Friends Of The Hotlist (FOTH) announced today that it was launching an urgent campaign to prevent the endangered Koslandia Hotlist from becoming extinct.
“The Hotlist is a wonderful and unique creature in the internet ecosystem,” said FOTH spokeswoman ExpatGirl. “An influx of new code has invaded its territory but, if we act now, extinction is hopefully preventable.”
The first documented sightings of the Hotlist occurred around 2011, during the dawn of DKos Epoch 4. Since then, it has become a favored feature for many - in large part because of its ability to shape itself to the eye of the beholder.
As explained by ExpatGirl, “No two people experience the Hotlist the same because of its chameleon-like ability to assume the attributes and preferences of those who interact with it. Ask anyone who has seen it to describe it and they will say ‘It looks like me.’ This makes the Hotlist a special creature in the political blog ecosystem. But its habitat is small and we must fight now to save it before it disappears forever.”
When contacted about the extinction, representatives of the DKos5 Beta team issued the following statement:
The hotlist was removed because it was felt to be underused and adding confusion in the navigation.
I came up with an interesting workaround though: make yourself a group and republish any story you would hotlist to it. I did so on dailykosbeta for the purpose of collecting my old hotlisted diaries so we could see how they read, in a group I named elfling's Fabulous Favorites. [address redacted]
It's more public than a hotlist, if that's a concern, and we do lose the 'most hotlisted' stat on diaries, etc. But it may be a useful substitute for you if your design request is not successful.
According to ExpatGirl, however, the ecosystem without the Hotlist will be far less elegant. “The beauty of the Hotlist is its simplicity. I republish diaries to various groups fairly often and unlike simply clicking the Hotlist button, it is a multistep process. The creation of hundreds – and possibly thousands – of new public groups to do what the Hotlist already does for users privately seems like a step backward. I doubt even I would go to the trouble meaning that diaries I would like to find easily again and again will most likely be forgotten.
The Hotlist might not be an often used feature of the community as a whole but I'm guessing those who are most active use it quite a bit.”
FOTH has a few suggestions for how you can get involved in the fight to save the Hotlist:
• Spread the word by Reccing this diary.
• Vote in the poll below.
• Add “Save the Hotlist” to your signature line.
• Write to your Koslandia DKos5 Representative.
• Comment on this Beta Help Desk thread.