In the recent meta diary by this site's founder, there was this small item buried within the diary:
This "friending" concept will be key to the social fabric of the new site -- the more people follow you, the more your stuff will be read, the more likely it is to make the "recommended diaries" box, the more likely you can be a site big shot.
(Emphasis mine)
Do we really want our site to change the system so dramatically in this way?
What's that? It's a "private site", you say? The owners can & should do whatever the hell they want?
I disagree. It is "ours" as it is a community-run forum; we should hope that its editors would respond to the will of its members just like the democratic ideals about which the site revolves.
From someone who has made the rec list but a handful of times in my year posting diaries here, I can assure you it's not easy. But it is still possible (although decreasingly so) for Kossack Sixpack to make it there depending on the content, quality, & timing of a diary.
I have also observed the steady increase in the power & influence of celebrity here. This trend mimics the obsession with celebrity in our culture at large. You may be utterly without talent (think Sam Wurzelbacher or K-Fed), but if people know who you are, your words carry a greater weight.
The only example I'll give to support my claim is a recent diary topic about mustard. Without calling anyone out, I'll say that the diarist who made the rec list (one of my favorites here too, BTW) posted a a diary on the same topic that was covered very nicely by another over an hour earlier. Not definitive proof, I know. Just one example in the power of name recognition here.
The purpose of this diary is to get input & feedback about this proposed "improvement" to dKos. My view is clearly that this is a New Coke-type upgrade ("New, but not improved"). Perhaps if enough of us agree we can give & get feedback to/from the editors before it is too late.
Thoughts?