This diary originated with a comment I made on Angela Marx’s excellent diary on the new format. I suggest you all read her post.
www.dailykos.com/...
But what I want to say is I think a different layer of this than what she had to say, and I ended up commenting very late on Angela’s thread and decided what I have to say is worth a shot at its own story.
I was switched over to the new format a couple of weeks ago, I suspect on some sort of random basis. I wondered where the hue and cry was, as has been true as Angela pointed out, in every single format change I’ve been through in over 10 years of being here. Every single time it has involved all kinds of people saying they’re going to take their toys and go home. And every single time, most of the community has adapted and stayed.
I did not realize that this roll out has been strategically staggered, hence the hue and cry is just starting to happen.
Admit, this is possibly the biggest change yet in look, and there was plenty of warning it was coming. And imo, it is a change that needed to happen. Here’s why.
To the point of my headline, there IS a difference between a community and a club. Communities need to constantly welcome newcomers and let the community grow and bloom and change as it will.
Sometimes, imo, our strong community here can lead to our stepping on our own toes as progressives. Let’s face it, we here are on the older and whiter side, obviously not without exceptions. Many of us have been here for a long time, and we may feel a sense of propriety over this site and that can edge closer to a club than a community-—we are outraged when the “club” changes the rules and asks us to change along with it.
IMO, The DK needs to not only keep up with its current community/”club membership,” but also it needs to grow that, particularly when it comes to people of color AND to younger folks.
Younger people are all over the internet of course, and they’re used to lots of choices, lots of graphics on the front page. Hello Instagram. They are a visual bunch. But whatever, we need them here.
So, say you are in your late twenties or early thirties and you come to the DK as it has looked. You see tons of type and occasional pictures on the left. It just looks old. You have to scroll more to see what’s being offered. Far less visible choices are immediately apparent. So you move on to another site that looks like it was designed at least after 2015.
About a year ago or so, I directed my becoming very politically active nephew to this site. (He’s 28) His feedback was, and I quote “It looks like a dictionary with a few pictures in it.” LOL, anecdotal I know, but still. He’s a very smart and progressive kid, but no way was he going to find a home here.
And maybe that’s OK. Not every site can appeal to every demographic, and we older ones have every right to a place and voice too. It’s just that, imo, if we want that right of place, we have to do our part and keep up with changes that are inevitable, and not make ourselves irrelevant---again, more of a club than a community. Good communities comprise many slices of the pie and move over for new members.
I’ve been using the new format for awhile now and getting used to it as I find my way around. My biggest concern is that the DK IT team make it more clear how community stories work here---which actually, would have helped with the old format too.
With the new horizontal format I think it loses a bit of the energy of rising community stories, but I think I can totally get used to that. Mostly I would like to see a box over community stories, the way there is a box over the new “prism” section. One that explains the importance of community writers to this site, and perhaps links to a faqs page for community writers.
The other problem I see is the now much more invisible list of “recents” from which what we used to call the rec list derives.
I do think this site thrives on its community writers, but I would like to add that I don’t agree with others here who say the front pagers here are just “aggregate writers with a progressive spin.” (As if many community writers don’t do the same thing.)
I could name my fave front pagers here, you could name yours. But what I think our choices would share in common for the better part, is that they are excellent writers, and very adept at taking the profusion of information out there and corralling it into something you can focus on and sink your teeth into, agree or not. I really appreciate that from Mark, Kerry, Greg, Laura, Marissa, Joan and several others, including Kos.
However, imo, it is absolutely true that the Daily Kos provides a unique opportunity for community voice, and I think that must remain a significant priority. It is the ONE thing that really differs from any other progressive site I’ve been on. So that’s a bug that definitely needs to be figured out for the better.
Still, all my Kossack friends, the world keeps turning and changing, and just about the LAST PLACE you should be surprised or outraged about changing is the social media. I mean, really? Right?
And if we’re all really interested in spreading the progressive word, then meh, we’ll make the changes we must to give voice. Isn’t that the ultimate thing? Sure, there’s other sites out there, and if any of you think there’s one that’s allover better than this one, please share.
So, I’ve decided not to hide behind Old Mother Kos’s skirts---w/all sorts of work arounds I’ve read here today that are all about postponing the inevitable--- and just dive in and adapt.
Let’s give it a chance, with the proviso that we are ALL FREE to give feedback once and over and over again. The little I’ve offered has been answered to by recs from elfling. They ARE LISTENING. So, I’m going to do that right now as I post this diary without a picture. Heh. We’ll see. Perhaps I’ll have to learn to do that too, and I’m Ok with that.
But no, If you’re thinking all the belly aching in the world is going to stop change on this site, or turn it back to what it once was, then you’re going to be mighty disappointed. Wherever you stand on Kos, he does not go backwards.
UPDATE:
So I just wrote my first community story on the new format. It was very educational. I saw how fast one’s efforts disappear, with only a tiny “all community stories” arrow to lead you to what once would have been the “recents.” Which was a fair sized list you could pick and choose from in terms of which subject interested you. On the front page.
Tonight, I was a motivated user, so I followed the arrow. But what will happen with the new users I was hoping a more contemporary look might attract? I suspected this was a problem, as I stated in my diary, and now I’ve experienced it. Which is not to say it’s about this particular diary of mine---I’ve written my share of them, some with almost no response, some with big response. It’s not personal for me nor is it an ego thing about this particular diary.
But this is different in a way that I wonder how the DK intends to fuel its “trending community list” without us oldies to care enough to hunt down the source of that list?