A Humble Suggestion: Not Another Candidate Diary (or Mayan Goes Meta)

None of this is going away.  My suggestion is...Maybe the keepers of the site can set-up a special candidate diary section.  Those who want to scry the internal workings of a supporter (or operative) and those who want to rhetorically pummle the pulp out of their opponents can feast their eyes and tear the psychic entrails out of one another.  Those who prefer their Kos experience to be narrowed to discussions of the niceties of life under Bush and the Halliburton overlords or news of the day or the finer points of American political life can go to the regular section.  Unmolested.

A short bit more after the flip.

Realistically, none of this is going away.  It's the nature of the beast.  Thus has it been.  Thus will it probably always be.  Aside from very passionate supporters of individual candidates, folks whose raison d'etre's are the warp to a candidate's woof, there are the operatives, agents, counter_agents, those doing Karl Rove's (and others bidding.)

In America, politics is a bruising, bloodied, brass-knuckled contact sport.  Just ask Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson.  While we would prefer the Norman Rockwell version, the fact of the matter is that since the birth of the republic, voters have been bullied, bribed, bought, and oh so bellicose.  It's in our life stream.  Prior to that blessed birth, I'm sure the same was true of our deeper origins in Britain and before that, pre-Caligula Rome.  Thus, there will be charges, counter-charges, lies, damn lies, and otherwise unsporting behavior.  FDR did it.  JFK (and his father) were not strangers to it.  It's just the way it is.

And life at Kos is currently held in its sway.  It's not going to go away unless Kos pulls the plug...something that hopefully will never happen.  At the same time, it seems to be getting in the way of those who can no longer let their eyes gracefully skip over the ever-burgeoning barbaric yawp of candidate diaries.

So, I suggest that the Kkeepers of the Kos Flame set up a Kandidate Korral or something.  A circumscribed area for the Swarm of Supporters to Klash over their Kandidate.  We can have our cake and eat it too.  

•  ...but there are plenty of places online for that

  I can think of a couple of forums that use phpBB, and their sections are split into categories. General Discussion, Election, media, stupid stuff, anything Liberal, technical issues with the board etc.

  I don't want DK to turn into another one of those boards where factions split off into their own little areas and entrench themselves. I'd rather be faced with different viewpoints head-on (apply directly to the forehea--- sorry).

  by ShawnGBR on Sun Jan 27, 2008 at 08:45:12 AM PDT

  •  I hear you...

    I'm just concerned about attrition from those who can no longer keep out the incessant barking at one another.  It doesn't really bother me...I read it or skip over.  Thus, I was thinking that there could be a place for a full-throttle political celebrity death match (ok...a flame pit of sorts) and a place for a discussion of everything else.

    I know...I know. I haven't had my coffee yet.

    by mayan on Sun Jan 27, 2008 at 08:52:37 AM PDT

•  Truth is...

  ...one can post a dairy which is not about any candidate(s) and specifically mention how it is candidate-free, but people will still show up in the comments to pimp one candidate or attack another.

  by rserven on Sun Jan 27, 2008 at 08:55:13 AM PDT

  •  Actually...

    ...posting a diary is easier than posting a dairy.  Dairies tend to be much larger.

    by rserven on Sun Jan 27, 2008 at 08:56:38 AM PDT

    •  LOL...

      I'm trying to figure out how to milk this but can't come up with a clever jibe.

      by mayan on Sun Jan 27, 2008 at 09:00:47 AM PDT

•  No recs for this suggestion

  Not so many recs for this idea, Mayan. I think most of the others who feel this way have already left the building.

  In two weeks I leave the country and I will NOT come back to dKos for two months. This trip was long planned, I'm not leaving to escape the candidate diaries (and buttinsky candidate comments), but it is a nice broadus.

  by Woody on Sun Jan 27, 2008 at 09:03:24 AM PDT

  •  Travel safe, Woody. n/t

    by WSComn on Sun Jan 27, 2008 at 09:18:08 AM PDT

  •  Yep...bon voyage.

    Safe travels!

    by mayan on Sun Jan 27, 2008 at 09:28:02 AM PDT

•  Compromise - leave ratings off Candidate Diaires

  (Disclosure: I a former Edwards supporter gone over to Hilary so I have a bone to pick. But I don't remember it ever being so bad even over the impeachment battles.)

  I'm almost there myself - leaving DKOS to avoid it - because it's so aggravating.

  I strongly believe that the response to hateful speech is more speech. But the nature of the internet, which allows both anonymity and rapid response, often overwhelms the response. The inherent ugliness of misogyny,racism, and sarcasm only tosses burning embers on the tinderbox.

  Markos will wisely never go for it because hiding the diaries would make DKOS look like Republican troll sites that ban comments. It also makes the community look weak.

  But here's a humble suggestion - take the recommending option off the candidate diaries. Right now the "recommended" diaries are filled with the Obama supporters. Prior to that time it was the Edwards folks. At various time it's made the site look like a candidate site. It also overwhelms the other topic diaries. But mostly it fills the air with hyperbole and shrieking.

  by cdalygo on Sun Jan 27, 2008 at 09:48:13 AM PDT