(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Really? Twenty years at DailyKos? [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-30 I was stunned recently when I saw that October 30th marks the twentieth anniversary of me joining Daily Kos. The old saying is “Time flies when you’re having fun.” Well, it also flies when you’re immersing yourself in a community of proud and intelligent progressives who, on a daily basis, inform you, amuse you, anger and motivate you, and console you. It seems like it was only yesterday... I had just purchased my first computer. A beautiful G4 “Sunflower” iMac. One of Jony Ives’ best works. It came with a free 30 day trial of an ISP. I had to choose an e-mail address. Everything I tried typing in had already been taken. I became increasingly frustrated. Finally I hit upon “jazzmaniac” and lo and behold, nobody had taken it. I wish I could remember exactly how a few days later I stumbled upon DailyKos. I know that I was looking at a liberal political site when I read my first essay by Steve Gilliard. It was a reblog from a website with the unusual name of DailyKos, where I learned that this guy named Marcos Moulitsas was taking some time away from posting on the front page and Gilliard had stepped into the role. In all my life I’d never read anyone who so effectively and completely vented the rage that I was feeling at George W. Bush, his cabinet full of war criminals, and our compliant media. I read everything I could find by Gilliard, with the ardor that a starving man might bring to a buffet. To read a post by him was to experience a catharsis. And of course there was so much more to discover about the site. There were these things called “Diaries” posted along the side. It must have been a week or two before I even clicked on one. Diaries? WTF were they? “Dear Diary, I think that Howard Dean boy is so cute. I wonder if he ever notices me”? To this day I think it’s a poor name, although I struggle to come up with anything better. Essays, perhaps? I spent at least a couple of weeks checking out the site on a daily basis, with no realization that I could register and then be able to rate diaries and comments (1 through 4, IIRC,) and post my own. I occasionally wonder how much lower my UID, 2757, would be if I’d realized this sooner. I also wonder how long before some confused “pro-life” Republican tries to outlaw UIDs. I was here for the pie fight. I was here when the site’s technical staff rolled out an update that I think was called AJAX, that allowed users to rate a comment and see it update before their eyes without having to refresh the site. You kids today have no idea what a big deal that was! I was here when Marcos sold lifetime ad-free memberships and I didn't have the money for one, but somehow some good samaritan gifted me one. I’ve never known who it was, but if you’re reading this, thank-you! So…..what has this place meant to me these past two decades (I’M not getting older, YOU’RE getting older) ? It has meant so much. It is my start page. My go-to clearinghouse for news and information. It is my community. The place I have come to when my mother, and then my sister, passed. The place that I came to when COVID rendered me (temporarily, thank the FSM,) legally deaf. It is the place that took my fortunate background...a child of liberal parents who were early settlers in an interracial cooperative community in a sea of troglodyte Republicans… and expanded it, growing my mind, and my heart. It is the place that I come to when I have an idea for an essay that might move people in some way...that way being, more often than not...trying to make them laugh. It is a place that I share with my friends, e-mailing or texting them links to stories. Thus, my offline friendships are strengthened as well. So Marcos, thank-you for founding DailyKos. Thank-you for your constant efforts to improve it and to make it an even greater force in the effort to elect “more and better Democrats.” Thank-you for compiling a roster of “Front Pagers” who keep me informed, tuned in, amused, and awake to what is happening in the world. And thank-you to all of you reading this, and to those of you scrolling past it. You all make my life so much better than it would be without you. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/30/2200449/-Really-Twenty-years-at-DailyKos?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/