(That's GoodBye Cruel World, and Ta-Ta For Now, in case you weren't sure...)
Happy 20th Anniversary, Daily Kos
Twenty years of Daily Kos history, rowdy as it’s been, doesn’t compact easily. I’ve only been here for 14 of them (I’ve got to be kidding. No? Yikes.), and I thought I’d try a couple of diaries about the things that stand out in it for me. So far I’ve got four to publish; that may be all, or a couple more may come and knock on the back of my skull and ask to be written, but this is the first.
Also;
2. The Pie Fight Diaries (A VERY short history of Daily Kos advertising)/ An Unofficial Koscar Addendum
3. A Daily Kos watershed moment: Isla Vista, and taming the DK Boyz Klub; An Unofficial Koscar Addendum
4. Most Prolific Community Diarist; An Unofficial Koscar Addendum
History and Context
Did you know that the original reason for banning people writing GBCW diaries was that the people writing them, after generally going hyperbolic and trashing the site, didn’t leave? Well, one of them, anyway. The earliest I’ve found banning mentioned in connection with GBCWs is in Meteor Blades diary of 4/7/2010:
Registered users who write GBCW diaries – saying they are leaving and never coming back – will be banned after their diary's 24-hour recommendation period has expired. A user who changes their mind may return to Daily Kos under their pre-ban moniker and user identification number only after appealing for reinstatement to the Director of Community or Markos. Users who write diaries saying they are taking a temporary hiatus from posting at Daily Kos are not banned.
There’s a followup by kos in 2013 that includes TTFNs (Ta Ta For Now) that covers the “temporary hiatus” diaries MB was referencing:
We long ago made a decision to ban GBCWs because way too often, those people wouldn't stay the fuck away. So this new twist evolved, the TTFN, which gave people the option to return. That way they could engage in the same dramatic exit, without actually having to commit to that exit.
Well, that's no longer the case. The TTFN is now equal to the GBCW as immediately bannable. You want out, leave. If you want to return, you have to ask for reinstatement.
Note, this does NOT apply to genuine non-drama TTFN's, like surgery or a vacation or "work is too heavy" or the like. If you're going to be away for a while and want to let people know so they don't worry about you, this does not apply to you.
But if you're looking to create community drama, then your dramatic exit diary will be met with the appropriate closing of your account. Or put another way, I will consider it, just like the GBCW, as suicide-by-cop.
I started out by doing a Tag Search on GBCW, and then randomly opening diaries. I laughed, I cried, I snickered. And here for you are some of the results of that search. (Note: a lot of the diaries under these tags have been deleted, and some of the best/worst examples are simply not available. Probably a Good Thing.)
(Post Scriptum: This link is probably a better one for the main category. Order is set to Oldest to Newest for best (most interesting) results.)
For the Tag: GBCWFAIL, from La Feminista
A lament on trying (and failing) to kick the DK addiction — I loved it!
For the Tag: greatestGBCWever (added post-publication), from ErrinF
1,835 comments, 340 recs, and arguably the most cited diary on Daily Kos, EVER
(usually accompanied by a few Hotel California jokes)
From the tag: NotGBCW, by lawnorder
GBCW ? This is how you do it:
Pure meta, and good fun.
From the tag: GBCW, by jeremymc (The first diary with the actual tag — likely added after the fact, since tags in the first few years generally do NOT transfer to the new format or were never there to begin with)
He really didn’t like us… 7 diaries, 45 comments, 21 days, total, on site
There are several hundred other GBCW diaries — browse the lists as you will. After half a dozen or so, mostly they sound much alike, or it may simply be that it’s late here and I’ve overloaded on trying to read them.
They fall, mostly, into two categories:
- Daily Kos is a rotten place to be, and
- This was a great site when I first got here, but…
It’s fun interesting to note that over the whole period the second category has remained fairly constant, as each new cohort signs up with great and glorious expectations, only to have the reality fall short.
In any case, enjoy (or not). It’s been a great exercise in looking backward through Daily Kos diaries.
Just for nothing...