So, about this "rec list" thingy...

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Thursday July 18, 2013 · 9:00 AM PDT

2013/07/18 · 09:00

As I type this there are a couple of diaries on the rec list.

One of them has 4 recs. The other has 5. There's a third with a mere 8.

Folks with a memory for minutia will know that I'm a frequent critic of whatever inscrutable algorithm the weird gears of the DailyKos uses to (ostensibly) "reward good writing". I know things get slow in the summer, but three rec list diaries with single-digit recs has got to be some kind of record. And the most glaring indication yet of just how broken the rec list concept has become.

I'm sure people will have differing opinions, but I think it's really really REALLY time the staff reconsiders what amounts to one of the three most featured places in "the community." We don't get that good writing anymore -- it's become a reward system for the most emotional manipulation that can be packed into a diary. And now you don't even need that many people to feel it's valuable to get one of the twelve most prominent spots that present the community to the larger world.

The rec list also strikes me as the place where the most divisiveness is sown. This is a separate aspect, which probably deserves it's own consideration, but it is related, so I thought I'd note it here. None of us enjoy flame wars... (well, some of us don't enjoy flame wars, I guess) ...and the rec list seems to be the source of most of the kerosene. For the health of the site and the community I really wish to advocate an examination of the situation.

OK, sure, not the most important thing we could be talking about...

UPDATE: OK, perhaps this has more to do with bugs than with faulty formulas -- This diary instantly appeared on the rec list with a single rec, but showed up three rec list pages deep, and the counter shows negative 1 new comments.

UPDATE UPDATE: Thanks to those who responded. I've gone with the conclusion that what I saw yesterday was the result of ghosts in this here machine, rather than severely ill-conceived design. In the end, it comes down to this: in a community with active participants in the thousands, it ought to take more than under a dozen or so people to make something so featured, no matter how slow things are or what time of day it's published. Whether this happens by design or by error, it ought to be looked at.

A message from our host:

kenlac

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Friday June 21, 2013 · 7:01 PM PDT

2013/06/21 · 19:01

“There are those who think Obama can do no wrong and those who think he’s a sellout,” Moulitsas said. “It’s either – ‘I trust Obama’ or ‘I told you Obama is terrible.’ I don’t think it changed anybody’s opinion about it. … The notion that it’s one or the other is hyper simplistic.”
And he likened the hardest-line liberals to the Tea Party.

“There are some people who won’t ever be happy,” Moulitsas said. “Dennis Kucinich could be elected, and they won’t be happy. Their perception of what should happen isn’t realistic. Those people are aligned with – have an ideological rigidity very similar to the Tea Party movement.”

I wonder if at some point he'll get around to telling this to us directly.

Wait... did you say capital gains taxes went up?

kenlac

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday January 01, 2013 · 6:40 AM PST

2013/01/01 · 06:40

[blink]

This ain't gonna be much of a diary, but...

[blink]

Did you just say some people are gonna see a rise in capital gains taxes?

kenlac

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday September 02, 2011 · 2:31 PM PDT

2011/09/02 · 14:31

* cooties

* telemarketing calls

* drinks that involve pre-made commercial cocktail syrups, such as sour apple.

* exaggeration, hyperbole and spin designed to push my hot buttons

* leaks in my roof

* parking tickets

* to hear about your grandchildren

* spam texts

* the fastest wireless network available so I can download trivial crap in public while ignoring the world around me.

* a slap across the back of the head

* the black plague

* another God-fearing president from Texas

* to slow down and rubberneck at disabled vehicles in the opposite lane.

* gas powered hedge clippers

* soy latte anything

* to read anything on the rec list anymore, except I just can't seem to help myself

* tomato horn worms

* cable news

* whatever the f*** it is the national chain restaurants have decided to spice with chipotle today as though it would be some magic word that would make me forget about the fact that the thing itself tastes like a packing peanut

* a plague of locust (although I gotta admit that would be really something to witness)

* the lushest, greenest lawn possible

* John Phillips Sousa albums

* to come to your church/prayer meeting/temple/etc. -- I'm sure you're all very nice people but it's just not my scene, k?

* pictures of middle aged congressional torso

* to hit my thumb with a hammer

* to hit someone else's thumb with a hammer

* a whole bunch of other shit I can't think of right this second

If Americans wants any of these things I don't want to hear about it.

Poll

6 votes Show Results

What don't you want?

6 votes Vote Now!

What don't you want?

I don't want your stupid poll

6 votes

I don't intend to apologize for licking the President.

kenlac

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday April 27, 2011 · 5:10 PM PDT

2011/04/27 · 17:10

I licked Barack Obama. I slobered for him. I'll do so again. I also think that primarying the man, or withholding saliva from his campaign, is the most stunningly idiotic idea since Ralph Nader came up with his 2000 campaign. And 2004 campaign. And 2008 campaign. And 1996 campaign. And 1992 campaign. And 1972 campaign. And he's completely unapologetic about any of that.

