I'd like to see all the day's posts stay visible on the Reader's Posts front page ALL DAY before being sent to archive oblivion.

I'd also like to see long posts have the "Read More..." jump automatically applied. I often fail to do it with my own posts. That would allow more posts to appear on the front page.

I'm not sure what the metric should be, but I agree some combination of rec's and comments should figure into the system. A controversial post might not receive a lot of rec's but the comments are worth participating or reading.

"Right now the list is clock-driven. It should be value-driven instead."

It's of course both. Running a dynamic balance might be feasible, so that in slow times older recommended posts stay up longer.

I don't have a problem with low or zero rec'd posts showing up if there aren't many recent well-rated posts. It's a sign of slow times.

I suppose the question is: What are the purposes of the Recommended list and should some optimization be applied to the mechanism which generates it?

Recommended. Twice!

Tom:
I agree. I am on the cusp of oblivion, and my response to that has surprised me: on the one hand, I think I should not post unless I have something to say that might be of value.... and, on the other, a competitive button is pushed in which I think " I'm headed for oblivion and. also, ignominy... what can I post, right now, that might be of note (Note that I say of note, and not value...)
The value of TPM, to me, has been in finding like-minded persons who have interesting things to say, from which I learn, whether they post once a day, once a week, or only occasionally.
Begone with the ratings. Or, is that an unseemly opinion from one who is about to fall off the chart?
Never mind.
Thanks for this post.

Another thought.

The print media abhors white space, which is why there are those little filler thingies at the bottom of columns. Yet TPM doesn't mind white space at all. The sequence: Recommended Posts (whether recommended or not) Recent reader posts, TPM Cafe Masthead, then whitespace, whitespace, whitespace... it begins when my scroll bar is perhaps half way down the column. So here's a thought. Why not Recommended Posts (with real recommendations), the Masthead, and then below, recent reader post headlines to the bottom of the page. Fall off the page when the last of the front page posts falls off the page. This just might allow persons enough time to see something before it disappears into never never land. Plus, it would make it harder for troll posters to drive items off the front page by posting multiple little posts. Maybe there's a technical reason why this is impossible...but it would seem to be a fairly easy thing to program.

I would prefer to see the managers eliminate the recommend feature entirely. That's because the recommend tool seems to be one of the key mechanisms that has helped turn this section of TPM Cafe into something that more frequently resembles a cult, a co-dependent support group or a mutual admiration society than a vital location for debating political events or ideas. The site is now frequently cluttered with relatively aimless, contentless and frankly mysterious posts from people who apparently have nothing important to say at the time they post, but feel free to gobble up large chunks of the site's limited real estate simply to say "hi" to their friends and receive a hug.

That would not be any kind of problem apart from the fact that these posters are rewarded for their non-content with generous and automatic recommends from their friends. As a result of this lack of editorial direction from the management, a relatively small number of friends in a self-selected magic circle of trust now seem to spend all their time here recommending each others posts, and see to it that their merry band is able to monopolize the limited real estate.

It's gotten to the point where if one of the friends doesn't check in with a daily post, no matter how lame and topic-free, others begin to post equally unnecessary blogs devoted only to inquiring about that friend. Another common species of posts from inside the magic circle have richer content, but are given to a kind of confessional and self-indulgent performance art, followed up with "discussions" that consist of embarrassing group hugs and adoring clapping for the verbal finger-painting. It's kindergarten all the time at TPM Cafe.

Getting rid of the recommend feature would help to break up this gooey, hand-holding dynamic. It might also be useful to build in a feature that limits the weekly number of blogged posts - or words - from any single poster.

Its up to the management to decide what kind of place they want TPM Cafe to be. If they are happy to allow this section to be something like an electronic therapy group or freshman creative writing class, then so be it. But I think they should reflect on the fact that there are all sorts of internet tools available for the kind of social networking and unstructured chat group dynamic that has taken over here. I'm just one guy with one vote. But my personal vote would for the management to take a firmer editorial hand, and do something to help steer the content back toward politics with a sober edge, and away from personal lives and mere socializing.