DU has made me, a newbie, feel totally unwelcome

My first thought was, I'll simply never post again.

My second thought was, perhaps it would be more helpful, for the sake of the Democratic Party, to draw your attention to what I doubt is an isolated phenomenon.

I posted a thread yesterday which it would be impossible for any fair person to construe as that of a troll or freeper or whatever the politically correct term is.

My post went as follows...

"Just attended a Christmas party where the entire room was buzzing with word that Kerry was planning to "unconcede", due to Triad hijinks, and other nefarious fraud evidence.

Anyone know if this is true, or was the egg nog just flowing freely?"

Here's the link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x196006

At first, the comments were somewhat helpful, then someone apparently outed a troll on the thread, then comments directed at me indicated that I too was considered a troll -- comments such as:

"It's smells kinda funny here today, huh?"
"i think the mods need to bust out with some air freshener"
"dude go home"
"Wow, where was the party??... a RepubliCON district..."
"I noticed you disabled your profile"
"I always come along to late to join in the fun!"
"Enjoy your short stay here"
"Isn't a website on the right missing someone?"
"Excuse me, your frip is showing."
"They were serving Crack! know on the street as Cracknog"
"Who has parties on Christmas day?"
"I am use to parties a week or two in advance. Everybody is usually traveling home this week."
"I agree--and notice the lack of response to the questions"

**************************************************************

I thought I would encounter like-minded souls at DU, not suspicion, confrontation, and hostility, for asking if anyone can confirm something I'd heard at a Christmas party.

Is this some sort of hazing ritual?

Of course, I wonder if Republicans are trying to scare me away from the site, since paranoia begets paranoia.

If these people are indeed Democrats, I cannot even begin to fathom what they believe my ulterior motive is.

Things are tough right now, and we have been simply swamped with instigators and troublemakers.

Some of them are very slick.

Hang in there. We are better for you being here.

:hi:

They might think that you're DLC dude. All non compliant thinkers are DLC. Which by the way is HATED here. Unless you are a former DLCer running for DNC chair. Then you are ok.

In short, get used to it. Even if you post "Dems rock!" you are going to get flack here on DU.

Welcome to DU.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Hey look..another poor attempt at being funny by the "I hate Dems who don't look like me." crowd.

:grr:

Well put.

Someone carve out a cross for the poster playing role of "victim" to drag about the boards.

Funny how so many organizations love to make the persecution claim and then assert that it's "proof" they are "right". heh heh

Julie

Finally someone fuckin' says it.

If you don't love Howard Dean, or Wes Clark, and don't HATE HATE HATE the DLC, and don't think John Kerry is a traitor to our party who "sold us out" you're a fucking outcast on DU these days.

And thank you for your post.

I've been having a great time discussing the Kerry strategy with some real Kerry-lovers here. I haven't picked up any kind of negative vibe, save for the occasional delusional paranoid who's pissed because Kerry hasn't called him personally to discuss his (Kerry's) next step.

Who cares if there's a freeper about? Ignore it, report it, end of story.

You know, I don't get there often enough.

I find a heading that interests me and I check it out.

I come and go all day, but I don't stay in one place very long, ever.

which would include Kerry by membership.

You haven't read the threads where they are a neo-con trojan, traitors, repukes, republican-lites, republicans, Satan's toadies?

You haven't read the posts where they conspired to control the primaries?

Really?

But, if I see an idiotic thread starting, I go somewhere else.

Why would I read crap like that?

if you say anything AT ALL here about John Kerry's dismally weak behavior since his concession, THAT's when you're called a bi-polar fascist neo-con freeper piece of worthless trash, especially on this Election Results board.

John Kerry is always right, the rest of us are just freepers.

...could you explain why the DLC is hated?

I assume it doesn't stand for Don't Like Cats.

Perhaps now I'll be accused of being disingenuous.

i.e. I know what DLC stands for literally, but don't know what the DLC stands for, figuratively.

In response to the poster who took exception to my use of the word "nefarious", may I direct your attention to dictionary.com.

