“A Statement of Trepidation of Messing with the Brand” with kestrel9000

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(While this terrific interview by Mike Abadi doesn’t pay more than passing attention to GMD, it does feature our own kestrel9000 in one of his rare sightings! 😉  (Now I know what face to look for!)  It also provides a handy primer to those of us who are uninitiated, on the comings and goings on Daily Kos. – promoted by Sue Prent)

DK4. DK4? What is this DK4 of which you speak? DK4 is the latest incarnation of Dailykos, the country’s premiere Democratic blog. To explain the changes, I could think of no one better to turn to than kestrel9000, Eddie Garcia, GMD front pager and frequently recommended diarist on Dailykos.  

Eddie gives a very comprehensive recap of the features and challenges of the New Kos flavor.  Since this interview, New Kos has not settled down. Long standing heart and soul community moderator Meteor Blades has bid the site farewell.

This resulted in a season of acrimony, followed by Markos himself emerging to institute The Great Purge of 2011. Kos stepped in to admittedly arbitrarily remove ratings abilities and even outright ban registered users. Kos also continues to tweak features on DK4, such as moving the “Community Spotlight” (a kind of preemptive diary rescue that often influences the recommended diary list) from just below the banner to the sidebar. So with all the changes and bumps since the DK4 rollout, I’m guessing we may be up to DK4.7 or so.

The Great Purge of recent times caused a week long boycott in September, led by Robinswing. It appears that kos’ purge disproportionately affected already poorly represented black bloggers and created a bit of a divisive firestorm.

Kestrel9000 reflected on the matter and issued a statement.

DK4 has apparently settled down in the past couple weeks, with the recommended list dominated by OccupyWallStreet. Personally, I haven’t really availed myself of the new social networking features of the New Kos, and thankfully, one can still use the site in the same manner as before. I truly miss only one feature of the old kos: in DK3, if you had started a diary and saved it as a draft, its title would stare at you on the front page, reminding you to finish the damn thing. Now, drafts go into a “Drafts” folder, which for me has become the place where diary ideas go to die.

Incidentally, the beginning of 2011 also heralded another product improvement rollout: GMD 2.0

plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

3 thoughts on ““A Statement of Trepidation of Messing with the Brand” with kestrel9000”

  1. Every time I’m in St. J, I wonder which passerby might be His Nibs.  Now I’ll be able to spot him in a minute.

    If a strange little gray-haired lady, carrying a big purse and grinning wildly, comes up to you on the street, don’t duck for cover…it could be me!

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