I automatically read this, because I saw who wrote it.

I too stopped checking the rec list and have wondered the same thing. I assumed it was still the gliches getting worked out.

Though, I’m new enough that I still find it a surprise when my diaries hit the recommended list. But I found it very embarrasing to have a diary about “why McCain will win” on the list at the same time of “What to do now that he lost”. I would like for authors to be able to voluntarily pull things off the list when they become stale or irrelevent. By contrast though, I think the one I have up is important to keep in our thoughts, since it is still generating a lot of good discussion, especially about the role of SoCons and minority candidates.

I never wrote a lot of diaries on 2.0 but they were always 6-8 hours in the composition (I’m a bit slow; it’s that Texan thing)

There’ve been numerous reasons I stopped – the interminable 3.0 glitches, being wholly uninspired by McCain (before Palin motivated me to work my arse off for him; sorry ’bout that George, Kathleen, and Peggy), life has been a zoo, not understanding all the ‘close tags’, labels, etc (amongst many other things, I am also technologically challenged).

But one of the major reasons was what you just cited. Too much work for something that’s not going to have a very long shelf life.

And if I may add one more ‘gripe’, there needs to be some criteria as to what makes a post. If you don’t spend every waking hour on here, you don’t even get a chance to read half of the diaries to reco them or even comment on them because they’re rotated off by people posting 10 word diaries that don’t even rise to the level of comments much less diaries. In the ‘old days’, such poorly written fluff diaries were routinely disparaged by the powers that be because of that very reason…they knocked thoughtful diaries off the list and therefore also prevented the ability to engage in discourse.

Ok, rant is now off. Thanks, as always, for your thoughts. You are in that list of folks whose diaries I always read (if I can get to them before…well, all the above happens)

I think the first thing to do is to exempt DeVine from being on the list.

No…but seriously…

I think the list refreshes a lot slower than it used to. Not sure why. I thought Neil copied the algorithm from RS 2, so it ought to be working about the same.

I think the REAL problem is that there are a lot fewer rec’s being handed out these days. Some of that may come from the two-step reco process that is a by-product of the caching that’s in place. Some of it also comes from new folks who aren’t familiar with the protocol of rec’ing diaries that they like.

For me, another substantial problem is the sheer volume of diaries that are being posted. Heck, they scroll off that right-hand list in quite a bit less than 24 hours now, which I don’t remember happening in 2.0 – but I think that’s a statement on the number of folk writing diaries. Now we could have the argument about how many of those should actually BE diaries (which is why I wrote the one that is currently on the hit parade)…but it might be wise to look at how we list diaries and give folks a chance to read and (potentially) rec them. I wrote one last night that was gone off the list in about 12 hours, including the overnight. I suppose I could have pulled my newly-obtained rank and front-paged it, but I am still a newbie and am shy about pimping my own stuff.

Net: Yeah, there’s an issue, but I’m not convinced the “root cause” is the algorithm.

I couldn’t agree more, as to whether anything will happen right now it is improbable as the people in charge are still being driven crazy by the myriad problems and glitches on RS3

now in real life that would be GREAT but here I have been 1 yr 5 months for way longer than a month!

My method of browsing Redstate is so similar to yours it just makes sense to do it your way. I’m always drawn first to entries from people I have read before and respect their writing, even among those that get FrontPage status.

and I’ve gotten burned on one or two because I didn’t bother to research
my points before posting them because I figured it wouldn’t matter cause no one would read it anyway…

One other thing would be the inability to track diaries you posted comments to…As with the member diaries list…if you make 25 comments in one Diary you will bump off any comments you have made to other diaries…I’m one of those that tended to kept conversations and debates going in 5 or 6 threads at a time on Red State 2.0…I can’t track 2 now…This sucks because debates end mid stream when I lose track of a thread I was posting to no doubt leaving the other poster thinking I’m ignoring him/her

The “Big Tent” analogy isn’t the correct one…the correct one is a MAGNET…we need to be a MAGNET that draws these independents in who are sick and tired of what’s going on in Washington—Fred Thompson

We need one that has quick turnover, like the RedState 2 list, since that kind of list is great for keeping up with current news and the like; but, we also need some kind of mechanism to identify diaries that are more of long-term interest. For example, I have an idea of how to reform the Presidential primary system (and since unless Obama really does turn out like Carter, we’re probably going to have 2012 to ourselves, so this is as good a chance as we’ll ever have to fix this), but I have no reason to write it up and post it now, because it’s very unlikely it would make the Recommended List, so it would just disappear very quickly into the vast list of old diaries.

I totally agree with all of your observations and suggestions.

By the way, how are you doing after your accident? Are you healing OK?

