What happened on DU after the 2004 primaries finished?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

Did things calm down and return to the usual high-but-not-astronomical levels of incivility, or did the intra-candidate hostilities linger? To what extent did DU unite behind Kerry?

What do you think will happen this year?

[msongs]

1. I campaigned for him - wish he'd have done a better job defending himself nt

[book_worm]

2. Yes. in part because once a nominee is chosen DU rules against attacks

[AnnInLa]

3. Skinner decided for us....We could not attack the Dem

candidate, once that candidate was chosen. So, alot of the "newby-concerned-trolls" left and went elsewhere. I think 99% of the regulars then united behind the candidate and spent their efforts in attacking gwb and the republics. I hope Skinner does that again...I find it more and more difficult to come to DU anymore.

[TheDebbieDee]

6. "I find it more and more difficult to come to DU anymore."

I agree. The bickering and backhanded complimenting going on between the supporting camps of the cndidates is much, much worse this campaign season than in 2004.

[TreasonousBastard]

4. Ugly, ugly, ugly-- a big group of the losers...

mostly Deaniacs, but a healthy pile of Clarkies, with a few Naderites and others, took off with a lot of them opening their own site.

The remaining losers (including me, I should add-- I never thought much of Kerry, but he was the nominee and I did my best for him) generally took up the cudgel for Kerry, but there were a few who just couldn't accept him. Constant bitching and moaning from that quarter about how he was running a lousy campaign, and, by the way, shouldn't be the candidate anyway.

Someone from the Kerry campaign was posting anonymously, for what should be obvious reasons, and we know he was high up in campaign because the Admins checked him out and told us so. Well that lasted a few weeks, maybe a month-- the peanut gallery houded him out of here by first not believing anything he said, and then telling him how the campaign should be run and what a putz Kerry was.

On edit-- lots of tombstones and deletions, but enough still slid under the rules.

That nastiness was a small part of what was going on here, but it was big enough to leave a damn sour taste in the mouth. And I expect no less of the nastiness this time around. I can't say whether it's misguided naifs or assholes who think they have a lock on the truth, newbies who've never actually been involved in politics before, or trolls and disrupters stirring whatever shit they can find-- or what combination of the above.

But, expect nothing less than finest kind bullshit flying around here trying to stink out the rest of us.

[Gman]

5. In general, everyone came together very well

We were pretty much unified. The biggest push was to dissuade people so inclined from supporting Nader and concentrate on Kerry. The would be Nader supporters were very gracious in considering and supporting Kerry for the most part.

[Tesha]

7. A lot of people were banned and went other places (which we're not allowed to mention here). (NT)