Very often I submit comments with a preface that this or that comment has been ‘flagged by’ one Kossack or another. I do this because the comments I find aren’t found directly. They are found by doing comment searches on comment responses they have stimulated, which indicates the original comment might be interesting.
When Carnacki began Top Comments, Daily Kos was a quieter place, not as busy, not as frenetic. Members of ‘my era’ were sometimes lamented for our high UID numbers. In the 80 thousands! Crazy! What was this place coming to?!
Carnacki wanted to give comments the attention diaries received in SusanG’s nightly diary rescue. For many of us, the comment threads provide the most intense, most dynamic arena for exchange and dialogue (and even networking!) in blogdom. Just because a contribution is not in diary form does not mean it is not worthwhile. Even so, they function very differently. Comments cannot be hotlisted. You can follow a Kossack, but that will only place that person’s diaries in your ‘stream,’ if, indeed, the person ever authors any. You can find their comments, but only by doing a search or by visiting the person’s profile.
But it’s in the comments that you really get a sense of people here. How do they relate? How do they engage? How do they treat others? In agreement and in dissent? Do they project a calm assertive energy? Do they pick their challenges? Or are they reactive?
These are just a few of the reasons we find comment engagement intriguing. But it is part of why Carnacki began this diary series. In June. Of 2006.
More below! But, first, a word from our sponsor ...
Top Comments recognizes the previous day's Top Mojo and strives to promote each day's outstanding comments through nominations made by Kossacks like you. Please send comments (before 9:30pm ET) by email to topcomments@gmail.com or by our KosMail message board. Just click on the Spinning Top to make a submission. Look for the Spinning Top to pop up in diaries around Daily Kos.
Make sure that you include the direct link to the comment (the URL), which is available by clicking on that comment's date/time. Please let us know your Daily Kos user name if you use email so we can credit you properly. If you send a writeup with the link, we can include that as well. The diarist reserves the right to edit all content.
Please come in. You're invited to make yourself at home! Join us beneath the fleur de kos...
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Being a member of the Top Comments team has always been fun and stimulating. We have always had terrific writers, for one thing. Front Pager Laura Clawson was a Top Comments writer. So was noweasels, va dare, Cronesense, a number of other fine writers and progressives. We have some PHENOMENAL diarists right now. Carnacki himself was great. He hasn’t done a Daily Kos diary in 604 days, yet he still qualifies as a ‘frequent’ diarist. (He has ‘moved on’ to different pastures, different challenges, but still visits occasionally.) His diaries have received nearly 38,000 recommends. Most of us will live out the rest of our lives and never approach that number. And still he created a series focusing on COMMENTS.
I have written about this before, but in those days comment mining was simpler. We, the TC diarists, were challenged about our selections. What made them ‘top?’ Why were our selections more ‘top’ than anyone else’s? Why was this comment highlighted, and not this one? Why was soandso’s comment rescued, and not ‘mine?’
Of course, comments featured in Top Comments are purely subjective. Comments I pick are no better than comments anyone else might pick. None of us ever pretend we can do a remotely exhaustive job of evaluating a day’s comments. To my knowledge, DK4 does not permit the same analysis of comment statistics we enjoyed in a prior site permutation, but the last time I had the info, the site experienced between 10,000 and 50,000 comments per day. During election season, now, that might be higher. No one can read them all.
So ... how do we find comments?
I have not checked with my fellow TC diarists, but I feel safe in generalizing that we all LOVE it when our fellow Kossacks submit comments for inclusion in the night’s diary. The more the better! Our fellow members on this blog, by contrast, can and do read most of the comments submitted on this site any given day. We do recognize what is worthwhile, potentially worth sharing. Sometimes we host a diary, and someone comes into the comment thread in the diary and makes a real contribution with a comment. We can reward and positively reinforce such contributions if we send them in to Top Comments that night. We give the person’s contribution some extra attention, and commenters can see how we respect and appreciate those who visit our diaries.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a diary about comment submissions, really, using the example of how our society deals with ‘rescuing‘ worthwhile ideas and contributions. People share things onward on Facebook all the time. They do it by ‘liking‘ things they encounter, and then allowing others to see what they have liked, and possibly why. People share things on Twitter (and other networks), they retweet things. Submitting comments to Top Comments are just another way, community-specific and unique, to do the same thing.
Ask any of the TC diarists. Looking at comments and evaluating them for relative ‘sharability‘ is a different experience. They are not just for our consumption, for our gratification. They are for others, in a ‘TED - Ideas Worth Spreading’ kind of way. Not just ideas, sentiments, experiences, creative explorations. The good times. The bad. The touching.
Sharing those comments in Top Comments is a leap of faith. They don’t just reflect on the commenter. They reflect on us, on our judgment. They say things about us. Yes, it is a risk, perhaps. For those of us here, a more than worthwhile one.