So true. I have limited time and have put a lot of effort into a diary writing in the past but knowing the limited ability to be seen, why spend the effort to make it great.

What’s changed are user recommendation patterns.

I have yet to post a diary after being a member for more than 2 years- there is plenty of good reading material here that my 2 cents won’t add much.

But-
I also get annoyed when I see the same Rec’d diaries day after day.

I would like to note that I really enjoy the newer format of 3.0 and am so happy that I rarely have to deal with the 500 Error pages any longer.

Looking at the recommended list right now, everything seems fine to me. Heh.

You are correct, the list doesn’t rotate fast enough…but at the same time, it seems to me that there is a lot less recommending going on.

Because your offerings are always good and you’re a fellow FredHead.

I wrote a diary and no one read it. My hubby wrote a diary and no one read it. I generally just read because writing and commenting is thankless, plus I’m very busy. But there are diarists and commenters I greatly enjoy here. Incidentally the Rec list is pretty useless, I agree. It’s like looking at Drudge and seeing all the same stories for 3 days straight.

BTW, FredHead sticker is staying on my car and a McCain-less Palin sticker is about to join it. Heh!

I am just getting used to this site. I found it by clicking with Michelle Malkin one night.

I have made some recomendations.

The diary post by BS about Tips for Redstate Writers I think should be required reading before anyone attempts to post a diary.

It should not be in Recommended Diaries but in a class by itself. It is a simple guide to help newbies like myself. If someone comes up with a better way to express themselves and most like it……….

From the comments, I think quite a few people are feeling “why should I spend hours writing something when it will disappear almost as fast?”

I feel a bit of that myself. More than once I have felt the itch to carefully craft a serious tome of a post, then thought, it’ll get cycled out before half a dozen people get a chance to read it, so why bother. I’ll do the dishes instead.

People are not motivated to pour their intellect and feelings into something if they think it’s going to get round filed in a few hours.

I suggest a solution. Give some weight in the Recommened Diaries to how long the author has been on RedState. That way everyone would know that if they participate and stick with it, they will have an opportunity to be read. It would have the added benefit of down playing the “drive by” posters.

Someone who has been involved on RS for two or three years should be given the opportunity for a bit more prominence than someone who registered yesterday because they were momentarily bored with their video games.

Just a thought.

(A privilege that must be earned.) and its rating system (Only visible to staff and other trusted users.).

Give substantial weight to the trusted user rating, and combine its cumulative score/multiplier with the general recommend.

Additional benefit: Trolls and mobys are easily identified without having to waste valuable time and bandwidth by engaging them directly (Hinz Rule™).

I’ve been posting a lot less here in the past year, for these reasons (in priority order):

1) Little Smagar, who arrived 17 months ago and now rules the house that I simply live in, pay for and try to keep sorta clean.
2) I’m just a diarist, not a Front Pager.
3) The discussions over the past two years have been heavy on politics, and my background is more in national security.

IMO, your chances of getting Front Paged as a diarist are diminishing daily. As more and more people get Front Page status, they simply post there. There’s only so much room on the Front Page—especially after the daily Pejblast of four or five stories, all at once.

It got to the point where I started thinking of Redstate as a vehicle where a select group of people—the Front Pagers—can have their voices heard.

For the rest of us, we’re basically writing for the eyes of the moderator and a few dedicated Redstate viewers.

I’m one of the ones who’s posted short diaries in the recent past—because I didn’t expect anyone to spend much time reading them. So, why write anything lengthy?

I started using Redstate’s diary section to bring up topics that IMO people should be aware of. I.e., I now use it mostly as a tipoff mechanism. I raise topics in hopes of the Redstate editors and Front Pagers picking them up and running with them.

But, when I did post heavily and write substantial diaries, I relied on the Recommended List for any hopes of real exposure.

And, I’d submit that the Recommended List—if used right—is a decent way for a non-Front-Pager to get their views read widely.

Let’s be honest—articles don’t stay on the Front Page long. Especially if Pejman is on the loose!

But, IF YOU HAVE AN EYE-CATCHING TITLE TO YOUR DIARY, a Recommended Diary can be in a prominent place on this website for up to 48 hours.

Or, at least, it used to.

My 0.02…

The sheer volume of member diaries being posted means that many very good ones get bumped down the list and into the back hole beneath it before many members ever have a chance to read them.

I think my “Young Conservative Guns” post is a texbook example. It’s not the most creative thing I’ve ever written, but it was full of useful information about eleven of the young conservatives who may hold the future of the GOP in their hands. In its brief time on the member diaries list, it got a few recs. Had it not been flushed so quickly, I believe it could have picked up enough recs to put it in the highly coveted Recommended Diaries section.

But I also believed that McCain actually had a chance to win the White House, so what do I know? LOL.

