Kos provides the answers we have all wanted to know for ages:
I decided to start up my own election-themed site, Daily Kos. The site actually lived on fishyshark.com for a month as I tried to come up with a “serious” name for my new endeavour. Even though I eventually settled on “Daily Kos”, I considered it a failure at the time — I thought I should’ve come up with a more creative name. I selected orange as the site color so that it would stand out from the bloggy masses (branding 101).
In short time I caught Jerome’s attention, and we made a habit of linking back to each other on a constant basis. A few months later, Jerome (who invented the “open thread”) got sick of the flame wars on his message boards and followed Taegan’s lead by shutting his comments down. So everyone headed on over to Daily Kos.
And I was ready. I had learned my lessons from Political Wire and MyDD’s community failures, and immediately shut the door on the Republican commentors who had destroyed the previous sites’ communities. I zealously worked to create a “safe zone” for liberal political junkies, despite howls of “censorship” from both liberals and conservataives, and the community grew. October 2002, MyDD was the highest-trafficked liberal blog, but Jerome shut down soon thereafter as he focused his attentions on Howard Dean. So Daily Kos became the only liberal election analysis game in town.
That is the answer, if, of course, the question is “How do you shamelessly self-promote while creating a tin-foil hat groupthink cesspool for bitter and deluded fringe lefties?”
I shouldn’t be mocking them- I am perfectly content to let the Daily Kos serve as the standard bearer and public face for modern liberalism.
Dean
A “safe zone”? Is that to shield them from the jack-booted thugs of Ashcroft’s Justice Department and Concentration Camp Administrators?
Because dissent is being so stifled that F-9-11 is one of the largest grossing “documentaries” ever made? Because no liberal can safely demonstrate in the nation’s cities?
What in the world?
Carl
Yeah, cuz Free Republic is such a free-speech paradise.
Fact is, trolls can ruin a site of any political persuasion. And have.
The Lonewacko Blog
Well, there’s a bit more diversity of opinion at FR than at DK. Sure, FR is populated by right-wingers and lefty trolls are banned. But, there is some disagreement over there.
If you want to see groupthink – perhaps real people or perhaps just shills – go over to blog.johnkerry.com
And – yes! – I’ve been banned from both DK and JK.
In the first case it was because I dared point out he was reprinting propaganda from aljazeerah.info. He claimed it was “the” al jazeera, which might be true if “the” al jazeera was based in Dalton, Georgia, USA.
In the JK case I posted arguments against the Kerry Amnesty and his support of the DREAM Act. They were deleted and I was banned. Gotta keep that blog safe.
Dean
Carl:
Does the FreeRepublic site call itself a “safe zone” from liberals? If they do, they’re equally stupid. If they don’t, then Kos is pretty unique in both what he thinks of himself, and what he thinks of the nation.
Like I said, when bloggers need a “safe zone” because they’re being hunted down, come and talk to me.