I've been around for a while here and I've written some diaries. I thought I'd pass on some things I've learned about DKOS and blogging here.
1. If you go to other sites, you'll see troll-dominated discussions, but they're not even discussions, just a series of jabs and insults. Some sites, such as YouTube, allow the posting of blatantly racist comments.
2. DKOS is different. You can't last long around here as a troll. There simply isn't freedom of speech. Markos wants it that way and obviously with over 300,000 users, that's been satisfactory to a lot of people.
3. You can't publish your tin foil hat conspiracy theories. This is a fact-based site. But who needs conspiracy theories when the world is full of Comrade Ogilvy stories (Pat Tilman), domestic use of aerial surveillance drones, and spy vans that can see through walls?
4. The site's motto is to elect more and better Democrats. So, if you don't like what the Democratic party or the Obama administration is doing, you can always criticize it on the "better Democrat" theory. But you need a reason, for example, "Drone warfare is bad because of (insert factually supported argument here.)
5. Thus, on "better Democrats" theory, I have published multiple diaries critical of the national security state and its various aspects, yet here I am still blogging away and quite unbanned.
6. It actually would be quite dull to have a bunch of doctrinaire diaries on how wonderful the Democratic party is. Our opponents would love us to be so ignorant.
7. Other things you can do on this site which you can't do on other sites, or at least not without a lot of trouble, is you can post pictures and videos to illustrate your blog. One of the best blog posts I ever read anywhere was Occam's Hatchet's spectacular The New Ozymandias, which could not have been done without images.
8. Remember this is a blog, not the Black Knight at the bridge. It's unnecessary to have the last word on everything.
9. Most important: have fun!