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In a splendid time, not so very very long ago, in the Camelot Days of Daily Kos, we had a front page Morning Open Thread. No more, dear kossacks, alas no more. In one cruel unannounced decision there suddenly was no place of gathering without restrictions and rules for the before dawn, coffee dependent subculture of kossacks known as "early risers". So, we made our own -- Morning Open Thread (MOT) -- and lived happily ever after, almost.
Since I am one of the regular diarists for MOT, nomandates asked me to publish a tentative "New Diarists Open Thread" in this day/time slot to see how well it would be received. And since I am accustomed to epic fail, er being a sacrificial lamb, er catcalls and boos going where others fear to tread, I said uncle uncle uncle, now let me up "sure, glad to do it". And here we are. Well, rather down ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ there is where we are starting.
In December, when nomandates was forming this New Diarists Group and graciously extended an invitation to me, we had a brief exchange about my participation in MOT and how it would be a great way for a new diarist to get his/her feet wet. Here is an excerpt of that discussion:
A diary there can be a short light weight post or something more involved. It is a perfect spot for someone to get their feet wet. We will have the "recommended" tag show up meaning we've hit the rec list, but generally most folks don't rec the diary since it's not one that is intended to vie for a spot on the rec list. That said, one of our regulars, gulfgal, wrote one that hit the community spotlight, so you never know.
One last thing to note, the "regulars" there and any others who drop by tend to treat it like an open thread, which means they post whatever they want to talk about and don't necessarily discuss the topic of the diary. However, there are many times the topic of the diary takes off. I did one on Monday about worst Christmas gifts and almost everyone had something to say on that score. Just know in advance that the topic written about may or may not be discussed...that's just how open threads run.
We began our MOT in late June last year and were lucky to get up to 40 comments in those early days. Then, as today, we do not always provide a topic or a write up. Sometimes we provide a boilerplate "jibber jabber" and leave it at that. As folks began to realize we were a regular feature, the number of comments and visitors increased with a peak in both during the coldest months.
The other diarists shot down my suggestion of a group, so we have to encourage folks to follow the tag instead. Here is the link to the Morning Open Thread tag where you will find all the diaries.
When we have provided topics, they have been extremely varied: Tour de France -- Seinfeld -- Woodie Wagon Day -- "The Last Mountain" -- Obamamobile -- Vintage Police Motorcycles -- Aviation Day -- Dr John Gorrie -- College Football Rankings -- Archaelolgy Road Show -- Mars Rover -- Banked Blood: Dr Charles Drew -- Good (Progressive News) -- Rails to Trails Conversion in Florida -- #OccupyWallStreet -- Yom Kippur -- #OWS Yoga Edition -- The Seminole Paintings -- Bumpersticker -- Black Poetry Day -- Miss Mayta's EtiKos for the Sleepy -- Occupy Nashville -- Wagon Train Westward Ho -- Life of a Classical Musician -- 11.11.11 Hundreds of Ways to Thank a Vet -- Country Store -- Cookie Time -- Repeal Day -- Have you Priced 10 Lords a Leaping Lately? -- Pearl Harbor -- Christmas Seals -- Boxing Day -- Photobombing -- Angels in Art -- New Year's Caucus -- Yet Another Primary -- A Rally in Tallahassee -- Red Hot Chili Peppers -- Historic Flagler College -- Talking with my Mother and Learning Things -- Flagler's Folly -- Kudzu: The Vine that Ate the South -- Last Incan Handwoven Bridge -- Some More Railroad History -- Occupy Tallahassee Gets Police Escort -- Cabin Fever -- A Walk in the Oregon Woods -- Ghost Signs and Wall Dogs -- Little Known Facts About Abraham Lincoln -- Barefoot Grandmothers -- Bridge Edition -- Better Living Through Chemistry -- Milhous Collection -- Johnny Cash Would Have Been 80 Today -- Shostokovich -- Women Pilots and the Military
Two diaries made the rec list and stayed there most of the day; Barefoot Grandmothers 117 recommends and 133 comments and Kudzu the Vine that Ate the South with 104 recommends and 148 comments.
Because our focus at MOT is to simply provide a gathering spot for any kind of discussion, there is no pressure to write something that will be popular and garner a great deal of attention. Sometimes there is little or no discussion about the diary topic, other times the topic generates a great deal of discussion. I believe that it is that absence of expectations and absence of competition that makes it so easy to write an open thread diary. I believe that an open thread concept for this group would allow new diarists a venue to test, experiment and gain confidence in writing diaries and the open thread itself would provide members an opportunity to ask/answer questions, post concerns and just plain have fun.
I would like to speak to one last thing before I scoot and that is diary etiquette and if it has already been covered before I apologize, but in my opinion it cannot be emphasized enough.
Although I am certain that no one in this group would participate in any bad or boorish behavior, I wanted to provide this link from kos' article from last September: Recap, new community behavior guidelines that can be useful in knowing how a diarist should behave in certain situations.
Every effort should be made to publish your diary during a time in which you are able to stay with it and respond to comments. I personally rec each comment made, unless the comment falls within the "dickish" category described by kos. I do not believe it is necessary to respond to every comment, but if you "speak" to every person visiting your diary and make them feel welcome then it is more likely they will remember your screen name and visit your future diaries. It can be difficult, but try not to say the same thing in each of your replies and if possible say something that will encourage further discussion. Heh, I should take my own advice :D.
I believe nomandates is wise to test out an open thread for the New Diarists group because practice practice practice and dress rehearsals can be invaluable.
So now let's have fun.........Jibber your Jabber.........