What's a "Diary Flow Gauge"? Read this diary on the concept.
To bring people up to date: what I have been calling the "RecRec" list (which goes by the full name of the "Recently Recommended" list) will now be called the "ReceRec" list (pronounced "Reese Wreck"), at least by me.
The photo at right is the official photo of the ReceRec list until Markos gets a cease and desist order, after which we will have to find a different one. Note that this is an absolutely official pronouncement -- as in I have just told you how to pronounce "ReceRec" -- it is just not an official pronouncement of Daily Kos, Kos Media LLC, or anyone with any authority over either.
The comments section of last night's diary has some great ideas and contributions from Tomtech, opendna, blue aardvark, and others about how to institutionalize this feature in a visually appealing form.
Also, in reply to th0rn, I gave this brief history of "what's this all about":
Some history: there was a big blow-up a month or so ago about how unlimited diaries would affect the site. Some were concerned (and convinced me, among others) that unlimited diaries would turn the Recent List -- no longer on the front page -- into a race track, with diaries shooting down the page so quickly that good ones would be lost, and that this combined with the tendency of readers to "fish only from their own stream would undermine the sense of "sitewide" community that makes Dkos more than just a digest of stories. This is what led to the innovation of putting a truncated version of the Recent List -- the ReceRec list -- onto the front page, where TUs would filter the chaff out of the full/raw Diaries List and leave us with something that would still be "workable" beyond the front page & Rec List.
The main questions this raised was: well, would this work? Consider that the ReceRec list can fail either by being too exclusive or too inclusive. If TUs dont visit the Diaries page or otherwise pull diaries (especially from those without much of a following) from their streams, much more dood work gets lost than we'd like; we'd lose much of the exposure to the unexpected that has made DKos so great. (The angels of the Rescue Squad could save a few through their Community Spotlight, but only a relative few. But if we're too inclusive, then diaries could start to race down the ReceRec list almost as fast as they do the Diaries list, making it like drinking from a firehose.
So far, it looks like we're being quite inclusive -- but it's not yet a problem because the "load" of new diaries is not yet that large. There's reason to be optimistic that we will be able to find the "sweet spot" between either extreme -- if there is one! -- but it's useful to keep track if our progress to see how things will have changed over time.
Please read the above before asking me "WTF, d00d?"
The current Diary Flow Rate is below the fold.
As of 9:50 p.m. PST on 2/16/11:
The 50th oldest diary on the ReceRec list was published at 5:12 p.m., 278 minutes previously.
The 100th oldest diary on the ReceRec list was published at 12:41 p.m., 549 minutes previously.
The 100th diary posted on the Diaries List was posted at 1:38 p.m., 492 minutes previously.
Temporary longitudinal table:
Recently Rec'd (RR) 50th and 100th diary, Diary List (DL) 100th diary (measured in minutes since diary in question was posted)
2/14 day: RR(50) 210 ... RR(100) n/a ... DL(100) 754
2/15 day: RR(50) 478 ... RR(100) 916 ... DL(100) 579
2/15--16: RR(50) 382 ... RR(100) 578 ... DL(100) 524
2/16 day: RR(50) 400 ... RR(100) 945 ... DL(100) 821
2/16--17: RR(50) 278 ... RR(100) 549 ... DL(100) 492
Coming soon: proper tables!