positive change and (2) putting the evildoers on the run.

•  Smokey's tip:

  Only you can prevent forest fires.

  by Tybalt on Thu Jan 24, 2008 at 04:05:09 PM PDT

•  Nice idea...

  and respect for your own resolutions.

  Alas, we live in the real world, and the people who most need to read this are the ones least likely to heed it.

  by Brecht on Thu Jan 24, 2008 at 04:06:43 PM PDT

  •  I intend to

    I need to get out of the complaining business too.  There's lots out there to work on other than this.

    by Tybalt on Thu Jan 24, 2008 at 04:09:40 PM PDT

    •  "Be the change you wish to see in the world"

      is a fine starting point.

      You may change the world around you, and you can certainly improve your own health and happiness by spending less time with negativity.

      Now I'll read what I just wrote a few times until I really get it myself.

      by Brecht on Thu Jan 24, 2008 at 04:18:12 PM PDT

•  While I see what you're saying,

  I don't want to read anything from those who spend most of their time doing candidate attack diaries.  Making them promise essentially to triple their output is just a recipe for more crappy diaries.

  by cardinal on Thu Jan 24, 2008 at 04:06:58 PM PDT

  •  Not that they'd take the pledge, but..

    since it seems like most of them use their allotment of a diary a day, then you'd actually cut the candidate diarrhea diaries by a third.  (well, a girl can dream....)

    by lineatus on Thu Jan 24, 2008 at 04:11:29 PM PDT

•  Why can't we all just get along?

  

  by darthstar on Thu Jan 24, 2008 at 04:13:53 PM PDT

  •  You need one of those buttons!

    In the other diary.  Whose dirty work are you doing... Huckabee, 9iullani or McCain?

    Or (shudder) are you building the Mittmentum!?

    by Tybalt on Thu Jan 24, 2008 at 04:22:23 PM PDT

    •  Oh, I was just being snarky... I do appreciate

      your sentiment, by the way...but I stopped caring about the quality of candidate diaries back in early December...there are too many people here to try and control their content...it's like herding cats, only worse.

      by darthstar on Thu Jan 24, 2008 at 04:36:03 PM PDT

•  Take away the "recommend "for Candidate Diaries

  Clean up the atmosphere by stopping ratings abuse. Any gratuitous compliment is ridiculously uprated by a dozen or more,and then the partisans go back and forth with TR or rec's to offset them. It jerks around and there is 400 ,600 innumerable  bantering comments "Not so,You are another" and it gets worse.

  Bourgeois celebrity stroking at its worst. The Paris Hilton school of success. Enough to make one turned off to the whole process thing.

  Don't let the candidate diaries get ridiculous recommends, either.  Put them (any candidate diary identified by names in the title or tags) in a seperate section.  The outcome?

  It will do the site's frequenters ,and the candidates themselves an enormous favor and stop publically $hi!!ing their own beds.

  by Pete Rock on Thu Jan 24, 2008 at 04:30:19 PM PDT