UPDATE: Shoo. Everybody Go Away. This Diary Is Done. :)
This is my (attempt at a) short diary (heh heh) on the topic of troll rating as a right of participants in the Kossack community, how that right can and has been abused, and how recent reinterpretations by our version of the Supreme Court has generated concern and consternation amongst the DKOS community.
At the heart of the matter is a question of how much autonomy participants in this community have to use the rights provided them by
1. the very structure of the website (the 'Constitution"), as it were, and
2. existing statute (the 'rules')
3. enforcement by moderators, FPers, The One True Kos (executive authority)
4. which is moderated in part by #1, #2, and existing precedent and the occasional re-interpretation (our version of SCOTUS).
The Issue At hand: Vigilantism
There is a subculture of (well-meaning, mostly) vigilantism that has been abetted by the very structure of DailyKOs: our version of the right to bear arms. In other words, the troll-rating option.
And as in the real world, there are people for whom just having the option just isn't enough. They are going to use it as seems good to them to use it. And they are going to point to items #1 through #4 above and argue, more or less eloquently "Why's it wrong now?"
Why It's Wrong NOW"
And it's a valid question.
What's suddenly different? Why the big push now.
Let's see...oh. I know. We're on the verge of going big time. The business needs of the site have changed, are changing, are expecting to change much more.
Why the Solution Is Even Worse
We, collectively, are being told to grow up, without being asked as a community to develop a consensus on there being a need to grow up.
We are told: Hey, foks. The rules have always been there. True, that. Those rules just haven't been asserted and enforced and emphasized in quite this way before.
And that is what is bugging a larger subset of the DKOS community than the ratings vigilantes: Without a suit for redress of grievances from the community, our version of SCOTUS is granting certiorari to a case in order to revise the site culture. And issuing a verdict.
And telling us simultaneously that, sorry, the rules have always been clear on this matter.
One of my favorite posters, Arken, mostly on account he (presumed) likes my jokes and I like his sharp intellect (and jokes), just GBCK'd last night. Another, with impeccable taste, was Buhdydharma. And when a good-humored, easygoing Schmoe like Buhdy is walking out the door in a huff, you KNOW you got problems.
So, what's their beef with the rules?
That's just bad framing. The Rules, as written, are fine. Rules are cool.
A sea change in their interpretation and enforcement, with a 'take it or leave it' sticker attached, destroys the heart of what makes this community work: trust.
And that's not cool at all.
The DKOS community, diverse and contentious and cachophonous, thrives and grows on the trust that the basic rules (and flaws of same) are not going to be changed being closed doors, and then forced on the DKOS community at large.
We're here to fight that sort of thing.
So when it happens to us from within, people have been slow to recognize what it happening, but they have known immediately that they really do not like it.
My Verdict
This move really should have polled ahead of time. In other words: The community should have been asked if it was in a mood for a change of policy.
And speaking of timing, wow. What a bad time to roll out a major change of this sort. It would be nice to declare it noncontroversial by fiat...and this has been done. After all, by fiat, only 1% of the DKOS community is impaired by this action...and that by-fiat alienated 'they' are the problem.
And yet...a somewhat wider range of Kossacks are troubled, even to the point of leaving DKOS, over this.
Folks: We're in the media bulls-eye, on the eve of a convention, and this rolls out now? I don't know who the advisor on this move was, but perhaps he or she was too busy doing something else (or sleep deprived) to think this move through with full effectiveness.
Now, the rules are the same. Don't let anyone tell you differently. However, interpretation and enforcement of those rules is definitely in another place now.
And as I said before: We are told that 99% of us are decent, law-abiding Kossacks. This is intended to both marginalize and demonize dissent to this move. 'Good' Kossacks don't have a problem with this top-down change of pace.
If so, why on Earth is Buhdydharma, of all people, GBCK'ing? And Arken?
I gotta call it like I see it: When you've got easygoing and productive folks like these two walking out the door, then you are definitely tossing out the Buhdies with the bathwater.
And that's not cool at all.