Why brag now?

Maybe this is my naivity showing through, but I just don’t get it.

I spent all day monday calling people and doing my part to support the candidates that I believe in. (For the record, this included a D county coroner, an R state senate candidate, and two D state house candidates).

But it seems that many people who claim to care a lot about races like the us senate and governor spent their day here on CPols running victory laps and counting their figurative chickens. And my question is why?

From where I sit, there is no advantage to coming in here and claiming certain victory for your candidate.

For one thing, most people who read sites like this made up their minds months ago and have already voted, so you aren’t convincing anyone or influencing the outcome by doing. But even if that weren’t true. It seems to me that the result of claiming victory before election day would be that your own supporters would be less likely to vote than if you constantly pushed the “it’s so close that your vote could make the difference” message.

Second, it can’t possibly help you personally. If you are right, then you have cursed yourself to irrelivancy by claiming that it was all already over before you commented. And if you are wrong, you show yourself as ignorant and foolish. So isn’t your time better spent actually working for the victory instead of claiming to have already won it?

Finally, these types of claims expose you as someone who is more interested in the success of their own opinions than the promotion of accuracy and truth. The fact is that no one knows where things will end up tomorrow. Companies like PPP can make educated guesses based on the opinion of the first few hundred people who are willing to answer them, but at their best, they are still just guessing. To accept their reports as certainity is like taking the weather man’s word on tomorrow’s weather. Yeah, he’s right a lot, but not always.

So with those things in mind, please tell me. What is your motivation or reasoning behind the premature victory postings?

Why did you claim victory before the election was over?

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How to Get Promoted (on Colorado Pols)

(Reposted after recent abuses of our considerable largesse – promoted by Colorado Pols)

Here’s a quick refresher course for how to get your diaries promoted to the front page and how to get your ass banned. Click below for more:

HOW TO GET YOUR DIARY PROMOTED

The best diaries to promote are those that are both relevant and require little editing for the administrators of the site. You are MUCH more likely to see your diary promoted, for example, if you follow these simple suggestions:

1. Make the headline relevant and short (and please, NEWSMAN, not in all caps). All caps is for BREAKING NEWS only. Don’t write two sentences in the headline, and please try to capitalize all of the words in the headline.

2. Where’s the link? Don’t just talk about a story – provide the link. The whole point of these here internet tubes is to share information. If you don’t know how to include the link, it’s simple:

Creating Links

3. Don’t post the whole story Cut and paste relevant parts. Don’t cut and paste the whole damn thing. Not only is that a copyright violation, but nobody wants to read it. Use ellipses (…) to indicate that you are citing two different sections of the story. Use blockquotes to indicate that you are citing something, and not writing something.

Blockquotes

4. Tie your post back into Colorado and Politics. This is Colorado Pols, and we talk about Presidential politics because it affects Colorado. If you want to talk about something in another state, it had better be REALLY interesting or have some relation to Colorado. If you want to talk about something other than politics, it had better be freakin’ fantastic. But please, stick to politics.

5. Can’t cite it? Don’t write it. If you can’t cite, with links, a detailed accusation about something…don’t write it here. If you want to float a rumor, you ABSOLUTELY MUST have some substance behind it. Not only will a post like that not be promoted, it will be deleted. We are not the place for you to attempt to float negative, damaging rumors about candidates, no matter the party. We will be diligent about this, and you will be banned from the site. We’re not getting sued over some rumor you tried to start. More than that, promoting unverified rumors about people is wrong, and we’re not going to do it.

6. Can’t write nice? Don’t write at all. Please, no vulgarity or unnecessary and childish name-calling. Your post will disappear faster than a can of hair spray in Adele Arakawa’s medicine cabinet, and you’ll be on your way to getting banned from the site.

Thanks all. Please feel free to suggest your own community rules below. This is your world – we just lord over it.

 

Colorado Polster of the Week(s)

It’s time again to vote for “The Colorado Polster of the Week(s).” The rules and requirements are simple – there aren’t any.

Click below to vote for the Polster of the Week(s). Apologies for those left out – we only have so much room.

Who is the Colorado Polster of the Week(s)?

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