Back in late February 2005 I was anticipating getting out for the First Gardening Day of the New Gardening Season.
For a gardener, waiting for the morning to warm up on that First Gardening Day is like being a kid on Christmas morning waiting for your parents to get out of bed so you can attack the pile of presents under the tree. Yeah, yeah, you can make do with your stocking, but really — you're waiting for the main event.
Of course I had no stocking on that long ago Saturday morning; it was late February fer gawd's sake. Instead, I posted the first Saturday Morning Garden Blogging, sharing a couple of photos of my previous year's garden, and inviting others to post pictures of theirs, and share their experiences.
I had accidentally created a band-width sucking monster, along with the first special interest community group.
As the weeks went by, more and more kossacks posted more and more photos of their gardens.
Garden blogging started appearing on the rec list, and more kossacks found us. Who posted even more garden porn.
And garden blogging loaded more and more slowly each week. So I spent $100 and bought myself a lifetime subscription. I don't remember precisely when it was — but it was before the pie fight; I recall having to turn the ads back on so I could see what the fuss was about.
Late in the summer of 2005 we were contemplating what to do with garden blogging when gardening season ended — whether to continue posting through the winter in anticipation of the spring to come, or to take a break and starting up again in late February. I decided to post a poll and ask my fellow garden bloggers..
That same Saturday a troll appeared, stating that community-building diaries such as garden blogging should never, ever be recommended, because they were clogging up the rec list and keeping "important stuff" off.
And then Armando waded into the fray. Now, you have to remember that the Armando of 2005 was not the warm, huggy bear Armando of today. No, that Armando had a well-deserved reputation for a certain amount of… impatience… with others.
Armando struck a blow for the appropriateness of community-building on a political site by promoting garden blogging to the front page that August morning:
Consider this a strong vote for continuing and expanding this wonderful blog series. I'll go further, if you discontinue, I will recommend banning you. Just kidding. But please don't discontinue this wonderful diary series.
So there you have it — Armando is responsible for creating the atmosphere which has made Daily Kos more than just a place to argue about politics. And I would contend that that community aspect is what allows Daily Kos to be as successful as it has been. Pure politics leads only to arguments over specifics; knowing and caring about others binds us together, allowing us to overcome our differences of opinion and make progress towards a more equitable society.
So now kos is having a subscription drive:
There's lots of reasons we're making this subscription drive—we need to staff up to do all the cool things we want to do—add cartoonists, add developers, add new content verticals like our new Elections and Labor sections and expand our activism efforts. And the money raised will go a long way toward making those things happen.
The lifetime subscription I bought for $100 all those years ago is still available at the same price — but only through the end of the year. After that you'll only have available a $40 yearly subscription rate.
What do you get for $100? Well, you can see the garden porn at Saturday Morning Garden Blogging without having those pesky ads slowing you down and shrinking the photo space.
Even better, soon subscribers will be upload their own garden porn to the Daily Kos image upload site for posting.
If you already have a subscription and you have the means give a gift subscription or two. Check the list of diarists you follow — or who are following you! — and send a "thanks for your support!" gift. Buy a subscription for someone with whom you've disagreed. Or, if in your wanderings around the site you've learned of someone who is having a rough time, you can lift their spirits a bit. It will make you feel really good, and let them know someone cares.
Gift subscriptions aren't about judging the "deserving" from "undeserving — it's about binding this big, sprawling, diverse community of ours together. How can that be a bad thing?
I mean, even Armando has a soft spot for community.