If you're a avid user or lurker of dkos, you might have noticed that some commentators are less appreciated than others and some people don't feel the love around here. That's dkos. Sometimes you hit the rec list and some days you post a masterpiece that gets 3 comments. Sometimes dkos seems to be an ideological train wreck with commenters competing for the top snark award. Exploring unpopular viewpoints is the mainstay around here, but do it at the risk of biting commentary. You get flamed, rec'd or ignored as the mood hits Kossack readers.
Our big tent is full of progressives with a wide range of interests from big oil spills, the economy, health care and LGBT to pooties, woozles, food and Saturday evening's WYFP or "What's for Dinner?". There's a lot of ideas to pick apart around here. That's what we do. We also insert gratuitous pictures of our pooties and woozles whenever we feel like it. My friend Ron Chin-Chihuahua is a lurker of dkos who particularly enjoys the woozle pics.
Personally, I like the scrappiness....as long as it isn't directed at me, but there are comments that don't rate hide ratings, but they do make me cringe.
Sometimes it's hard to figure if a comment interchange is snarky or something someone thought was witty (but likely missed the mark) or if it was meant to be as unkind as it looks. There's no rule forcing anyone to read anything posted here, so feel free to hit your ignore or back buttons as you see fit. Some of the flamin' comments are clear and others are less so. I thought I'd decode some of the jargon.
Read "With all due respect" as, "You're so going to be flamed for writing that" if your are feeling charitable or "You're so full of shit", if you're not. Then, prepare for the ensuing pie fight to commence.
Read "you're argument would be better if" as, "My comment here is sooooo going to straighten you out as my brilliance is so vastly superior to yours". Sometimes they do offer a brilliant suggestion and other times I roll my eyes and move on.
Read "Good Point, prepare to be flamed" as, you just trashed a sacred cow around here and you're gonna hear about it.
Read "I'm curious..." (usually) as, "I don't understand why you don't think like I do" or possibly, "Don't you get it? This is supposed to be an echo chamber."
Moving on from the snarky, unkind comments is more important than adding to this list. Lurkers don't comment or post diaries because they don't want the static. That doesn't mean all lurkers are thin skinned. Ron Chin-Chihuahua is a lurker because he doesn't have any thumbs, which makes hitting the space bar problematic, but he had no trouble hosting an alternative tea party.
To encourage more civilized behavior, a diary can show up lamenting the dkos echo chamber or the dkos caste system, and sometimes a moderator or long time user (UID less than 50,000, sometimes a higher UID) posts a meta diary that asks "Why Can't We Just Get Along?" (BTW my UID is cool, it's divisable by 3, but I just meta'd.)
All this advice on how to play nice in the sandbox is only helpful if it's heeded. Lots of people comment on the dkos phenomenon. many are jealous of our community, but really dkos is like herding cats or maybe it's more like grasping feathers.
It's not hard to get along around here. The rules are simple. The two big ones are:
- Don't curse in your titles
and
- Don't write a diary that insists that Bush was involved in/with or caused 911 (or a diary that promotes another 911 conspiracy theory).
Oh, there's more rules. There's something about tags, that I usually get wrong, but someone comes along and fixes them for me (or others) and posts a comment telling me what they did (thank you fairy tag mother). Then again, sometimes, someone fixes them and posts a snotty snarky comment in my diary telling me to tagup and fly straight (snort, thank you fairy tag bitch mother). I think it comes down to the view that there are somethings you think and some things you say; and, if you are wise, there are things you shouldn't think of saying.
There's a more serious rule about banning diary stalking, and good commentary which makes for a more civilized dkos. If you aren't into rules, but like being well liked, the best idea is to remember what your Kindergarten teacher told you about getting along with others. You know, no name calling, treat others the way you want to be treated and so on.
This site's primary goal is to get more progressives elected to office, but I can post a good ole' rant when peeved or a lament when I'm sad. We regularly have calls for action. Some people live for meta and I peruse those when I'm in the mood; but usually I write about health care (but not today).
There are many experts around here. I've enjoyed Fishgrease's booming school (cussin' included). Bonddad as well as jerome a paris has unraveled more than one economic issue for me. I've dropped by the Saturday garden blog and read teacherken from time to time. This is a genuinely helpful site. If you need help or want to know about something, just ask. Part of the charm around here are the sideshows. The serious I/P diaries aside, who can forget the cilantro controversy war and or the circumcision diaries? So, stick around, add to the conversation. You might learn something and you might teach us something.