One of the elements which makes Dkos so great is that it is, very literally, a voice for the people and of the people. Now, I understand how people with big names tend to get recommended just because of name familiarity. However, if the recommended diaries are always those whom are most influential, it detracts from the idea of having a voice for the people.
Just before the election, this condition could be seen fairly often. This was understandable, because candidates were trying to raise awareness and special interests were trying to jockey for position amongst other special interests. After the election, or maybe because of the election, I see more diaries from the same names then I do from no-names.
The Recommended diaries as of this moment are from the following people:
Politicians(3):
Sen Kennedy
Sen Durbin
Rep Blumenauer
Those with a big mega-phone(2):
Booman - http://www.boomantribune.com/
Cenk Uygur - The Young Turks
Prolific and often recommended writers here at Dkos (2):
Jerome A Paris
clammyc
Other (1):
Melody Townsel - Of John Bolton fame
At the same time, I value the opinion of those in leadership positions (obviously) and I am grateful that I get to read their positions here at Dkos, unfiltered. So, it is a dilemma. I also value that Dkos tends to be a central repository for everything of serious consequence going on in left-blogostan.
For those who have "risen up through the ranks" as it were, here at Dkos and now seemingly have a recommended nearly every day, I think that is great. It is sort of like a more democratic version of a daily op-ed.
Finally, I think it is great that people with unique circumstances have a place to come and share their experiences (Sheehan, Townsel, Schiavo, et al).
In the end, this doesn't leave a whole lot of room for people with new and interesting ideas to break out and get recommended. I don't see this as a problem now, per se, but given the current trend I think it could become a problem soon enough. I'm not sure what the solution here is, because I would like to continue to see both. Perhaps a "featured" section where we, as a community, can vote on whom we would like to see featured in the coming days that would work similarly to the diary bar.