What do you like and not like about DU?

[Domitan]

Likes:

1) The wealth of information
2) Having my fingertips on the pulse of the latest happenings across a wide range of issues (updated by the second, not by the day or hour)
3) A number of very intelligent and insightful posters who share their thoughts and the discourse between those people
4) Certain amusing graphics or satires
5) The sense of a genuine underground movement that can rock society's boat
6) Being able to find many others who share some or most of my reflections and views.


Dislikes:

1) Difficulty in maintaining a long-term discourse within a thread due to other new posts knocking it out of sight
2) Due to heavy traffic, it's difficult to develop connections with most posters or to get to know posters by their writings except for the most prolific posters (e.g., H20Man, TIA, et al)
3) Hysteria: people who live and die with each rise of good news or crash of bad news, no matter how fleeting or trivial.
4) Heavy moderation: while I respect this place's choice to choose the content allowed here, I'm more inclined towards less moderation and allowing for exchange of ideas, no matter how disagreeable. IMHO, tombstoning or declarations of others as "freepers" occur too easily here.
5) Ignore function: I can understand that ignore function in case of harrassment, but I find that too many use this for snobbish reasons or they just don't like what others have to say (I'm not talking about those who troll or push right-wing opinions).
6) The fact that I'm too hooked to this damned place. That was one reason I put a ban on myself from searching the internet for non-work related matters when I'm in my office.

[candy]

1. I'm with you on the hysteria angle_______

I was astonished by some of the things that I read here on November 3.

I lived through Nixon and I'll make it through this too and I'm not going anyplace.

[lpbk2713]

3. The thing about Nixon vs Shit-for-Brains that concerns me is........

The "people" learned what a lowlife he was and all the dirty tricks he pulled and voted his worthless ass out...... More recently, they found out what a lowlife and total waste of good oxygen Smirky is and all the dirty tricks he and his co-conspiritors pulled and damned if they didn't send him back for another four years. WTF does it take to convince people??

[Glenda]

2. + / -

I am glad to have this place, to get through the post-election depression, and to have hope.

I like the ignore. I only put 4 people on it, and 3 are tombstoned.

The reactionism is a little disturbing, but that just means it is time to go to the Lounge!

[hyphenate]

4. If you've been here awhile,

the Ignore button becomes precious.

The best thing about DU is that people here are smart, capable, passionate and share many of the same values I do.

The worst thing about DU is all the knuckle-dragging freepers who try to join the group and then try to disrupt things. I think that there is a place for viable discourse, as long as it's friendly and without too many insults, but from years of experience, I have found rabid freepers don't want to ever compromise or even find common ground--they just want you to follow THEM or if you don't, they will call you a traitor and say that you're the unpatriotic one.

In the past year or so, there have been many more than usual, because many of us were also involved in myriad ways with the campaigns of the potential candidates. The freepers loved to come by and watch some of the bitching and moaning going on with the supporters of different candidates, especially as they ranted about each other's candidate. While it wasn't a pretty sight, it was very liberating for many.

I think that all of this is pretty much the same as at any other web forum you go to, whether it's MSN groups, Yahoo Groups, AOL groups, etc. The best thing about DU in that way is that it draws from all of these groups and brings them all together in one place, so people can get together more easily and talk about the passions we all have.

[Domitan]

5. I respect that

For myself, I don't mind seeing some royal rumbles. I came from website (Phlogistician's Corner) which had a wide range of characters before the hard liberals "drove out" most of the conservatives who couldn't keep up the debates. Many people there enjoyed the smorgasboard of incredibly intelligent conversations and verbal brawls, and really looked down on "censorship" (except for spams and real-time threats). Unfortunately, it's become more of a ghost-town nowadays as it's hard for newcomers to just find it on the search engines.

Ironically, I'm the only one from there who came here and stuck around. I don't expect the same dynamics as the Phlog, but you can see more where my views come from.