**Won't you please share the joy of WYFP by recommending?
My Daily Kos userid is 9603. That's not a very low number, but since I think there are over 60,000 registered users here now, it does mean I've been around for a good while. My how this place has grown--I was standing at a bus stop recently wearing a Daily Kos t-shirt, and a lady said, "oh, are you a kossack?" And she wasn't even a member herself! A friend had introduced her to it, she said, but Daily Kos is so overwhelming. You could get lost there.
Many members from "the old days" haven't gone anywhere, but some have shifted their energies to smaller blogs. I think often, like the lady at the bus stop, they can't take it all. And in this teeming crowd, amidst sweat and elbows, trying to find a familiar face and disheartened by unfriendly ones, hoping to he heard over the roar and for someone to care, I think people can start to feel alienated. Where do we go for community?
Well, this is one place, I think--WYFP and other regular social diaries. I see familiar faces every week with much pleasure. Cheers and Jeers, the weekday morning snark extravaganza, is an oasis of community goodwill. Saturday Morning Garden Blogging is also an institution, and Got a Happy Story? is reviving on Fridays.
And many enjoy the smaller-scale community blogs founded by prominent kossacks, like Booman Tribune (which reached 1 million visits today, congratulations!), or Maryscott O'Connor's My Left Wing [Update]: AND the hot new Political Cortex. There are also email discussion groups comprised of kossacks, and kossack chat rooms (for instance C&J Cafe, a hangout founded by Cheers & Jeers addicts).
My community of choice these days is Street Prophets, the first official Daily Kos spinoff site, about a month and a half old, run by kossack Pastordan. It's maturing into an exceptionally lovely community... reminds me of WYFP in the kindness of the tone. The theme is "faith and politics," but in another sense I think the theme for me thus far is how to be in community together, with our widely-varied beliefs and unbeliefs (atheists welcome!), our personal woundedness and our hope to find away to go into the world with love and courage and make things better. The Jewish phrase "tikkun olam," "heal the world" comes to mind.
So... if you need a community some time other than Saturday night, one of these may be the ticket. :-) And I would particularly love to see the Street Prophets community keep growing.
P.S. while I'm shamelessly promoting stuff, the dKos Trollhouse Cookbook, a compilation of "troll recipes" posted on Daily Kos in 2004, is simply fantastic (proceeds benefit the Yearly Kos convention).
P.P.S. Somebody last week was upset about the profanity in the title. Sorry in advance--that's just what this diary is traditionally called. :-)
SO, what's your trouble tonight? What's worrying you? What are you afraid of?
And where do you find community in the blogosphere?