Ahh, the drama over the unlimited diaries. I've gotta admit -- I didn't see that one coming.
There was much outrage when we originally instituted the diary limits -- first two-a-day, then the current single diary limit. The limits were a necessary evil -- when the ONLY way to be found is via the recent list, then that list had to be controlled.
But I hated that limit, and many commenters at the time did as well. Like I said, it might've been necessary, but it was an evil.
Now, a bunch of years later, we're on the brink of launching the next generation of the site, and one that inherently does away with the need for the diary limit. Why?
Because instead of relying on the recent list to be read, it gives people endless ways to find content.
Right now, the only way to be found is for people to be on the site when your diary is posted. If you post at the wrong time? Too bad. If you post right after breaking news? Oh well. If you post on a topic that is currently not hot, tough luck. If you post in the middle of the latest site flamewar, you know what'll happen.
Every day, a few pieces break out and make the recommend list (odds are better if you're one of the diarist elite), which means that a few more people will see the piece, but it'll still be limited to those visiting the site whenever it happens to be on the expanded list.
And either way, once your piece is off those two lists, it's pretty much history. It may show up in the odd Google search, but chances are it's lost in the ether.
That's the status quo.
DK4 was designed to eliminate that single entry point into the diaries. It creates countless ways to find people's diaries, few of them dependent on timing. Many of them independent on the author of the works. In short, it allows people to find stuff.
An example -- I missed LaFeminista's return diary at legacy Daily Kos, even though it was on the recommended list. And remember, I spend half my life on Daily Kos. But I saw it on DK4 because it showed up in my story stream. I wasn't the only one.
Then I was curious as to what was popular on DK4 this past week. So I went to the Diaries section and clicked on "Most Recommended This Week". I found this great diary on a 1860 map of the U.S. slave population by Magnifico. I missed it when he posted it on DK3, but not here. Serendipity!
I then glanced over at his "Recommended by Magnifico" box, and found this cool diary, "Fireworks In Hubble's Eye" by Palantir. More serendipity! Glancing at his/her "Recommended by" box, I clicked on this photo diary: "State of the Skies" by weatherdude.
And so it went. Before I knew it, I had read about a dozen diaries I would've clearly missed otherwise, NONE having to do with topics I would normally read, or featuring tags I would typically follow. It was -- yes -- a whole mass of serendipity. Heck, I was overdosing on it. This is a holiday week. I'm supposed to be spending it with my family, not reading random diaries on Daily Kos (beta). Yet there I was, sucked in reading some fantastic material!
There are other ways to find good stuff -- the tags page is fantastic and will only get better. It's nothing like the near-useless tags on the current site. I like to check out the People page, which will also get beefed up with additional ways to sort through people (including some ideas I have for pulling in newer authors who are having an impact), and the Groups.
Now many people argue that while the recent list as it exists today will be gone, once can still click on that Diaries page to get all the recent diaries. And yes, that's true. But it won't be usable in any meaningful fashion. There was a meaningful exchange in a diary complaining about the lack of limits on diaries.
Gabriel D did a test over at DK4
in which he scheduled something like 60 diaries to post once a minute for an hour.
One of the Rescue Rangers got mad at him, saying that it had ruined several valuable hours of training for the rescue team.
All I could think was, if one guy posting 60 diaries over an hour is enough to completely flummox the rescue team, what happens when lots of people start writing multiple diaries? What happens when two or three troll users coordinate to do the same thing that Gabriel D did at the exact same time?
Anybody remember that former Kossack who ended up on his own blog with other disgruntled ex-Kossacks actively plotting to take down this site by any means available? It was a couple of years ago and I forget his name, so maybe he's given the quest up. But the unlimited diaries thing would certainly be his perfect opportunity.
All that said, I actually am not that concerned as I suspect the unlimited diaries thing is going to go the way of the dodo pretty quickly. I know kos loves talking about how he used to knock out 20 diaries a day, but that's missing the point that he was the only one on the front page at the time. Now there are a bunch of FPers, and oh look, what do they do? They put all their FP posts into a queue instead of just letting every FPer post freely and unlimitedly.
by Black Knight
A follow-up comment dug further:
kos posted to the rescue ranger
saying that Gabriel D did exactly as he was supposed to do - e.g. use the testing environment.
kos did not say anything whatsoever as to the ramifications of that particular experiment - e.g. how easy it is for just one person to clog the recent diaries list.
by Black Knight
To which I responded:
I don't care about the recent diaries list
it's dead. People want to fixate on it, but it's not going to be functional in any real way. So if people want to post 60 real diaries in one hour, I don't care. All the power to them.
Diaries are just not going to be limited, and it's amazing to me how autocratic so many of you are. Who cares if YOU can't write more than one a day? Who cares if YOU don't think anyone else can?
If you don't want to use the tools DK4 provides to sift through the mounds of data to find the good stuff, then there's nothing I can do about it. You'll have to find some other place online that cracks down on the freedom of its members to engage as much as they want to.
There will be ways to catch and filter out trolls. There will be ways to filter out people and tags you don't like. There will be tons of ways to find "serendipidy". It just won't be the same as now.
by kos
That about sums it up. My focus isn't on giving you a clean recent diaries list. It'll exist for those who want to sift through it, but I care zero for it. And if someone wants to post 100 real diaries in an hour, I don't care. It'd be silly as hell, and won't win that person many friends or followers, but whatever.
As for malicious diarists, they are only effective if people SEE them. Right now, they automatically get front-page real estate. It's impossible to kill them off until after they've done their damage. In the new site, it's much harder for them to get traction (i.e. eyeballs).
There is one way in which malicious content spammers can escape obscurity -- and that's to use tags to show up in the story streams of those following those tags. Top-level tags (e.g. "environment" or "war") would be great targets for those spammers.
We're aware of that, and by launch my goal is to have ways for users to block and report tag spammers so they get zapped quickly. We're aware of that vulnerability and are already working on ways to shut it down.
Those of you hoping that I relent on the diary limit, you're destined to be disappointed. It violates my ethos and thus won't come back once it's gone. If it leads to other problems, i'll work on fixing THOSE problems, rather than revert to a needlessly limiting and autocratic rule that has offended me since the day I first implemented it.