Hi. I'm Church of Bruce, and I'm a narcissist. I post on blogs for many reasons, but the first one is that I enjoy the sound of my own voice. However, that goes for you, too. And that's the problem in a nutshell.
The problem is not "short" diaries, or crappy diaries. (I'm leaving trolls out of this, because that is a legit beef). The problem is short crappy diaries written by the wrong people. Who are the wrong people? First, anyone that isn't me. Second, anyone that isn't a "name". Community moderation only works if the community hasn't completely gone off the rails...and this one has.
First of all, let's address the Kos Kewl Kids. You know who you are. You can post a one paragraph diary and it makes the rec list. You can post a diary that's been diaried three times and it makes the rec list. Heck, if you're a front pager, you can write a front page post on something that's been diaried four times and that's "executive privilege". Community moderation? Yeah, riiiiggghhhhttt.
You can also post a shopping list and it'll get rec'd. I don't mean to pick on nyceve, because her health care diaries are fantastic. However, it's a wee bit ironic to be posting about narcissism when you know that your every utterance will shoot right to the top of the rec list. If user 160000 had written the exact same diary, it'd drop like a rock.
I'm not in the dark about this sort of thing. Over in my usual world of internet erotica, I am nyceve. Every story I write gets vaulted right to the top of Stories Online's rec list...often before I even finish posting the thing. Just on my name I get rec'd. I'm the Erotica Writing Kewl Kid. And you know what?
It's just as ridiculous there as it is here.
As for the Diary Police; yep, that's what I call you. Because you're just as bad. One "this is not a diary, delete" comment might be called for. But when you're person number ten making the exact same comment, guess what? You're doing it to hear the sound of your own voice. Don't pretend you're not. The self righteousness is a wonder to behold.
The solution? There's only one. A dedicated group of "editors" tasked solely with deleting, on sight, every single diary that violates the terms of the FAQ. Deleted, not warned or Diary Policed. And every single one; including those written by Front Pagers, or Kewl Kids, or even Kos.
I'm not holding my breath.