Thanks again for bringing this up.

• JP

Just wrote my first diary today and I was happy to have just finished it and put it up there. If someone reads it, great. If not, it won’t mean I won’t keep writing.

You’ve taken the time to explain why I don’t take the time to write them any more. Maybe the powers that be will listen to you, but sadly, I doubt it.

So you read “Red Hot”?

I would like to be more a part of the team. I have several ideas right now for diaries dealing with more philosophic issues related to the conservative party.

But I have put off writing them because no one seems to read or respond to me much anymore.

I still get a 404 error when clicking on recent posts.

I have not been able to see any diaries that get bumped off the front page. When you go back to archive and click 2008 it just relists the current entries.

The old RS was easier to follow a thread and the highlighted NEW posts. I don’t want to re-read entire thread comments just the new ones.

There is too much space around comments now limited the amount of content you get on one page. You quickly lose context and continuity which will quickly lose many participants.

Why even have signatures? They are too repetitive and take up valuable space. Let me people have signatures only on their diary page or profile page. Not on comments.

I did get on the REC List back on RS2 (and that is just a reference of time and nothing else,) maybe my writing skills have diminished. Anymore, I’m not even sure if my diaries are even read at all. If some one knows how to check on that it would be appreciated.

Some topics do require quite a bit of research and painstaking linking, quoting and then the writing itself. I do want to contribute, but if it isn’t read I had rather read other posts, learn, and refine my philosophy.

You might have a bit of a marketing & design problem that affects the less observant visitors.

I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve never really looked at the diaries section even thought I’ve been visiting frequently for at least a year. It was only recently that I noticed them or learned a bit about them. Initially, I thought they were just a bigger, better index of comments.

A link brought me to the site for the first time, and I’ve returned regularly to read the contributors’ posts. That “other stuff” on the right of the website just looked like other random links to my admittedly myopic eyes.

Even after realizing what they were about, I thought they were more for the “in crowd” and as an ordinary reader didn’t feel that my participation or ratings in something so formal were appropriate.

There have been several times that there has been something in the news I wanted to make a comment about or draw attention to. Not always something that would make a long or compelling diary, but a tidbit that others might have something to say about as well.

I wish there were an ad hoc place to put such a thing.

Something like that would give the newbies a place to drop in and say hello and test the waters.

but I don’t want it to stay on the list until 2009, so I won’t.

And glad to hear you’re on the mend. Who knew old geezers like us could fly? I guess some boys never quit trying.

Proper grammar saves lives.

Let’s eat Grandma.
Let’s eat, Grandma.

---

Activists Taking Action: Unified Patriots

I came to this site by invitation of another diarist who I knew from a far different site. He and I share the same conservative views.

Ignorance is no excuse, but I posted my diaries before I realized that I was spitting in the face of RS etiquette. I was accustomed to previous BB’s and the rules are definately different, from there to here. (For one thing, this is not really a BB. I understand that.) That’s not to say that the rules are wrong, just that I failed to be smart about waiting to post a diary until I’d read more and become more accustomed to this site and this site’s ettiquette.

I’m not sure how to say this but, a lot of the comments made in this diary and by this diarist, pertain directly to me and my “mistakes” as a “diarist”. I do realize that this diary is not directed at me, personally. I do however, read a lot about what I’ve been doing and doing wrong in it.

I’m taking all these comments as advice that can help me do better in the future. I’m sure there are many others who are, too.

I do apologize for cluttering things up in the past and will attempt not to do that in the future. I’ll read more and keep my hands off the keyboard until I have something worthwhile to say. And do a much better job of saying it.

From what I’ve read so far, the standards at RS are high and that is by far, the best thing about this site.

So, I’ve not done the best job, in my mind, up to now. I plan to do better.

In the words of Charlie Chaplin: It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.

;-D

A personal blog

Join the RedState Strike Force

Directors

Would you also please consider a feature to allow individual hot lists, or more like a way to mark threads you want to follow.

There are blogs and comments that I would like to follow, but sometimes they get lost in the noise.

Some sort of “follow this blog”, tell me when there are new comments added to the conversation feature.

Please

One of my pet peeves, multiple “Outrage” diaries on the same event.

Obama stepped on a Duck with the stupid, classless comment about Nancy Reagan recently. I must have counted at least 5 “Outrage” diaries expressing individual outrage, including ones that were, sense it is NFL day, “late hits” coming way way after an apology was given.

I’m not sure if the tools are there to search topics, or filters that check if the specific topic has already been commented on, or the machines can be made to check topics for redundancy, but multiple diaries on the same outrage will get even worse over the next four years.

Oh..before it’s pointed out, YES Pot call kettle black, I’ve done it too.