So, our favorite way of finding comments is in receiving them from you. It is more rewarding for us than any of us has been able to articulate. It makes us feel the community. Appreciate the community. Appreciate the creativity in the recognition of the comment, and in its sharing.
We TC diarists have a variety of ways we find comments. We try to always submit those that catch our fancy as we roam Daily Kos. We each have strategies we like to employ when submission counts are low. Sometimes, yes, particularly when comment submissions are low, I do searches on plausible ‘flagging’ comments. Often, unsurprisingly, people will answer a comment with the comment title: ‘Top Comment!’ More often than you might imagine they do not then submit the comment to Top Comments. It may be found, if such a search is conducted, but it is a bit of a crapshoot. There is no guarantee that a given night’s diarist will find it. (Send it in! ::wink:: )
Other searches I sometimes conduct include:
Great Comment
Terrific Comment
Fantastic
Hilarious
Funny
Funniest
LOL
ROFL
Sometimes people ‘flag’ comments with arrows. ^^^ Pointing to the comment above. And there are others I am not thinking of right now.
In any case, no matter how many searches of that sort I am able to conduct on a given night when I host TC, I always (ALWAYS ALWAYS!) credit the person whose flagging comment led me to the featured comment.
Of course, that does not mean that it is efficient. It does not mean that it is reliable. Often I am not able to conduct more than two or three searches. On nights I do not host, I may not be able to do any. (And that night’s diarist may not have done any, either.) But the idea is the same - to find good comments for that night’s Top Comments diary.
If you find a comment worth sharing, please send it to us! We will all be in your debt!
On to tonight’s comments! Graciously formatted by brillig!
brillig here: Ben is correct in generalizing... we love user-submitted nominations!!
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything
without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do
not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From brillig:
In jamess's great What is the Basic Level of Civilization we should be willing to Pay for?, PowWowPollock defines what it is that They are afraid of. The response thread is very good, am highlighting RJDixon74135's expansion of the basic premise.
From Dragon5616:
In kos' Saturday nutpick-a-palooza, atana gave us this conservative view of liberals. annieli's reply is pretty funny too.
From Chrislove:
I'd like to nominate this comment by livosh1 from Jeremimi's sad diary on Jean Stapleton's passing. The video clip in the comment, which I hadn't seen before despite growing up watching All in the Family reruns, is how I'd like to remember Stapleton--playing a character well ahead of her time and kindly pushing back against ignorance and bigotry.
From BeninSC:
Flagged by karmsy, this comment by richardak skewers 'them' for many of the ways their policies have hurt women over the years and decades.
Flagged by DefendOurConstitution, this comment by Inland is remarkable for its depth within brevity, with a fine insight into real scandal. I liked Defend's response, as well (which WAS the flagging comment!)
Flagged by SottoVoce, this time it is karmsy's comment that is featured, focusing on changes in how women are appreciated within a lifetime. Thoughtful comment, that did not recieve the attention it deserved.
Top Mojo for yesterday, May 31st, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you
mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary
FAQing Top Mojo.
1) This is really ridiculous. by blueoregon — 143
2) Why are you creating a culture of dependence? by billreeves — 140
3) Stossel and those he represents won't be satisfied by OutcastsAndCastoffs — 140
4) I remember seeing this commercial and by koosah — 137
5) Before it reaches that point by Dallasdoc — 114
6) Until we start jailing Police Officers by twigg — 115
7) Dear John by BOHICA — 97
8) So, I guess if we really want... by Bill W — 95
9) Your photographs by Land of Enchantment — 95
10) Yup. But now I want to have some Cheerios, by koosah — 87
11) Here's a perspective about this. by jpmassar — 79
12) Sorry for the drive by but by Steven D — 77
13) feels good, doesn't it? by sc kitty — 75
14) In 1938 by Shippo1776 — 74
15) It's not just that they tackled and strangled him by jpmassar — 73
16) The woman in the picture by sewaneepat — 72
17) NYC by Horace Boothroyd III — 70
18) Rush by Steven D — 68
19) if it weren't so sad by jfromga — 68
20) Stossel's not ignorant. He's deliberately cruel. by BlackSheep1 — 67
21) Lange took the picture of "the Migrant Mother" in by ybruti — 64
22) As far as tornado situations go by LieparDestin — 63
23) My hero!! by Reetz — 62
24) Sorry Megyn, no sympathy here by fat old man — 59
25) It's so remarkable that a million people by Bill McKibben — 59
26) Bent knee, hat in hand, flowers and chocolates by Weezerr1 — 58
27) When I was 15, my cousin and I were playing by dopper0189 — 57
28) Real men / real tough guys by indycam — 56
29) Me too. by WheninRome — 53
30) Thanks, Stossel by KateCrashes — 53
31) Kidnapping's the mild result by Hannibal — 53
Top Pictures for yesterday, May 31st. Click any image to be taken to the full comment. Thank you jotter for the image magic!