One of the features of the KOS site is its self policing quality. The fact that this site works at all is a consequence of the structure that is built in to the recommendations system -- and the other policing systems that are part of the system. The comments are part of the policing system and if someone says something nuts, there are quickly those who point that out and so on. In a sense, this is really the free market of ideas, and in that sense this site deserves to be one of the top rated and most frequented sites on the internet.
As with any market based activity (let's say this site) there are measures that indicate the health of the site. I have a couple of short paragraphs on this below.
Tonight, we have a recommended site which forwards comments from one of my favorite authors in this market place of ideas, Monsieur ToqueDeville. As I write this, there are just under 1,600 comments on the site. The number of comments and the number of individual commentators on individual posts and across the site is well measured by "Jotter" whose weekly recaps I read and find very interesting. These things are all measures of the health of this market place of ideas that we find so stimulating.
"Buhdydharma" 's post that forwards comments from ToqueDeville is on the recommended list tonight. At this time, the last recommender on the list is "chadamar" who is member 210,031. Thank you, chadamar, for taking part in the activity that makes this such a lively market place of ideas, and we're all glad that you're part of the KOS Community.
I recommended "Buhdydharma"'s post and then I went to "view recommenders" to see who I knew was on the list. I took great comfort in noting that there are 58 recommenders with user-id's under 10,000. I find myself in the company of "Meteor Blades" on the recommended list for various diaries often enough and I look to see who else is there and there are not usually as many of the "old guard" (the user-id's under 10,000) present.
There are important differences of opinion and perspective on this site -- and the conflict inherent in any market place, especially a market place of ideas, is inevitable. I am personally comforted to look around and find myself surrounded by those who are in my cohort joining in recommending the diary (and by extension, the forwarding of the message from Monsieur ToqueDeville) by Buhdydharma.