Some hate them because they take money from corporations.
Some hate them because their blog tells them to.
Some hate them because their favorite candidate is not one of them and isn't getting to where he wants to be...so they think there is a conspiracty to "keep him down"

Some hate them because Clinton had flaws and was one of them.

I'm sure your post will invite reponses from the "I hate DLCers" gang.

I saw your post but didn't respond because I didn't know anything about it, and really had nothing to add. I didn't hit the ALERT button, that's for sure, which is my policy when I think I have found a troll-I don't respond to their posts, as I feel that only gives them a feeling of power. I wish others would do the same.

Sometimes people have said things here that have ruffled my feathers, but I've found that far more people are willing to listen and share than flame.

Please know that there are nice people here who hope you stay.

Trolls are here to get attention. Don't give it to them.

leave because of this. I'm sorry for the way you were treated, sometimes some people here can get difficult, and sometimes paranoia rears its ugly head when we've been inundated with trolls. During such times, it's easy for some people to see everyone as a potential troll. But that is NOT the way we usually are, and I apologize on behalf of my fellow long-time DUers.

Please stay and know you are welcome, and know also that there will be times when you'll catch flak for no good reason. EVERYONE here catches flak for no good reason at times, we just have to deal with it.

People here tend to think of newbies as freepers (if you've lurked for a while you know who they are)...
and sometimes people get a bit off subject (hence the 'who has a Christmas party...')

Try not to take it too personally.

It's only a discussion board. Besides, calling evidence of blatent fraud "nefarious" is probably what did it.

That lurk here and cause trouble. Many of these folks have high posts counts because they know were the posting boundaries are and stay well within the line. When a newbie jumps on board they pretend to be Democrats. Sadly they are not. Don't let it get your spirits down.

If it was in Washington DC, the "buzz" would really mean something.

If it was elsewhere, I wondered why everyone was "buzzing" about this. (The RepubliCON reference was a joke - if a RepubliCON district was "buzzing" about Kerry's "unconcession," that'd also be big news. Get it?)

By the way, I don't think you ever answered the question.

And welcome to DU. :hi:

NGU.

NGU.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

And democracy is a form of warfare. One where people fight (mostly) with words.

I don't think I made that agreement clear enough in my previous post.

Really. :hi:

If you are attacked personally, there is an Alert button in the bottom left hand corner where you can let mods know what is going on. That type of attack is against DU rules. And, people are a little jumpy and suspicious because of repeated "infiltration" attempts by disruptors from other websites who just want to cause trouble.

That said, on reviewing the thread, several posters are mentioning a website in your profile which appears to make them question your veracity, esp. as you appear to have subsequently modified your profile to remove it? This *could* be construed badly, esp. as you haven't responded to those posters re: your profile?

Apparently, the moderator considered them a troll. They had made a reference to Kerry being a paper tiger, and any filing on January 6 being ineffectual.

I happen to love John Kerry, and believe that should be profile enough.

After the election, I found mainstream news too grating to watch -- thought DU would be a viable alternative.

Perhaps my skin isn't thick enough, however.

Didn't know that was a qualification for being a good Democrat.

Does DU stand for Democratic Underground or Dis U?

Another thought -- don't confuse the "D" in DU with the actual, real-world, Democratic party. This is just a message board on the internet where a bunch of people hang out, not all Democrats, mostly of the left persuasion but some of the waaaay left and some even former Republicans.

Question: Have you spent much time on internet forums? I'm just wonderin, 'cause the quality of discourse seems about the same to me here as on other newsgroups where controversial topics are discussed. I'm thinkin' of some of the old alt-religion newsgroups I used to hang out on..... brrr... get out your asbestos shorts.

... not a measure of your self-worth.

Get over yourself, quit analyzing things that don't matter, and loving John Kerry is reason enough for you to be glad to be here.

Now, shift the focus from you to something else - an issue, an event out there, something that matters to others in the world - and let it rip.

Welcome to DU. Sorry you got off to a rocky start. :hi:

And you'll likely have to toughen up in the current climate.
...O...

by the mods.

It's a tough room. That is the first thing to note. It is a very tough room.

