DU used to be a board where one could call out ignorant opinons.

[dballance]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Violet_Crumble (a host of the General Discussion forum).

Now it has become a place where juries no longer take into context the OP when the OP poster says something absolutely crazy and some one calls them out about it.

DU has become a place where you can post almost any idiocy as an OP and when people call one out about it their posts are hidden as being not very polite or nice.

That is just wrong.

[Sherman A1]

1. ......

[Sherman A1]

5. I think you are right

I will grab some more during the next intermission.

[Behind the Aegis]

2. Is this in reference to...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1018&pid=716615

[JonLP24]

6. I know I've written posts far worse than that, grammar wise

Sometimes I get sleepy and forget to type words. Type an I when I mean another word. On that point, I'm going to sleep.

[JI7]

8. i thought it would be something like the people who thought defending slavery

was worth discussing and the person called them out on that and got a hide for that.

[Iris]

13. me, too

Jeez

[A-Schwarzenegger]

11. Meanness

is its own reward.

[Behind the Aegis]

15. I am assuming it is that one as he already made a post about the other one.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026085972

[A-Schwarzenegger]

16. I don't understand questioning hides on posts

that have hide written all over them. The only post I've had hidden on DU3 I knew damn well was going to be hidden as I was composing it.

[Behind the Aegis]

18. I had one hidden by an anti-Semitic troll banned 6 hours later.

It was based on a riff, and it was snarky, but...whatever. There are always some posts hidden that confound me, and others that get a pass that equally confound me. Oh, BTW (given his personal attack on you, I thought you'd like to know) : http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=profile&uid=320086&sub=trans

[A-Schwarzenegger]

21. Yeah, the writing was on the wall for that one.

Stephen Obvious.

[freshwest]

23. America-Firster? The pre-WW2 group that... OFFS!

David Duke must be bored. Or maybe part of the brigade thatTim Wise calls the Broken Clocks...

[HappyMe]

27. That's just plain mean.

I would say that's a good hide.

[Cleita]

4. Something I find wrong with the juries is that you will be called

more frequently if you are a star member. This immediately puts the decisions with the upper 50% who pay. Some of our most just DUers do live on a limited income and can't pay so their opinion is reduced.

Just saying.

[Suich]

7. You've been on DU a lot longer than I have, Cleita.

Why do you say star members are on juries more frequently? I always thought it was a totally random pick among all DU members.

Thanks!

[Cleita]

9. No it isn't. Look at the jury rules on your profile.

Star member gets 20 points.

[Suich]

12. Dang! I had no idea.

That kinda stinks, imo.

But then, I'm not the boss.

[Angleae]

10. Nope, there's a formula for it.

Including total posts, how many posts in the last 90 days, posts hidden in the last 90 days, and star membership.

You can see your breakdown in your profile page.

[cwydro]

26. I'm a star member

and I paid very little for that.

I'm not on a lot of juries either lol.

[merrily]

29. If you have not done so, you might try raising that in the admin forum or via pm to Skinner.

[marble falls]

30. I pay twenty bucks a year from a retiree on SS for most of my income for my star. DU would....

give me the star for less. I pay what I can afford. And its worth it to not have to read the crap that could be posted here without MIRT and the juries. Its not a fee, its a free will offering.

And to be honest I don't think I'm being called to any more juries than I was on DU2 before I was contributing.

Juries may be a little more likely to cut a post and I think I see a lot more 6-1 and 7-0 than 4-3 than I used to.

[JDPriestly]

14. Try calling out the OP in a tactful way. Also, you can report an OP if it is absolutely crazy.

There is, as far as I know no penalty for reporting a post that is not found by the jury to necessitate removal.

[AverageJoe90]

17. Unfortunately, having been a victim of some of this kinda stuff myself, I'll have to agree.

Things did really start changing about a year and a half ago, and not for the better. And anyone around here who knows what I and some others have had to put up with, can probably guess as to what I'm referring to.

But, on the other hand, it does seem like this place has calmed down a bit since I've been gone, at least at first glance.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

19. Hard to Love a Gangsta!

Welcome back, TBHJoe! Missed ya big!

[AverageJoe90]

20. Sure, sure.

In any case, I'll try to stay out of the meta stuff as much as possible from this point forward. It'll probably be better for my DU experiences.

[obxhead]

22. I miss the unrec button and the time when meta discussions were not allowed.

[marble falls]

25. I think an unrec button might be a good thing if the recs would reflect a correction if the ....

unrec voter was removed.

[marble falls]

24. The altrenative is not going to be pleasant for most people. Think Discussionist without juries.....

I thought the way you did until I did a term on MIRT. After seeing the HUGE amount of dismal stuff that could have been posted here, I think the system is at least 80-90% effective. There are some things juried or removed I think are OK, but there's also some that aren't cut that I feel should have been. It certainly has made me consider how I form my responses when I disagree with someone.

The trouble with merely calling out things is that there are too many that take being called out as an invitation to spew flame and to troll fights and derail the conversation for those of us here to learn and teach. If I wanted a "robust" free for all under what starts out as free speech that turns into digital diarrhea I wouldn't be here. If some code of civility is enforced to promote free speech, I can live with it if only because I feel free for alls aren't necessarily free speech particularly when its all about anti-Semitism, racism, misogyny, Islamophobia, and purely personal invective, meant to disrupt and insult.

[Jamastiene]

31. I remember when the group of people I belong to would try to educate the ignorant

jerks of DU, we'd get TSed...or at least a mod would delete our post. I got a nasty warning on one deleted post in the entire history of DU2.

But, it was worth a try to educate some of the ignorant bullshit people said. Now, they say it a lot, BUT we are able to call them out on it more often than we used to.

On other issues, yeah, we could speak out, but when it came to transphobia and homophobia back then, we got extremely disciplined by the mods. They hated us. They even locked a silent thread for Stonewall. A silent fucking thread? Really? FFS, I'm glad to be rid of the mods, but I have to admit, I miss Meta. Yeah, some of the worst stuff was said in there, but we could duke it out with each other and not have referees favoring one side, usually the non-GLBT side.

[Violet_Crumble]

32. Locking...

Threads complaining about Democratic Underground or its members; threads complaining about jury decisions, locked threads, suspensions, bannings, or the like; and threads intended to disrupt or negatively influence the normal workings of Democratic Underground and its community moderating system are not permitted.