What makes posting on the DU Lounge fun for you?

I just know that for me, I didn't really visit the Lounge until after the November election which got me so down I just quit paying any attention to the news for a long time and the Lounge became a welcome respite from politics, with all the zany, humorous posts and threads.

I still post here primarily, although Barbara Boxer's recent gumption in the Senate and Howard Dean's election to chair the DNC has given me a glimmer of hope in the political arena again - so yes, I have begun tip-toeing my way back into "Breaking News", "GD" and "GD-Politics", although I still find most of the news and most politics very depressing and distressing.

Aside from that I've posted a few times in the Classical Music board.

But the DU Lounge has become addicting.

I must admit, that while here, one of the main things that keeps me going is seeing people respond to my posts. I suspect we all share that small bit of vanity as, well, just part of human nature. The biggest attraction, however, is that the Lounge is full of some extremely funny people and I can't count the times I've blown coffee, water or wine on the screen laughing my ass off at someone's post while following a discussion in a thread.

A smaller part of the Lounge's attraction to me is, of course, experimenting with polls, just for fun, and to see what kinds of responses I get. The other day I put up a deliberately pathetic poll as an experiment, and sure enough, not one person responded at all.

I must confess that I've paid a lot more attention to the contents of the posts and threads than to the people's handles actually posting in them. While I've begun to recognize some handles, I must apologize for the fact that I haven't really developed any personal relationships with anyone here. I've noted that some have. I guess it's just because I have my hands full with my wife, my work, my new baby boy, and my wife's aging parents. I'm not looking for new on-line relationships, and I intend no slight to anyone when I say that.

I don't even remember the handles of people I've had arguments with here. In fact, I don't know which arguments I've had in the Lounge vs. other DU forums. I'm not here to argue, so I tend to just quit posting once it appears to me someone is taking offense, or just wants to be offensive, or belligerant. So if you want to start a fight with me, take satisfaction in knowing you'll have the last word.

I don't know how to post pictures here besides the provided smilies. But I love the pictures I see others posting.

So what motivates everyone else here?

it just feels like...i dunno, like the local clubhouse someone built in their back yard. we may get into spats, but everyone is still a Lounger in the end

way to describe the Lounge!

"Everyone is still a Lounger in the End". Love it!

Items 1-6.

good hearted people here, it's overwhelming sometimes. i remember you helping me out once with job stuff. thanks again for that.
i lurked on lbn all the time, but started posting because i lost my voice a couple of weeks before the election. it was fustrating, i had to switch to non verbal advocacy for a while, and i had to vent too.
go to photobucket if you ever want to post a picture- you have to put them in there and it will give you a url address and you just paste that in your post. very easy.

Something I tried to capture in other words in one of the options in the poll, but you said it much better than I did.

I vaguely recall your handle, but at least a dozen or so people here have thanked me for helping them in some way, and I don't exactly keep track of them all.

Could you please refresh my recollection as to how I helped you out once with "job stuff"?

People's stories here often touch my heart and my best nature emerges and I do what I can to encourage, to help, to console.

Yours must have been one of those stories.

Can you elaborate a bit on picture posting? I don't know what "photobucket" is. I've just read several times that you can't post pics that you've saved to your hard-drive, and I've confirmed that through trials and failures.

Thanks again, bettyellen for your kind message.

I go just to participate in a flame war if it is a sort of tongue in cheek one. I don't like the ones where one person is being jumped by about 10 others though. Other times, I go just to meet the people who have a sense of humor. Some people get all assinine if you crack a joke elsewhere. I like it here because I can be silly and happy and get away from the sad miserable truth of who our fellow Americans have allowed to have control of our country for the next who knows how many years. It's nice to get the hell away from that reality and just cut up and have fun.

Skinner was brilliant to create a forum like this where we can all get away from the ugly realities of the Neo-con-dominated world today and just be our silly, goofy, fun-loving selves, helping to preserve our common humanity - while still taking some good-natured pot-shots at the assholes who are ruining everything else for us.

Just kidding:evilgrin:

People, GD people, Lounge People and so on. The Lounge group has the best sense of humor by far. You really have to watch your facts in the others at the risk of getting your ass chewed, something I forget sometimes..ouch!

People who correct spelling and grammar on DU remind me of the kids we used to stuff in lockers in Junior High School (small lockers too).