There are many people who come to DU to disrupt, and emotions are running high right now due to your 'unconcede' topic. Plus, you have the added stigma of a low vote count which makes people more suspicious. Just keep reading, posting intelligent questions or insights, and learning. Once you're recognized, you won't be pounced on as much. But it still happens. I remember starting threads that went no where and thought I'd never post again, but the good outweighs the bad, and I do learn a lot here.
So, welcome! :hi:

If you really are a Dem, that is probably the case here. You touched on a topic that is VERY sensitive right now and you engaged in innuendo, which can make people a bit suspicious.

Ignore it. Move on. If you really are a Dem, that will be shown in time, don't worry. And you didn't get tombstoned, right? So either no one alerted on you or the mods DIDN'T feel you were a troll. So I wouldn't sweat it. MANY people here who are genuinely Democrats have experienced much the same thing.

It's kinda the nature of the internet. Keep posting.

..rather paranoid. I saw your post also but didn't have anything to add....Anyway..A WARM Welcome :)

it's not unusual. Many times people that come here and post threads such as you started with (I saw the thread when you posted it, and didn't reply), simply do so they can either attack the respondent, or sidetrack discussion and go back to the board they normally post at in order to talk trash about how they caused people here to overreact, etc.

Just brush it off and stick around for a bit, you'll enjoy it :).

Still think there are some great people on this board. Maybe this was all a misunderstanding? Might wanna give them another chance. I think you ARE welcome :hug:

I am very tolerant. The only thing that gets me is being lectured about What makes "us" look bad. from what I read you had an honest question. Please stay and remember "herding Cats" is our game

the whole circle firing squad thing.

There are others who are very suspicious of new commers.

Then there are those who are simply passionate liberals who are very aggressive in their discussions.

Sorry you didn't feel welcomed. Try the Wesley Clark group the Pets group and THE LOUNGE. Those places are great places to hang out and meet DUers.

Welcome to DU!!!

We would like to know who they are.

sorry that you had this kind of a reaction. I am new as well, but have not had any problems here. People has welcomed me and been very kind. Hang in there and keep plugging away. I have been a Dem my whole life and I am here to learn and get more active with my party. If these are your reasons for visiting here.....hang in and participate. Welcome to DU

...no matter how brilliant I think they are ;), and your second thread has 23 of them. Sounds pretty good to me.

Stick around. First impressions can often be wrong.:hi:

feed each others threads.

:bounce:

As well as mine, LOL I just figured it may have not been interesting to others.... that is ok, I am a big girl and I dont care cuz I thought it was good. LOL

:hug:

EDIT- BTW: You two are making a liar out of me.:D

and yeah there is a kind of silly high post elitism. Pay it no mind whatsoever.

The very first time I posted I got totally slammed and misconstrued. It bugged me so much that I just lurked for a whole six months before I got the courage to post again. Hang in there and welcome. Consider just doing a bunch of "kick" posts for a little while until you get about 50 or so. Folks will lighten up.

Understand that you unwittingly alluded to the singular issue that has people the most irate 'round here but don't make the mistake I did by taking it personally. People are just over reactive in light of the apparant likelihood of four more years of *. Ughhhh

And again, welcome.

People asking innocent questions when they're real motive is to create yet another divisive thread. Just so you understand where the animosity may have come from.

:wtf: It's chilling to be called a troll. One bit of advice, list your state, gender and city (maybe). It's always odd on a forum like this to see nothing in the profile except, well nothing.

it was real obvious a while ago, its also pretty depressing going thru another fascists holiday, This week I am especially angry and have bitten off the heads of many fellow DUers for little or no reason.

SO keep posting, you are welcome at least thats my point of view.

You cant post at DU and not piss somebody off. dont let it get to you.
It happened to me very early on but I am still here and I still give it back sometimes, and when they gang up on me, I take my PC and go home.

but let me say, it happens to many of us. My advice would be: don't let it get to you. Stand up. Keep posting. My first post I got my feelings hurt so bad I wanted to cry. I didn't. I figured out it wasn't ME that had the problem but the jerk who hurt my feelings for no good reason. That made me feel better.

