I like the "random page" button in the dKosopedia. It gave me an idea.
I've been noticing that diaries seem to be scrolling away faster and faster, yet, there are real gems among these "lesser" diarists' output. And once a diary scrolls away, it is unlikely that anyone will ever read it again.
Two ways to solve this problem are: have a "random diary" button, or have a "recycled diary" section on the front page that randomly selects diaries and brings them back.
In fact, these two solutions are different enough from each other that it would probably be even better to have them both.
The "random diary" button could actually be a small array of buttons, one for a small set of time periods (last 24 hours, last 7 days, last 30 days, last year, any time). This would be more for individual time-killing, but I for one would find it very useful (or at least enjoyable).
The "recycled diary" section could be really amazing. Diaries placed in that section would scroll in a manner similar to new diaries, but would be replaced by "new" randomly-selected old diaries. People could comment on them, recommend them, and so on, just as for new diaries.
Now, the recycled diaries would also bring along the old comments, and so it would probably be best not to recycle old diaries that received more than, say, 50 comments when they were new. Otherwise, we could end up looking at topics that had already been talked to death. This restriction wouldn't apply to the random diary button, since only one individual would be seeing the old diary, and would be unlikely to add more than one comment.
It might be especially interesting to go back to some of the old polls.
Well, that was my thought for the day.
Greg Shenaut