In 2003, Daily Kos was just a scrappy little blog running on a cheap shared hosting plan. It was fine—until it wasn’t. The site grew too big, too fast. We kept crashing. Readers couldn’t comment. And I didn’t have the money to fix it.
So I turned to the community.
Some of you might even remember this: I asked for help buying a dedicated server, our very first. You stepped up, we raised the money, and Daily Kos moved to its own hardware. That one decision made everything that came next possible.
Now, more than 20 years later, we’re at another one of those moments.
Our current site—custom-built, endlessly patched, and more than 15 years old—is too expensive to maintain and too inflexible to evolve. It’s been held together with duct tape and developer ingenuity. But we can’t afford to keep going like this.
Just like in 2003, we’ve outgrown what we have. And once again, we need your help to move forward.
We’re officially migrating Daily Kos to WordPress—a modern, open-source platform used by everyone from Vox to Rolling Stone to The Nation. With it comes a huge ecosystem of plugins, tools, and possibilities we could never afford to build ourselves.
Features we’ve long dreamed of—mobile apps, user badges, faster comment loading, better moderation tools, polls, media integration, and more—are finally within reach. It won’t happen overnight, but step by step and with your support, we’ll finally be able to deliver the experience this community has wanted and deserved for years.
Related | Daily Kos is moving to WordPress
We’ve already hired a vendor, and work will begin in August with the new site launching in early 2026. The first version will be a straight port designed just to get us off of the old system. But what happens next—what we build, improve, or finally retire—will be shaped by you.
We’ve formed a Community Advisory Group to help guide our priorities, like which features we keep, which ones we drop, and what we build next. We’ll soon be announcing more details on this critically important community liaison.
And for the first time in a long time, we’re doing this with a real roadmap, deadlines, and accountability.
But none of it happens without you.
Just like that first server in 2003, we’re asking you to help fund this next giant leap—the most significant upgrade in Daily Kos history. If you’ve ever wanted a faster site, better tools, or a platform that feels like it was built for this community, this is your moment.
Chip in to help build this new Daily Kos.
It’s always fun to be on the ground floor of something exciting, and I hope you’ll be part of it.
Two quick things I need your help with:
1. We need a name for this campaign.
This is a special capital campaign, separate from our normal fundraising. “The Daily Kos New Website Capital Campaign” is functional … but boring. Got something better?
2. What would be cool ways to reward early donors?
Yes, there’s the satisfaction of doing something great. But I want to directly recognize the folks who help make this possible. Here are some ideas:
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Special account badges or flairs
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Private Zoom updates from me and the team
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Early beta access to the new site and maybe early access to new features
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Your name on the “Thank you for building this” footer
This capital campaign is what will unlock everything—tools you’ve been asking for, features we’ve dreamed of, and more joy in using the site every day. And every dollar you contribute will help make it real.
Thank you for being here and for joining us in this next chapter of Daily Kos.
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