You have to develop a thick skin and be aware of what you're getting into here. Most folks are great. Really great. But there are a few turds with big, obnoxious pie holes. Ignore them and you will be fine. Don't give them the satisfaction of knowing they ran you off. They are certainly no better than you.

the response is your problem from inexperience.

You provided no context for your report - do you live in Washington - are these party goers involved in politics - could any be considered an insider. There is a certain amount of presumption from the way you worded it that the people at the party were in the know. In contrast, you didn't say whether they were your friends who are not in the know. Whether the former or latter, context would have helped your post succeed.

Your 'youth' on the forum means that you may not be aware that there are people who post here for disinformation or bring down/take down/knock down propaganda reasons.

I live in Washington, DC, and if you think parties here have some kind of "inside information" circulating among them - especially at this time of year - you're watching too many movies.

It's just a place, and, believe me, in this current mis-administration, there is no social life. Just us regular people, living our lives.

You'd probably get better insight from parties in Boston or Dallas or Los Angeles, believe it or not.

Tallahassee or Sarasota or Blackwell's hometown or Santa Barbara.

I was just trying to provide prompts as to context.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

that apparently made them suspicious of you. But I see no profile at all now. Can you explain this. I would need to see what they are talking about before I could make a decision.

I've been called a Freeper, a troll, a Fundie, a Republican, a fascist, a Greco-Fascist, a Russian nationalist - even a Christian. :hi: Wear it like a badge of honor!

We have been infiltrated by many Freepers in the last 2 months.
So people here are on edge, low post counts will make you an easy target.

Just keep posting, and things will get better. Promise.

:)

edited to say "W E L C O M E"

I thought Will Pitt was a troll!!! I was so angry with the elections I thought anyone who did not lead every sentence with 'THAT FV**ING bush*' was somehow not liberal enough! Anyway, I was lucky enough to come back after about 6 months of searching for another DU...well guess what? There is not another DU ANYWHERE in all the 6 million websites out there! Trust me...I searched for 6 months daily!!!

You are welcome to DU by 90% and dissed by 10%...Stay and enjoy...it gets better! :hug: and :hi:

and later found that the person had been tombstoned. It's a good feeling, rather like having some idiot pass you and cut you off on the highway, and then seeing them pulled over for speeding...

60,000 plus are registered here. Can they all be nice?

No. They're not all jerkoffs either. Lots of nice people have responded here to your thread.

Welcome to DU. It is true, there is a whole lot of suspicion going around, especially in the "tin hat forum" No offense to my fellow tin hatters. lol

It takes time to build a reputation, and even then, you are not above suspicion. So, a thick skin is warranted. I, for one, will embrace all John Kerry supporters. We need to stick together.

I think it would be helpful for you to answer a few of the valid questions posed on the thread. The title of thread itself was enough to raise the blood pressure of many DUers. If you think nerves are on edge now, just wait for Monday. The flying monkeys will be EVERYWHERE.

Not that it's any excuse, but emotions have been on a rollercoaster recently.

Please bear with us and stay a little longer! I hope that you'll find us a bit less paranoid and prejudiced in the future!

And Merry Christmas!

how that could be construed as a troll's post. You didn't seem to imply you thought it would be a mistake or foolish. You could even have been excited at the thought.

Maybe your use of the term, "high jinks" wasn't well advised, though I assumed it was because you yourself were in high spirits. But it seems a slim basis for suspecting you of trolling.

Anyway, look at it another way. They're likely to be honest mistakes by your critics, and nothing will please them more than to know that you're on the level. It's a passionate board, because the Dems have to be in the current situation. But it does open the possibility to making mistakes. Friendly fire, and a lot easier to take from bona fide Dems than the kind of censoring by a neocon government, in the pipeline, if everyone rolls over because they don't want to be impolite. Look upon it as "purple heart" in the political war.

Only people that get treated worse is 2ndLT's in the Army.

Sometimes people are a bit paranoid here but otherwise I find it a very good progressive forum. I'll hope you'll decide to stay.

:hi:

It's everywhere. Also, there are some who, no matter how it's put, will scream bloody murder at the concept of their particular hero possibly being imperfect.

Then there are others who cannot pass up an opportunity to take shots at their chosen political nemisis.

