A Newbies Perspective of Daily Kos

I really love coming here and reading the wide range of diaries and seeing how people interact online.  It's rather interesting to see some of the wide range of opinions, how comfortable people feel sharing more personal stories and even some who just create a diary to whine about the days pet peeves.  But, I digress. This diary is in fact a peeve, but it's not probably going to be what you think! More below the fold:

When I first found this site, I spent about a month just reading in fascination some of the posts here. I was an 'on the fence' person and the primaries were a long way from happening in MA at the time, but I wanted to see what the 'buzz' was on the candidates. As an Independent Voter I've voted both Democratic and Republican and I always thoroughly research candidates before I vote.

I admit to being a little partial to Senator Obama from the outset as I was intrigued with him from the time he spoke at the DNC and felt at that time that he'd go far in his career. Admittedly I didn't think he'd go this far this quickly.

At any rate, I digress again.  When I finally decided to sign up for Daily Kos I really lurked around, not even posting comments but instead only rating others comments just so I could try to get a 'feel' for the community. It's been years since I was part of an online community - some of you may remember the old 'message' boards those were where I 'cut my teeth' online.

So finally I felt strongly enough about something to post my very first diary on April 29.  It got a total of 11 comments (4 of them being mine).  I spent a long time to make sure that I made my point, that I stayed in the rules and that I was respectful of both Senator Clinton and Senator Obama.  I was disappointed to find out that the diary had 7 recommendations but thought OK this is a good start.

So I tried another one the next day - this one about Free Trade which as many of you recall was a hot topic during that period of time in the Primary (April) .. this time 8 comments - 8 recommendations - ok I'm not discouraged YET.

A few days later I tried yet again.  7 unique comments (one being critical of me stating that I was trying to force Senator Clinton from the race which had NOTHING to do with the diary at all) with 4 recommendations <sigh>.  Ok bad topic perhaps (Guilt by Association - done during the Reverend Wright dustup).

So one more time it's back to the drawing board - a couple of days later my next diary - carefully written due to a number of 'defeat' diaries (and comments) I'd seen posted here .... so I now have 33 comments (less than 1/2 mine) YES! I've finally found something that generated some commentary thank goodness. But that was it...nothing more....

So let's play economics - another diary, another day - pushed out by rants, by unusual diaries that had all sorts of opinions (good ones) in them and again I managed to get up to 36 comments - celebration time...I'll get this yet....

Then came West Virginia...and my first poll....62 votes in the poll, 18 comments (7 of them mine)...<sigh> too many diaries so little time <chuckle>

May 13 - I'm frustrated...very frustrated.....and my diary shows that frustration....(with the primary not with Kos)....another poll - 169 votes, 42 comments...yes! I'm going to get more than a passing interest in this one...go for it...

May 15 - changing the goalposts - so I tried this - there had been much talk about all the changing 'stats' for how the nomination would be secured, so I decided to diary about all the reasons why no matter how much you changed the goalposts the end result would be the same....31 comments...back to the drawing board

On May 19th I decided to start a diary that I had no intention of posting until the day that the FINAL primary was held. I worked very hard on this one, included some personal experiences and talked about the historic nature of the primary and was very respectful of Senator Clinton. While I didn't support her there was still much she added to the entire process and the historic nature of that process.  I published this diary on the final night of the primary but quickly lost heart...no recommendations, 3 comments....I deleted the diary and reposted the exact same diary on

June 3rd....Realization of Dreams - how interesting that this one got blotted out by yellow Senator John McCain teeth diaries....sad...so another diary falls out of favor and gets 17 comments (6 of them mine) and only one recommendation...I was so proud of this diary I actually sat here yelling at my computer ...what have I done wrong????

I didn't post another diary until July 1.  This was more about why I wasn't as upset as some other diarists that I saw here over FISA, Faith Based Charities and more....I was very proud of this diary...(again). 26 Recommendations - a record for me I was thrilled to death - and 44 comments and less than 1/2 were mine this time....OK I might be onto something here.....

next day I post anther diary about volunteering.  My diary was rescued!! OK someone else thinks it's good too.  Thank goodness.   Alas:  14 comments, 9 recommendations....not much action...<sigh> ok well another one bites the dust..

5 days later - yet another volunteering post - asking people how they volunteer in their own communities - I was hoping to really trigger some discussion here - included a poll and everything:  16 comments 7 of them mine....I even included links to service organizations for people to look into....3 recommendations...<sigh>

July 8 - I posted a diary talking about how and why I support Senator Obama.  My diary quickly fell to the bottom of the list to diaries that talked about AP saying that Pet Owners support McCain, how we're dealing with Republicans, Kossaks eat their Young, and I'm leaving and it's your fault diaries.  10 comments, 7 recommendations...

OK I give up ... what am I missing???? Any recommendations/suggestions about what I'm doing wrong would be very helpful <grin>

Cheers and thanks for humoring me :)