"OK, now you spell antidisestablishmentarianism--backwards,
you little twerp!"

"That's right Timmy, teach him a lesson THEN stuff
him in the locker."

Otherwise it passes.

Well, stuff 'em in the lockers just for that. Thanks for the info, seriously, now it won't bother me. I'll just say "You are obviously descending to pettiness due to your inability to confront your hostility toward my obviously superior argument." Making friends and influencing people along the information super highway...

New modes of spelling are a way of life on that one, for sure.

Here is the parent site, which you may have seen.

http://www.somethingawful.com/

JeffK is a pseudonym for "lowtax" who runs the site. As JeffK, he used to go out and hack "swinger" and "soft porn" sites for days, take them over, and taunt them with the moronic JeffK patter. Got a bit out of hand, and lowtax had to cool it. Something about violating Federal law.

And, yes, it is the essence of weirdass, unless you've seen

http://www.elftrance.com/

(and these guys can spell)

And this isn't a "fact"-based forum, so no one's pressured constantly to provide some internet link to "prove" something. I hate that shit.

I'd like to see some evidence. Link?

http://www.takebackthemedia.com/true911.html

Be sure to turn up the volume.

Sure there are outbursts and some people you just will never get along with (throughout DU, actually), but for the most part there's an attitude of live and let live that you won't find in many other places.

plus I'm also learning from your posts.

I'll get back to some of you individually, before too long. I'm kind of busy with some household chores at the moment and popping in and out of here out of curiosity, and, admittedly, vanity, to see what kinds of responses this poll gets. I want to learn more about DU Loungers and what makes us all tick. Science is interesting and all, but learning about people is what makes life worth while.

'the most interesting people on the planet' (which planet, I'm not sure).

You get responses when you post there and you have a chance to meet on a convivial level where wit (or 1/2 of that) is valued and where the first instinct of the posters is friendly and welcoming.

The Lounge is a great place to post and it takes the edge off of the "hot zones" of DU, which I also love.

It actually gets better as time goes on. There should be a brief posting to new users: "Tolerate the occasional Freeper or miscreant because the overwhelming majority of DUers are friendly, supportive, and intelligent."

Where else can a thread discussing one's favorite beer devolve into a flame war over credit for the Great Society? Not many places.

But there have been so many of them. It keeps me rivited.

sometimes serious, sometimes silly or absurd. sometimes just your average small talk.

i just love this whole site; i feel like
"i'm home! i'm home! i'm home!" whenever i come here on DU.



:hug: :loveya:

I really want to hear about what makes DU Loungers tick.

:kick:

even though i seem to be a thread killer sometimes, and some of my post die an ealy death, I love it.

I can't get enough of it, and the pet/people/places pics keep it human and real.

Here's my homage to the Lounge... (a thread that died early btw! oh well, I usually post late and forget to kick in the daytime.)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=2702634

:)

rap "music" in the "rap music" threads. I've learned that what really sets off the "rap" afficianados is saying it isn't "music".

Ooops. There I did it again; sorry, all.

The truth is my posts on the subject have all been tongue-in-cheek. I don't really have any feelings about "rap" one way or the other. I just pretty much tune it out these days.

:kick:

:)

:)

I'm a habitual lurker though. I don't post very much, I think partly because I'm just not very good at it & partly because sometimes it seems like I'm intruding. But it's really nice being in a place where humor, emotional support, advice, and general silliness are the norm.

I love being ignored.

:P

Nah... not really. Just thought I'd make your day.

:evilgrin:

Oh..wait..

:+

;) I'm kidding.

Then again, I hit on you, too - so it kinda balances out, no? :shrug:

and started hanging out in the lounge. Thanks to you all I've had alot of fun here. I end up spending most of my time at DU here.
:hi: :loveya: :hug:

Need an answer to some weird question? Just ask.

And there are the totally weird, off the wall fun threads. It's a good break from LBN, GD and GD-P.

Also, Mr Scorpio makes nice drinks.

I'm a masochist.

:mad: :spank: :spank: :spank: :spank: :spank: :spank: :spank:



Just kiding.

flames. Oh, well. Looks like people have lost interest.

N.B.: it only needs one or two more posts to begin flaming.

Last kick.

Maybe not.