Well it doesn't belong to us, it belongs to Markos, and the Management Team he handed authority to some years ago.
Having said that, we who are here now, those of us who have gone before, and those who will arrive are all invested in the thing we call DailyKos, and we have opinions.
Broadly, on the Progressive side of Politics, we listen to each other, so let's talk:
I have been around a few years now, sometimes present, sometimes less so, it has depended on my need to know, and election cycles, etc.
I have diligently Paypal'd my $4 per month, because I can't afford much more than that, and subscribing here gave me the biggest bang for the buck.
I have published, oh, I dunno, maybe fifty Diaries. Some sank without trace, and deserved to, some sank and damn well didn't deserve to. Some have been Rescued (Thanks guy, y'all are great), and a few have been Recommended. One received only two comments before dropping off the Front Page, one went over 800. While we are on that one ..... I lose track after about 100 comments, it's too hard to keep up, so just talk amongst yourselves.
Principal among my concerns is, and always has been, this:
I write great Diaries. My Diaries deserve to be read here, in the White House, and they should be on the Reading List of every High School in these United States, and a few in Europe too! I am, in this respect, just like every other Kossack who ever wrote a Diary. It's what we all want.
As my Diary history shows, it doesn't work like that. It never did. Some of my best Diaries have been ignored, and I am okay with that. Others, less good but possibly more immediate have soared, and I am okay with that too. Right up there though, in my mind, has been the Recent Diary List.
I have watched it like a hawk while my masterpiece has been steadily pushed south by Diaries that are not much more than incoherent comments. I have watched it while those Diaries around mine have received one, two or three comments, when mine has fifty, and just hit the Recc. List. Bye suckers .... It's my turn today; and sometimes despaired while a good piece of writing has languished. This might not have been mine, I have watched other Diaries worthy of wider fame sink forever, and just hoped a Rescue Ranger might happen along soon.
My basic point here is that, thus far, all we have had is the Recent Diary List. Imperfect as it is, and it is far from perfect, it's all we've got and we are damn well not going to give it up now. Not without a fight. Not without killing a few sacred cows first. Not without going to the mattresses.
Unless .......
Unless the Development Team actually deserve the credit that some Kossacks are withholding. Unless they have recognised that the RDL is, at best, a blunt instrument incapable of sorting the wheat from the chaff. Unless they have put in place mechanisms that ensure my works of pure genius, and yours, hang around, easily accessible and for rather longer than they ever have before .... even if in a slightly different place.
Because if they did all that, and we really have "nothing to fear, but fear itself", then maybe we could stop for a moment and consider.
So what does DK4 offer that is different to DK3?
To start with, the Recent Diary List has gone from the Front Page. Booooo! However, it hasn't gone far (Yipeeeee!). Right there, at the top of the Homepage is a big button marked "Diaries". There, wasn't too hard was it?
This list is the old Recent Diary List, except now it's also sortable in twelve (count 'em) different categories. We didn't have that before. What is more, you can see how many recs, how many comments, and how many Kossacks have Hotlisted the Diary.
There has been another significant change which Diarists have been asking for since 1897 .... The ability to publish more than one Diary a day. This is significant because to meet that request necessitates trashing what used to be the Recent Diary List. So it could be kept, but it's usefulness would be severely diminished.
So they gave us Groups. This is new and, as yet, no one knows how it will work in practise, but the early signs are encouraging. You may publish a Diary on a specific subject, but if that subject is not of immediate interest then your Diary went ... Poof! ... disappeared to all except those versed in arcane search facilities. Wide audience for your latest "War and Peace"? Forget it.
Not anymore. If it is Motorcycling, Senate Rules, Fish Farming in Alaska (Sarah?) or any other weird subject you might wish to Diary about, it won't be long before there is a Group just for you. If there isn't, then start one and your Diaries will remain accessible to everyone interested pretty much forever. Got to think that's a good thing, right?
You can also, with practise, decide for yourself which Diaries need to be published to a Group, or the Recent Diary List, or both .... I anticipate some new Diary Guidelines some time soon, and some more effective Moderation, at least in the beginning.
What is being attempted here is a move from a linear structure to almost a 3D set-up. Gone will be the simple, 2D, rolling news format as it morphs into a resource with breadth and depth. A place where special interests can pool their collective talents into issues, subjects, districts, Races, etc. Places where you can go to find detailed rebuttals of talking points, real answers to spin, and people who can back that up.
We have never had anything like that before, and it's an exciting prospect.
On the other hand. If what you want to do is much as you have always done, that is read Diaries, and maybe comment on them, then there is nothing to impede that. Read the FrontPage, click on Diaries and read any you fancy, sorted however you like.
There is also the suggestion that it will be harder for new talent to be recognised. That's a legitimate concern and one I hope proves to be unfounded. What I do know is this:
New Diarists have always found it hard to be recognised. It takes time, and commitment (or a stroke of luck) for any new Diarist to reach the rec. list. Nothing has changed for years in that respect. Perseverance and good writing has been the key. It was ever thus, and will remain so, well broadly.
To help them is a vastly improved Rescue Ranger system. No longer do we have to wait until late evening to find out whether or not the Rangers are as good as our Diaries clearly are. They can do it on a rolling basis via the Community Spotlight, which can be used to pull good Diaries straight onto the FrontPage. That is new, and it is very welcome (Guys, you are looking for an author called "twigg ... heh).
Some of the fears I am reading about will not doubt be justified, at least initially. No one gets it all right, first time. But I have seen a lot that suggests that we are being given something bigger, better and much shinier than anything before it. Whether or not it can adapt and grow, and whether or not we can learn to use it effectively, remains to be seen.
Oh ... and I haven't even mentioned "Streams" :)
UPDATE:
lol .... "Recommended" in that funny, other worldly, DK4 place :)