After 5 years of lurking here, I actually registered so I could write a diary imploring Kos et al not to screw up this website. But just as I was gearing up for it, a couple of other people addressed a lot of the problems I had.
One was "How I'd design the new DailyKos (and why DK4 doesn't work), by cartwrightdale and the other was "Let Me Show You What Bothers Me About DKos 4.0" by Geenius at Wrok.
Both of these diaries addressed fundamental design flaws and both were incredibly popular. The latter even included a poll and received a whopping 81% support.
Great, I thought. This will send them back to the drawing board and I won't have to worry about it for a while. Then I just found out that, after only slight modifications, DK4 is going ahead and will be forced on us in the near future.
Both those diaries essentially addressed the incredible waste of space with one adding an extra consideration of modern users on various, though not just phone, devices.
And of course many have an issue with the old fashioned graphic theme. I don't mind it so much but it adds to the wasted space. I knew I had seen that whole schtick before and suddenly realized a few nights ago where: the movie The Sting with Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Weird, but whatever.
The issue I've yet to see addressed however is one that goes to the core of Daily Kos' purpose and function.
One of my favorite things about DK all along has been how it's software functions like a big town hall meeting. There are rooms you can go in that we call stories or diaries. But entrance to those rooms originate from one common location (at least for any period of time).
What this does is essentially throws everyone in a big room together. It allows everyone to get a decent chance to be heard. And, when combined with the Recommended Diary list, it allows stars to rise and important voices to elevated above the noise. But most important, it creates a strong sense of a movement.
None of the other major community sites really have this. Firedoglake's website is horribly compartmentalized into all these sections. Josh Marshall's various efforts at TPM Cafe have all suffered this flaw. Too much compartmentalization. No big room. No stars rise. No sense of community.
Daily Kos is unique in this feature, at least among the big sites that already have momentum. And I believe in the day, this greatly contributed to the site's success.
Another way to get an idea of how important this aspect of Daily Kos is, imagine this:
Think of all those millions of people in Tahrir Square:

Now imagine if someone got them to separate out into various sub-groups; herded them off into nearby buildings, divided them up by various sub-characteristics like by religious affiliation or people named Fred or whatever. How powerful would they be then?
And that's what I mean by the purpose of Daily Kos. I remember when people here felt powerful. It was back during the Dean campaign and there were a lot of us from all over the internet who came to check out the latest buzz on Daily Kos.
We had a movement back then. And Daily Kos, with all the diaries posted, was a big part of it.
The groups feature on Daily Kos has some cool aspects to it. But I suspect that it will end up balkanizing the Daily Kos community even more than it has already become. I mean you see that don't you? We already have groups, pro-Obama groups and not-so-pro-Obama groups. After a while, and to a some degree, these groups have stopped bothering to even engage each other. I fear that with the implementation of Groups in DK4, this trend will grow and the site will be nothing more than a meaningless container for various and disparate clicks of people who rarely go outside their own sphere.
Mark my words: You will see division and conflict here grow. And any sense of common purpose, what little is left of it, will die.
So what is the purpose of Daily Kos? (Don't tell me it's "to elect Democrats". That is merely a means to an end). During the Dean campaign, it was to elect certain Democrats to fulfill a larger objective: "Take our fucking country back". Remember that? That was ours once.
I like to think that we are just recharging right now. That people power will rise again, and we will once again unite in common purpose. And maybe Daily Kos will be our Liberation Square of sorts. At least the online part of it.
But DK4 is like a treadmill. It's very conception is a metaphor for resignation. Resigned to go on forever, off on our own with our little pet issues, failing to change the fundamental flaws in our system.
Your pet issue is really important you say? Sorry. There will be no solution to any problem without systemic change.
Our government is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wall Street and Company. There will be no solution to health care, climate change, poverty and unemployment, trade or monetary policy or anything you care about that involves money until we eliminate money from the electoral process.
Any attempt to "solve" these problems will be fruit from the poison tree.
So have we become the permanent activist class, treading away on our pet issues, going through the motions like, as Chris Hedges says, "Liberals—frightened back into submission by the lunatic fringe of the Republican Party or the call to be practical."
Or are we a movement to be reckoned with?
LASTLY READ THIS IMPORTANT:
I agree with many of the issues Markos was trying to address with DK4. Diaries do scroll off the list too fast. And yes, sometimes "lame BREAKING" diaries bump "Masterpiece" diaries. At least it may seem that way if it's your "masterpiece".
And he's right, there's not a good way to archive passed over diaries. Although that didn't require a complete redesign. He could have just used this and expounded on it.
And I also agree the one diary per day limit sucks. But again, this too is solvable without completely abandoning the formula that been so successful here.
I also think there's some features that would be cool. A little Facebook type popup thing that tells you when someone has responded to one of your comments. That was the first thing I missed when I started posting here. If DK4 has it, I haven't found it.
So I AM NOT SAYING that this site didn't need improvment. I'm just real afraid that a lot of the baby got thrown out with the bath water.
No offense. I humbly apologize if I said anything offensive.