I apologize for taking up front-page space with this kind of meta, but I was the subject of a call-out diary earlier today, so I figured it was incumbent upon me to respond.
The diary ( http://www.dailykos.com/... ), which cryptically refers to my user name in its last sentence (confirmation of this can be found in the comments), accuses me, among other things, of abusing Daily Kos's community moderation system, of being a troll, and even of being a Republican plant.
I think anyone who reads my comment history can see that I am neither a Republican nor a troll. As far as I can tell, I have never even had a single hidden comment. I post mostly, though far from exclusively, in the Israeli-Palestinian discussions...
...where--while I'm not immune to the rhetorical point-scoring that goes on those threads--I try to present a balanced point of view and to bring the two sides together. While I'm generally on the P side of the I/P discussions here, I have Israeli in-laws and friends, and I want to see a genuine peace solution--something along the lines of what was discussed at Taba. Anyone who wonders if I'm a troll, can review my comment history here: http://www.dailykos.com/...
So what's this all about? Why did someone feel it necessary to post a call-out diary about little old me on Daily Kos, when he could have posted a diary about, say, ending the Iraq war, the best strategy for increasing the Democratic majority in the Senate, or whatever? Here's my side of the story:
As many of you know, there's a user on Daily Kos who constantly posts diaries about the evils of male circumcision. I think he has his priorities somewhat skewed, and wish that he would post about something more important. But I am not convinced that he is a troll, and think that he has a right to post here--provided, of course, that Kos and the admins continue to see fit to grant him that right. His diaries apparently offend a number of trusted users, who have taken it upon themselves to follow him around Daily Kos and troll-rate his comments, so that autoban kicks in. Because I do not believe he is a troll, when I see a comment of his that I think has been unfairly troll-rated, I uprate it. My uprating of his comments has caused me to fall afoul of the people who are trying to get him autobanned--to the extent that they are following me into other diaries on unrelated topics (e.g.: http://www.dailykos.com/... and http://www.dailykos.com/... ) and disrupting discussion there, and now of course, wasting space with call-out diaries.
My understanding is that the Daily Kos front page has been asked whether the circumcision diarist is a troll, and that Hunter has stated that he is not. Despite what the call-out diary claims, I have great respect for Daily Kos and its admins. So, if the front page has changed its mind, and now feels that the circumcision diarist is indeed a troll, and that therefore all his comments, even if they're not trollish per se, should be troll-rated and not recommended, then I am happy to abide by that. If, however, the front page still believes that the circumcision diarist is not a troll, then I would like to ask those TU's who are upset at my uprating of his comments to please understand that I am simply doing what I feel to be fair and right, just as they presumably feel that what they are doing is fair and right.
Again, I apologize for taking up front page space with this, but I figure it's now late enough at night that this diary will drop off the front page before tomorrow's news cycle.