It all started with pie, but I'm getting ahead of myself. This little series started with the original "This Is A Troll Diary" diary, and was followed recently by This Is A Troll Diary Number 2. I got the idea to write the original because I thought it was a nice idea to talk about the culture of Daily Kos and its practices--past and present--like posting recipes and pictures of cats in "trollish" diaries. Now that I am a confirmed concern troll that belongs on RedState* I feel especially moved to present "This Is A Troll Diary No. 3". Today's topic: "Why Pie?".
More over the great orange kerfluffle...
*Come to your own conclusions. It's all in fun.
"This Is A Troll Diary" is not a troll diary. It is, however, an opportunity to discuss the culture of Daily Kos and all of its quirks. From recipes to cats to Ginger and Mary Ann, let's talk meta's meta: the culture of Daily Kos.
Why Pie? The Original Pie Fight
First of all, if you want the whole story you're going to have to search the comment archives the entire dKospedia article on the pie fights used to be available, but lately the page is down. Kossack dkmich has a diary from 2006 mentioning the fights here. Here's the summary from dkmich's diary:
The term "pie fight" is derived from a June, 2005 event on Daily Kos, a liberal and progressive issues web site, in which site administrators accepted an advertisement that showed two scantily-clad women throwing pies and smearing each other with whipped cream and pie filling. This advertisement was for the TBS reality series The Real Gilligan's Island.
Despite the fact that the advertisement was only marginally related to the regular subject matter discussed on Daily Kos, it dominated the user diary entries and blog comments for several days. The animosity generated by the acceptance of this advertisement caused some established members of the Daily Kos community to cease participation in the forum that it provides.
Well, if it were just that...but it wasn't. Frankly, I think we should look at one of those ads. Warning:
the sanctimonious womens studies set* might find this offensive:
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*click on link above for Markos' diary on the pie ads, the pie fight, and his use of "sanctimonious womens studies set".
While that wasn't the the first or the last pie fight it seems to me it has stuck with us here at Daily Kos, especially in the practice of including "pie" as a joke option in polls.
I was just a lurker in those days but a couple of years later when I joined, I went back and looked at the "Great Pie Fight" while I was thinking about setting up an account--in the middle of the Clinton-Obama wars (a subject of a coming This Is A Troll Diary diary). I wanted to know what I was getting into. Needless to say, I threw caution to the wind and set up an account anyway.
What--if any--are your recollections of the Great Pie Fight? What's your favorite (or least favorite) aspect of Daily Kos online culture? Let's talk serious meta in the comments. But first, a poll: