User:SiabDK/sandbox

Daily Kos

(Also known as "The Great Orange Satan", prior to the Trump administration. That usage seems to have tailed off since the 2016 election.) is:

• Primarily a Democratic political blog and sometime political news aggregator (https://www.dailykos.com/ and https://m.dailykos.com/) ; with
  • A well staffed professional writing team and occasional Guest Bloggers, producing an ongoing series of articles and opinion pieces (The Front Page);
  •  An openly structured forum for writing and commenting by a wide variety of individuals within the parallel unpaid user community (The right hand column Lists: Community Spotlight, Recommended List, Recent Stories);

• An ongoing experiment in Community Moderation (link to below text);
• A parallel FaceBook community with well over a million followers;
• A promotional and fundraising operation for selected aspiring Democratic candidates, plus general election news ;
• Series diaries (because diary tags are a relatively recent thing, searches generally begin with 2010,2011)
  • a) A long-running series of cute kitten/puppy diaries (Pooties, Woozles, & Birdies)
  • b) IGTNT (I Got The News Today) in remembrance of military casualties
  • c) Black Kos
  • d) Backyard Science and many, many more

• All of the above, with the mission, hotly debated over the years, of "electing more and better Democrats", and a mostly liberal/progressive bias.

And each one has its own history.   

This article is about Daily Kos, the website.

It's a sketch of its founding, growth, major problems, significant changes, and a few highlights and lowlights published along the way. It is not, except tangentially, about politics

        "I came for the politics; I stayed for the community." Kaily Joy Gay

CURRENT STATISTICS: In the 2016/17 election season, some 58,000 users produced over 80,000 articles ("diaries") and over 4.4 million comments in response to those articles (compiled from Daily Kos Search function ). This vast collection of writings drew approximately 835 million page views from an estimated 46 million unique visitors over that same time, and the site was ranked variously between #115 and #275 among US sites during that period. (QuantCast statistics )

HISTORY

TIMELINE (Note: as much as possible, this has been done as a series of linkbacks to the original writing on Daily Kos. It should be noted that there have never been rules on Daily Kos against strong language of any kind, so much of this content may qualify as NSFW, especially in the Comments sections. Also note: Images have not survived as well as text, for the most part; valid image links are almost nonexistent until about 2012.)

By Markos Moulitsas, in his own write:

How it all began: a prehistory by kos

Yearly Kos presentation

More history, and a eulogy

Daily Kos, Version I: The Beginning

Http://DailyKos.net May 26, 2002 to October 15, 2003

Named for MarKOS Moulitsas Zuniga, its founder.

Day 1:

I am progressive. I am liberal. I make no apologies. I believe government has an obligation to create an even playing field for all of this country's citizens and immigrants alike. I am not a socialist. I do not seek enforced equality. However, there has to be equality of opportunity, and the private sector, left to its own devices, will never achieve this goal. Posted May 26, 2002 12:57 PM by kos

Highlights:

•    First Spam comment - Penis enlargement and viagra link - 5/27/2002 to post #000006 (no link provided)
•    Domain name changed to DailyKos.com 6/28/2002
•    First Open Thread - 10/27/2002 - 20 comments
•    First Guest Contributors - 1/3/2003 - Billmon and Steve Soto
•    1,000th post - 2/21/2003; 30,000+ comments, a million+ page views
•    Comments overloaded servers - 3/1/2003; changed to dedicated server for the site -
•    Outgrown hosting service, setting up solo 7/1/2003
•    9/19/03 Meteor Blades and DHinMI new guest posters.

Dailykos Version 1 officially closed on October 15, 2003 with a total of 4,570 posts over a period of 17 months, shifting to the current site designation at dailykos.com on October 13, 2003 because the original site architecture had been thoroughly outgrown. Commenters can be roughly estimated from the first month's signup at Version 2, which was 3,211 users. One harbinger of future growth seems to have been the decision that if the site couldn't handle the traffic, it needed to be expanded.

Daily Kos Version 2: Diaries for everybody!

The first major site upgrade was done in October, 2003. In 2003, Scoop was a heavy duty content management system. With a number of fairly successful tweaks, it survived intact, though with increasing problems, until 2013, when work was begun on an entirely new system. This was the beginning of User IDs, MOJO ratings, and the 0 to 4 Comment Rating system. Note: Only anecdotal evidence of that last has survived the transitions to the current pages, and it will have to be taken on faith that such a system a) existed and b) was accepted as a workable method of rating comments for several years.

NB: The term "diary" for an article published in Daily Kos dates from the original .net site, and various and sundry people have been trying to replace it since Version 2 began. It seems to be a persistent survivor.

Highlights

• 2004
  • January - The first hint of overwhelming success (i.e., underestimated hardware levels to handle the traffic) appears after two entire months in the new venue.
  • February - 20,000 page views per hour
  • June - it became possible to edit a diary
  • August - Site up to 200,000 daily visits, post convention.
    • Diaries can now be recommended separately from comments
  • September - Site over capacity again during/after Republican convention - waiting for 2 more servers.
    • 400,000 visits/day expected. Site features pruned until new database server is installed.
  • October - a major statement by kos on community, and worth linking to even today.
  • November - post election - DK is not a liberal Blog.
    • To Do List: MOJO, ratings, Recommended list, diaries all need to be reworked
  • End of Year Stats - 2004: In the first year (2003-4) on the new site, 55,428 posts were made, with 1,062,536 comments in response, from 23,627 signed up users. Over 350 of those original users were still active diarists in 2017. And sometime around the end of the year, the site began making enough money through ad revenue to support both itself and kos.

• 2005
  • January - looking at revising the ratings system
    • Subscriptions available that let users turn off the ads
  • February - Half a million pageviews per day
  • June: Pie Fight!

Daily Kos Version 3: 2005-2011

The transition period from a hobby blog to something serious. Granted, half a million pageviews per day is not the usual description of a hobby blog, but this period saw serious growth in both paid staffing and long term planning for the website.

• 2005
  • Changeover: June 23-July20
  • August - Site growth at 5-10% per week
    • Rant by markos on not being a kingmaker (one of several)
    • Katrina coverage
  • October - New Daily Kos logo
  • December - List of Guest Bloggers from previous years
  • End of Year Stats: 89,221 diaries and 2,101,851 comments from approximately 30,000 active users out of 73,847 signed up.               
• 2006
  • January - First "Official Guidelines" for diaries
    • One week waiting period between joining and diarying introduced; diaries limited to one per day
    • Comment function updated - change from 0-5 rating to Recommend/Troll Rate
  • June - Site changes; 3 month waiting period for Trusted User status; limit of 2 troll ratings/day per user
    • Description/Post Mortem on first Yearly Kos
  • August - One Million visits today
    • 100,000 registered users
      • Eleven years later, of those: 3,600 banned; 70,000 wrote one or more comments; 25,000 wrote one or more diaries; almost 2,000 have written at least one diary since a year ago. (Categories have some overlap.) Daily Kos database search.
    • Meta diary on media attacks on Daily Kos ;)
  • September - Banner ad tryout; current paid staff of 3
  • October - Pushback on community outing of a member
    • Giving up on personal email - kos
  • November - Site performance expectations (10 servers)
    • Ad policy
    • On Begging diaries
    • 2007 Contributing Editors and Guest Bloggers
  • December - Automated warnings in place
  • Who represents Daily Kos - a statement

2007

        January: Copyright standards https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2007/1/18/292299/-Copyright

        February: Discussion of meta https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2007/2/11/300951/-Lifting-the-veil-a-bit

        March: New masthead; not just kos anymore

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2007/3/9/309986/-dKos-is-officially-a-group-blog

        April:

            Advertising https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2007/4/26/327876/-Google-ads

            Diary rules https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2007/4/28/328834/-Rules-matter

        May: Reader stats survey https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2007/5/9/333036/-Blog-reader-survey

        August: Subscriptions https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2007/8/30/378368/-Subscriptions

        October: Funding Cheers & Jeers https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2007/10/5/394397/-You-can-save-Cheers-Jeers

        November: Picking contributing editors https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2007/11/13/410014/-2008-Contributing-Editors

        December: Site statistics/Pageviews    https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2007/12/30/427597/-Daily-Kos-traffic-through-the-years

        Calendar year 2007: 144,709 total users; 94,306 diaries; 3,847,981 comments

        December Unique Views per Quantcast: 542,612        

        2008

        January: Troll Ratings; Hunter

        http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/01/02/428896/-An-Exegesis-for-Troll-Ratings

        February: Susan Gardner as Executive Editor: staff total - 21 (mostly unpaid)    

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2008/2/7/451697/-An-announcement

        October: JED's column at DK https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2008/10/15/631689/-Jed-joins-Daily-Kos

        December:

            New staff, future plans https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2008/12/4/669306/-Lithium-Cola-contributing-editor

            200,000th user signed up December 12, 2008

        Calendar year 2008: 199,538 total users; 155,400 diaries; 9,626,950 comments

        December Unique Views per Quantcast: 1,672,589; November high for the year:         

        2009

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2009/1/12/683163/-I-m-back Status of site projects, real employees with benefits; etc.

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2009/2/10/695865/-On-that-name-thing Editors going to real names, mostly.

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2009/5/31/737141/-Your-new-community-overlord Rules for Community     Moderation: Director of Community - Meteor Blades; We've been running the whole thing without rules for 7 years now, and maybe we'd better do something.

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2009/6/27/747350/-Saturday-hate-mail-apalooza first time - Note NSFW;

            continued regularly until February, 2013

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2009/7/29/759265/-Daily-Kos-still-jumping-the-shark

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2009/9/30/788136/-Brief-DK4-update        

            Calendar year 2009: 228,612 users; 92,670 diaries; 7,000,000 plus comments - estimated

            December Unique Views per Quantcast: 846,484                

        2010

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2010/1/7/822717/-State-of-Daily-Kos alpha testing on DK4; new writers

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2010/2/3/833547/-Daily-Kos-town-hall-with-kos Kos takes questions; mostly meta, but interesting.

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2010/3/18/847477/-Daily-Kos-has-most-loyal-news-community-on-the-tubes

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2010/5/18/867316/-Announcing-new-editor-featured-writers plus dk4 updates

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2010/5/26/870145/-Happy-Birthday-to-us

            http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/12/10/927712/-DK4-open-beta-just-days-away,-and-why-we-did-it

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2010/12/15/929012/-Mojo-and-DK4 Beta version goes live; MOJO changes

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2010/12/15/929282/-DK4-is-now-an-open-beta

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2010/12/19/930251/-DK4-reaction-one-week-later

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2010/12/26/931705/-DK4-status-update

            Calendar year 2010: 288,093 users; 75,057 diaries; 5,644,114 comments

            December Unique Views per Quantcast: 1,673,362

            250,000th user ID June 28, 2010             

        2011

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/1/2/932863/-Daily-Kos-beta-On-trolls-and-unlimited-diaries Recent list is about to be history (giggle); added the Follow list; Comments page; Groups

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/1/9/934528/-DK4-update-and-responses-to-more-community-concerns

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/1/23/938333/-DK4-two-weeks-from-transition

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/1/30/939930/-DK4-Sunday-update-Are-we-REALLY-launching-next-Saturday

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/2/3/940928/-Are-we-really-launching-DK4-this-weekend-No-One-more-week

    Daily Kos version 4 (tag #DK4)

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/2/6/941648/-Final-DK4-update-You-don-t-need-to-learn-new-functionality-to-use-DK4

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/2/14/944201/-So-this-thing-works

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/2/14/944447/-I-was-wrong-about-diaries

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/2/27/950661/-DK4-The-early-transition-metrics

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/6/29/989466/-Site-update-and-welcoming-Denise

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/7/15/994977/-Big-changes-in-Daily-Kos-editor-workflow

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/8/8/1004701/-Announcing-Daily-Kos-radio

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/8/25/1010505/--Posts-it-is Another attempt to get rid of the use of "diaries"; much commentary on moderation

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/8/30/1011917/-On-tip-jars-and-auto-ban

            htps://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/9/6/1014024/-New-Daily-Kos-design-update-tonight-and-meet-your-new-admin-moderator Kos temporarily handling moderation while new system is rolled out. Addition of Help Desk outlined.

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/9/6/1014163/-On-the-Help-Desk

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/9/7/1014275/-On-my-new-moderation-duties

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/9/7/1014324/--No-ratings NR system.

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/9/8/1014670/-Purge-update

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/9/14/1016965/-Participating-in-someone-else-s-diary

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/9/18/1018110/-Recap-new-community-behavior-guidelines

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/9/19/1017287/-The-development-queue

            http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/24/1039698/-Blogging-for-Dummies-Unraveling-the-Mysteries-of-Daily-Kos jekyllnhyde

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/12/12/1044516/-First-nag-and-Hunter-on-the-Holidays Subscription drive

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/12/19/1046905/-Subscription-update-and-American-Taliban

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/12/20/1047445/-Daily-Kos-diary-is-top-Facebook-story-of-nbsp-2011

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/12/27/1049036/-Last-week-of-the-subscription-drive-and-the-Evolution-of-Everything

        Calendar year 2011: 327,453 users; 77,112 diaries; 4,425,420 comments

        December Unique Views per Quantcast: 2,388,950

        300,000th user ID February 4, 2011         

        2012

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2012/3/6/1071693/-The-latest-meta-bullshit-and-your-single-warning

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2012/5/17/1092552/-Top-community-content-of-2012

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2012/01/09/1053088/-An-open-letter-to-the-people-who-hate-Obama-more-than-they-love-America

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2012/5/26/1094624/-10-years-10-freakin-years Anniversary

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2012/7/17/1110701/-Announcing-the-new-image-uploader-and-photo-library

            May 2012 - the month the spammers found (and started flooding into) Daily Kos. January: 2,646    February: 2,763    March: 3,460    April signups: 2,711 May signups: 32,175 June signups: 49,026 July signups: 51,875 August signups: 47,582 September signups: 51,820 October  signups: 56,453 November signups: 9,911    December signups: 5,110

            real to spam ratio: 1:25  Approximate base UID#: 350,000.

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2012/10/29/1152401/-Manhattan-goes-dark-and-so-might-Daily-Kos

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2012/11/9/1159652/-The-most-awesome-things-about-Daily-Kos-2012 Current stats and 5-year Quantcast chart.

            https://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/7/1168066/-Image-uploading-now-available-to-everyone

            https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2012/12/12/1169224/-Welcome-to-our-first-annual-War-on-Christmas-fundraiser

        Calendar year 2012: 642,985 total users; 82,058 diaries; 4,117,559 comments

        December Unique Views per Quantcast: 3,308,628; October high for the year: 6,776,688        

    2013

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2013/1/21/1180867/-Can-We-Haz-Some-Moderation-Please-Pretty-Please puddytat

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2013/1/21/1181031/-Moderation-Be-careful-what-you-ask-for kos

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2013/2/12/1186652/-One-space-after-periods-people

        https://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/4/17/1202476/-Continued-Statement-of-Opposition-to-Racist-Labels-Used-by-Kossacks-to-Criticize-President-Obama Black kos

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2013/4/24/1204487/-The-Daily-Kos-community-is-in-charge-whether-I-or-you-like-it-or-not kos

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2013/4/25/1204816/-Ask-me-anything (kos)

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2013/5/24/1211491/-Ask-me-anything-about-anything (kos)

        https://www.dailykos.com/news/AskMeAnything Links to all diaries with this tag - 113 at present count (2017)

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2013/7/2/1220632/-Introducing-our-new-Daily-Kos-activism-team

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2013/7/2/1220677/-Class-of-2013-featured-writers

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2013/7/10/1222534/-Tapping-into-our-community-s-creativity-and-entrepreneurship

        https://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/8/14/1231172/-DRAFT-community-guidelines-comment-period

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2013/8/23/1233352/-New-community-guidelines-final-draft

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2013/10/18/1248513/-Ask-Me-Anything elfling - building the next version

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2013/11/4/1253048/-Wherein-I-talk-about-how-awesome-Daily-Kos-is Stats, facebook, email list

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2013/12/19/1263952/-2014-The-year-of-community Preview of DK5, Navajo as Director of Community Building

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2013/12/27/1265583/-For-those-who-share-your-diaries-we-salute-you

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2013/12/10/1261656/-How-I-Got-Rid-Of-Trolls Ray Pensador; how not to write a diary about trolls.    

        Calendar year 2013: 987782 total users; 62,186 diaries; 3,230,204 comments

        December Unique Views per Quantcast: 5,020,167    

    2014

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2014/2/7/1275900/-Ask-me-anything-even-that-one-thing Early life in Guatamala; thanks to users; etc.

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2014/3/6/1282635/-Image-library-now-open-to-everyone

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2014/3/14/1284786/-Ask-me-Anything-Even-about-ugly-meta Re: DOV diary Why are you here?

        May - Elliot Rodgers/Isla Vista killings - women's diaries became a major factor/exploded at DK https://www.dailykos.com/search?story_type=&search_type=search_stories&text_type=any&text_expand=contains&text=isla+vista&usernames=%28usernames%29&tags=%28tags%29&time_type=time_published&time_begin=5%2F24%2F2014&time_end=8%2F31%2F2014&submit=Search        

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2014/6/20/1308452/-Ask-Me-Anything-because-you-had-to-get-it-off-your-chest Current stats; comments are extreme meta about two controversial diaries and multiple bannings. (trix33, zhenren, etc.)

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2014/6/23/1308497/-First-look-at-DK5

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2014/7/3/1311540/-Daily-Kos-setting-traffic-records-every-month Notes on email lists, FaceBook, comparisons to other sites.

