Newbie Wondering about DU History

Hey folks, I've been wanting to hear from knowledgeable DUers about the origins of this whole online community and forum. I'd love to hear some lore!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/01/01/010127_7days.html

The best read you'll ever have. Good stuff here about how we were given life on the web.

Thanks bro.

It shows why banning conservatives from the board must be done. If they are not banned, they will try to take over the whole website. Their pattern of behavior is evident nationwide: they want not participation, but total domination.

I was staying at my sister's (DU's remfan) in West Virginia during the election 2000 debacle while my house was being remodeled. In January, we debated going to DC to demonstrate against the inauguration but we decided not to do it. So, on inauguration day, we were sitting in her living room monitoring activities on indymedia.org and watching C-SPAN. We saw all those demonstrators and were absolutely thrilled, albeit kicking ourselves for not being a part of it. Throughout the election debacle, we had been surfing around, searching for lefty websites to keep us informed. remfan had been politically aloof before the election but with me, a lifelong political junkie around, that quickly changed & her eyes popped wide open when she realized the depths to which these people were stooping to steal the election. And, as we watched the inaugural parade, we suddenly saw a big banner: DEMOCRATICUNDERGROUND.COM We logged on a few times in the weeks after that. After I returned to Wyoming in February, she continued to visit the site and after a few months, she told me that I should check the message boards. (Prior to that, I'd only read the articles and, especially, the Top 10 Conservative Idiots.)

It was a small community back then and it was pretty easy to get to know other members. We've watched it grow dramatically ever since. In some ways, that's great; in others, not so good. I don't spend as much time here now as I used to because my activities with our local peace group has definitely cut into my time. But I still check in regularly and hope it is providing a safe community for those who need to realize that there really are other liberals and progressives out there.