Bottom line, lots of ugly sniping.

Rake through it, there are also many thoughtful, informative posts that make the trip to DU worthwhile. Most times.

:toast: Welcome.

Julie

it is the DEMOCRATIC Underground right? Not COMMUNIST Underground or the SOCIALIST Underground. Democrats are the moderates, we are fair, we don't judge, we aren't racist.

I couldn't believe the replies I got on my first postings.

Nasty vibs. Maybe I was to thin-skined.

A brief retort and off to other threads.

I have read more and been educated more in the last week than in the last 30 years. (Just slow and maybe lazy.)

You'll find some who will agree with your stated view, some who will confront your view, and some who will change your view.

Guess that's what this message board is all about.

How thick?

So thick that I can exploit the image of 3000 souls being turned into dust on 9/11 as campaign footage?

So thick that every time I see the image of a grieving parent or child of an American who died in Iraq, my eyes don't tear, and I don't think, why aren't we counting the Iraqi parents and children who are grieving?

So thick that I don't worry about the grandmas and grandpas of the future who will be wondering how to pay their heating bills and food bills, because they've been conned out of their Social Security checks?

So thick that I don't think about how many people are dead today, who would be alive today, if the Supreme Court had not violated all precedent, and even the court clerks' own sense of decency, in their egregious decision which robbed Al Gore of the presidency which was rightfully his?

So thick that I don't think about how many African-Americans and others in the Civil Rights Movement died so that African-Americans could have the right to vote, but our country passively sits by, more concerned about the Ukraine than the fate about our own American democracy, as African-Americans are cheated out of the right to have their votes counted?

So thick that I become a Republican?

Your humanity isn't in question at all, nor is it for the majority here at DU. By thick skin I meant you shouldn't let people here get you down, or criticism, as you may encounter a lot of it here, as we do on occasion. That's part and parcel of the experience of having so many opinions booted back and forth from so many different personalities.

that was in your profile that people here are asking about?

I don't have a blog.

I've never had a blog.

I don't intend to start a blog.

Please stop asking me about my blog.

I don't even have time to be correcting the impression that I have a blog, much less blogging.

I just see several places where people asked you about some website (maybe it wasn't a blog?) that was in your profile when you had a profile up. And I got curious, too.

I too have had my proverbial head bitten off... I'm definitely not a freeper, being that I am an Admin at Randi Rhodes Message Board...things have been a little paranoid since the election. I think everyone does a little bit of glancing over their shoulder. We have Free Range trolls on Randi's board who are subject to public hangings.... they usually run away whimpering, but here it is different the mods are pretty on top of the troll situation, but sometimes a good guy slips into the net.

Hope it doesn't happen to you again!

It's a great place, it just happens every now then. comes with the territory when you're a newbie. But this is NOT tolerated by the mods, they make it clear. WELCOME! just crank your count up and get a star.:toast:

I´d like to say welcome to DU.

The people somehow defending the incredibly lame attacks on you or saying you should get thicker skin, heh, as you see there are actually a lot of thinskinned, insecure people here but also good people that will attack you with real arguments :]

Some people act like drunk tourists when on the net. You seem a nice sturdy fella, ignore the noise would be my advice.

Now that is funny.

The term "politically correct" is one that RWers often use to dismiss and demean legitimate objections to expressions of racism, sexism, homophobia, and other bigotry.

You might want to reconsider your usage of it and the thinking behind it, if you are sensitive to being accused of things you don't like.

Kidding.

Welcome! Just don't do any flamebait threads about Dean...otherwise known as anything that doesn't mention Dean as some sort of deity....yunno...the orange hat fellas with the good weed and killer Dead cassette collections...whoa dude...

Kidding again!

...about your profile which directed readers to a suspicious blog. Whats the story? Where did it go? Why?

Frankly, your lack of response to these is queries is, at best kind of rude. At worst, down right suspicious.

Wank on.

Whenever someone calls you out for being a newbie or having a low post count, or accuses you of being a freeper/non on our side, or breaks any other DU rule, please hit alert and we will deal with that post.

Thank you.

the "ask the administrators" forum.