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2014/7/19/1315048/-Netroots-Nation-is-going-to-Arizona-Daily-Kos-is-not

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2014/9/19/1330967/-Ask-me-anything-about-anything-last-chance-until-after-elections Site statistics,

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2014/10/6/1333914/-Daily-Kos-September-2014-update-the-not-so-calm-before-the-storm Site statistics,

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2014/12/18/1352657/-A-WiseAss-s-Introduction-to-Diarying-at-Daily-Kos siab

        Calendar year 2014: 1,184,801 total users; 58,445 diaries; 2,990,180 comments

        New Users: 197,019; Commenters: ~ 8,500; Estimated lurkers ~26,000; Potential spammers: ~170,000

        December Unique Views per Quantcast: 7,061,567

        1,000,000th user ID March 3, 2014 - 70-80% new accounts spam        

    2015

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/1/19/1357981/-Daily-Kos-end-of-year-update-and-a-peek-into-2015 Site stats

        DK5 Beta live June, 2015

        7/1/2015 Daily Kos Elections blogging began https://www.dailykos.com/user/Daily%20Kos%20Elections

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/7/24/1405389/-Beta-site-update-and-yes-YOU-are-the-focus-group

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/8/3/1408417/-Daily-Kos-moved-to-Oakland

        https://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/8/21/1414091/-Only-assholes-question-the-identity-of-others Defending Shaun  King

        https://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/8/24/1414483/-Doubling-down-on-the-justice-beat-Meet-Josie-Duffy

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/9/8/1419440/-Daily-Kos-update-September-2015 Stats; 37 employees

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/9/9/1419872/-On-HR-s-flags-and-a-more-positive-community Flags made anonymous - almost.

        https://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/10/28/1441756/-Meet-Thandi-and-Vann-our-newest-staff-writers

Daily Kos Version 5 - 11/7/2015

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/11/7/1446584/-Looks-like-we-made-it elfling

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/11/8/1446913/-Early-DK5-conversion-thoughts

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/11/9/1447632/-DK5-update-Day-2

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/11/10/1448388/-DK5-Update-Day-3-Why-fix-what-wasn-t-broke-Because-it-was-Broken

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/11/12/1449166/-DK5-Update-Day-5-The-pause-before-the-pre-Thanksgiving-blitz

        https://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/11/13/1449546/-DK5-Update-Day-6-Early-metrics-and-a-recap

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/11/17/1451233/-DK5-Update-Day-10-a-new-story-page-layout

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/12/16/1460817/-DK5-update-metrics-priorities-and-what-s-coming-soonest

        https://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/12/26/1461522/-A-photo-tour-of-the-new-Daily-Kos-offices

        Calendar year 2015: 1,426,307 total users; 62,506 diaries; 3,180,187 comments

        New Users: 241,506; Commenters: ~ 8,000; Lurkers ~ 24,000; Potential spammers: ~200,000

        December Unique Views per Quantcast: 7,817,838        

    2016 Help Desk staffed up to better handle Moderation issues

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/1/11/1467524/-Time-to-welcome-the-2016-class-of-Contributing-Editors

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/1/29/1476866/-DK5-let-s-check-in-on-the-metrics-and-be-nice-to-the-new-people

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/3/4/1495813/-March-15-and-Daily-Kos-transition-to-General-Election-footing Kos puts his foot down about election diaries. Chaos (and pie) ensues.

        https://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/3/8/1498008/-March-15-applies-to-everyone-and-I-mean-everyone More Pie

        https://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/3/16/1502026/-The-primaries-might-go-on-but-we-have-our-nominee MP

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/3/25/1506119/-The-State-of-Daily-Kos-is-pretty-f-n-amazing Staff photo; stats; DK5 notes;

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/4/18/1516946/-About-that-pesky-flag-and-uprate-abuse

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/4/26/1520172/-Stop-the-paid-shill-accusations

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/4/1556658/-The-amazing-rise-and-fall-and-rise-of-Daily-Kos Stats

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/15/1560484/-The-new-updated-and-improved-Daily-Kos-Rules-of-the-Road

        https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/10/14/1582404/-Housekeeping-note-transitioning-to-our-own-poll-aggregating-model-Clinton-still-crushing-it Note: It was wrong, but  consistent. Ah, well.

        https://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/11/8/1593895/-We-lick-our-wounds-we-grieve-and-then-we-fucking-fight Trump won

        Calendar year 2016: 1,637,708 users; 88,797 diaries; 5,663,370 comments

        New Users: 211,401; Commenters: ~15,000; Lurkers: ~ 45,000; Potential spammers: ~150,000

        December Unique Views per Quantcast: 11,296,892

        (Compare to 2008 elections September high for the year: 1,926,725)        

    2017

        2,000,000 user members: July 26, 2017. Spambot accounts conservatively estimated at 1,700,000 (SWAG #, as in Swinging Wild-Assed Guess - no link)

        Unique Views - high for the year in February per Quantcast: 18,228,262