So what's my deal? After all, it's not my job to lick the president--this one or any other. Of whatever race, creed, color, gender, or sexual orientation. Unless I happen to be in love with him or married to him, in which case, well, I would have a job to do in that respect.

Barack Obama is a politician, first and foremost. He is not my BFF. He was never in the running to be my BFF. He is not my boyfriend. That would be weird, because I'm not gay. And he's married, and I don't date married women. Or men, for that matter.

So why on earth would I lick him? There's no money in that, last I checked. Here's my take on that sentiment. President Obama is "ameliorative" for some values of that word--or any values of that word, for that matter, since I'm not even sure what that word means, but it does sound cool--uh, where was I? Oh, right... he'll all ameliorative, but not enough for my licking.

Well, here's the answer: I'm just batshit crazy and adore the sound of my own typing. And Kos has given me a place where I can type whatever I want, no matter how crazy-ass it is (as long as I don't claim that space aliens conspired over 9/11, and I would never do that because lately I've started to have some really strong doubts about that theory) and everyone will see it and take it as a personal insult and fight over it! And I don't intend to apologize for that, not to you, nor to the secret service agent who tackled me after I gave the POTUS a quick lick on the cheek. I intend to do what I always do at election time: look over the available candidates, learn as much as I can about them and the positions they espouse, consider the options deliberately and prayerfully, and lick the one that I consider to be the most lickable. It may wind up being President Obama--though if it does, I'll be holding my nose when I do it. Because, well... even though he's quite lickable, they don't call him "B.O." for nothin'...

That is both my constitutional right and my duty as a citizen. Anyone who says otherwise is cordially invited to lick my left behind.

Poll

18 votes Show Results

The president is...

18 votes Vote Now!

The president is...

lickable

12 votes

unlickable

6 votes

The immigration dog whistle goes robo-call

kenlac

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday August 07, 2009 · 8:11 PM PDT

2009/08/07 · 20:11

A report from the field.

As I sat doing my Daily Kos'ing this afternoon, reviewing the pageant of hostility, vulgarity, immaturity and outright racism that the tattered remains of the modern right has reduced itself to, the phone rang. The caller ID came up as "SERVICE MESSAGE."

Being the semi-crank that I am, I figured it was either a telemarketer or one of the numerous warranty/credit card scams that have been going around, and whoever was on the other end was going to get the standard piece of my mind reserved for such nuisances.

If only.

kenlac

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday October 22, 2008 · 11:12 PM PDT

2008/10/22 · 23:12

Polls -- they look so nice, the trendlines all going blue, the spread too decent to close in so little time, no game changers on the horizon, there's a huge money advantage, the opposition acting demoralized -- for once there is joy in Mudville!

We feel good about our chances, and we should. We feel GREAT that the nightmare of the last 8 years has a chance to be partially wiped away at long last.

But the polls are absolutely MEANINGLESS unless the Obama vote turns out.

kenlac

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday October 24, 2006 · 4:20 PM PDT

2006/10/24 · 16:20

It's looking very much like the 16 year run of GOP Governors in True Blue Massachuetts will be coming to an ugly end.

Patrick opens a 27-point lead, poll says
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Correspondent
Democrat Deval Patrick has a commanding 27-point lead in the governor's race as independent voters abandon Republican Kerry Healey because of her negative attacks, according to a new poll released today by 7NEWS and Suffolk University.
http://www.boston.com/...

kenlac

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday September 14, 2005 · 7:14 AM PDT

2005/09/14 · 07:14

(First diary!)

The perfect counter to the spam arrives

Josh Marshall hilights a Knight-Ridder report. It seems that not only did Blanco declare a state of emergency in a timely fashion -- in direct refutation to the winger spam going around -- but Chertoff failed to do the equivalent at the federal level until roughly two days too late.

So, next time your father/aunt/brother-in-law/co-worker sends you that "blame the democrats" spam that's been going around, you can not only refute it with the report that came out yesterday, but you can trump it with Chertoff's incompetence.

Let's make this a point -- every time a winger wants to project incompetence and blame others, hit 'em with this cudgel. Shame them with the facts. Don't be polite about it. Tell them to their face they've got their trust and blame 180 degrees reversed.

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So, about this "rec list" thingy...

A message from our host:

Wait... did you say capital gains taxes went up?

What I don't want:

I don't intend to apologize for licking the President.

The immigration dog whistle goes robo-call

A short but important diary

Negative ads backfire in Mass.

Conservative blame projection -- counter it