How did you find DU?

[Autonomy]

I found out about it probably about the same time the site went live in 2001, but I'm not sure. I was a subscriber to democrats.com's newsletter, which I read religiously. I read every story, every linked cross-reference, and every available link from there, and archived the most important stories. I ended up on DU a lot, but really didn't have time for a message board, and was getting all the political news I needed from the email newsletter. I was also addicted to a MMPORG at the time, and my online community was their message board, with lots of neo-cons to argue with (when the mods let us), so I didn't see the point in spending time on a website where everyone agreed with me already. LOL. (How naive I was!)

I quit online gaming, for the most part, in 2003. Then after the Kerry "loss" in 2004, democrats.com stopped putting out their newsletter, and I took a 9-month break from politics. I only woke up from my little nap when Cindy Sheehan was getting badmouthed on various websites, especially HuffPo, and I decided to join DU, at long last. You'll notice my join date is at the time Cindy was sitting in a ditch in Texas.

And I've been here ever since. I really, really, REALLY wish I had joined DU in the beginning. Now I have to make up for lost time. Haha, jk.

edit added: I only really started in the Lounge about 2 weeks ago, and my post count doubled since then!

[texanwitch]

1. I found DU when I was posting on Mike Malloy's board, I started coming

over more and more. Now this is home.

[Floogeldy]

2. I did not find DU.

It found me.

[Haole Girl]

3. I heard about it while on another forum.

That forum has since dissolved into nothingness, but DU lives on!

[Awsi Dooger]

4. I searched for political odds in fall 2002

An early entry led to a thread here, one of the political forums. The thread had some absurd odds and I waited for maybe a full day for someone to point that out.

When no one did I couldn't take it anymore and registered. My first post was. "Ignore those laughable odds." One guy wrote, "Dude, I didn't understand half of what you wrote, but post more often!" That type of reaction seemed like my type of place.

[Oeditpus Rex]

5. Friend encouraged me

That being the DUer known as grasswire.

Blame her. :evilgrin:

[Spirochete]

6. Found the link on Bartcop.com

back in early 2001.

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

12. That's how I found it too .

Then I came back to the DU again and registered in October 2003 while living in Germany.

[Hugin]

20. Seriously, me three. n/t

[LSK]

7. i was a rare liberal on another board arguing politics

The other liberal on that board told me about this place in 2003.

[SeattleGirl]

8. Through a link to an article on DU sent to me by a friend.

I was instantly hooked, though I did not join for a couple of years.

[MiniMandaRuth]

9. My Mommy found it first... and then I joined!

[Starbucks Anarchist]

10. A link from Buzzflash.

[trof]

14. Me too.

In 2002?

[Starbucks Anarchist]

19. 2004.

Didn't join till 2005, though.

[Hissyspit]

11. Google search brought up Top Ten Conservative Idiots

About two years ago. Wish I'd found it sooner, too.

[Random_Australian]

17. Same to the letter.

[Hissyspit]

42. Huh. That's interesting, Random.

I spent about six months just reading that and the home page, because I was afraid that if I went into the discussion boards, I'd spend all my time on the internet, and guess what... :7

[Wetzelbill]

56. Pretty similar here

then I ended up reading Will Pitt's book, "The Greatest Sedition Is Silence" and he mentions DU a lot in there, so I decided to join up. But yup, I first found it with the "Idiot" search, lol.

[laheina]

13. A freeper troll told me about it during the last primary

season. I started reading; I started posting, and I've been here ever since. :)

[Hugin]

15. I thought ducks were the coolest little animals... So, I sought a way to

preserve the wetland for the little fellahs.

I thought a good way to do that was to join Ducks Unlimited and
discuss wetland issues here in the forum.

[leeroysphitz]

16. Well the judge told me it was either DU or JAIL! So here I am, nt

[Hugin]

18. Best.Answer.Ever...

LOL!

:rofl:

[bridgit]

21. hubby found du shortly after it started up from a blog roll at a...

political site he still frequents; he joined but went out some 4+ years ago in a typical dumb-ass flame war like the ones i see around here all the time; but told me about it some two years ago :shrug:

[ChaoticSilly]

22. A link in a thread on Salon.com

Someone was arguing that someone else was too liberal and suggested they come here. I think the word "socialism" was being thrown around in a discussion about health care - I couldn't figure out what was so bad about it so I figured I'd go check it out. I can't remember exactly when, but it wasn't too long after they started charging for article & message board access.

I lurked for several months before I started posting - not that I post too terribly much now. I guess I'm just a habitual lurker, among being habitual other things... :silly:

[graywarrior]

23. Michael Moore's forum was shut down and someone from there

told me about here.

[Mutley]

24. I first heard about it through my dad.

I lurked for awhile but never signed up.

Then when I was in my Yahoo political chat room phase (thank God that's over!) there was a user who would post links to GD and GDP threads all the time. So I came back, signed up, and the rest is history.

[madinmaryland]

25. I found it on the Moose and Squirrel site, in mid 2001.

I only read it for the articals on the homepage, and of course the Top 10 Conservative Idiots. Wasn't big into the disussion threads at the time.

[AngryAmish]

26. I was at democraticundergroune.com

Then I decided to look at democraticunderground.com. Democraticundergrounf.com is really cool too and I spend most of my time there. I just come back here for old times sake.

[L A Woman]

27. I was posting on Randi Rhodes' message board

and people kept talking about "DU" and eventually I asked "WTF is DU?" :-)

[Cos]

28. VelmaD and Bonifaz

We were sitting next to each other at the panel on Tom DeLay at DemocracyFest in 2005, hit it off, and hanging around with her I heard about her friends from DU. We met up again at the anti-war protest in DC that fall, and I followed her to a DU social at some pub that evening.

I finally signed up for DU when I started volunteering for John Bonifaz (voting rights leader running for secretary of state in MA) this winter, and several of the key volunteers were on DU and sending everyone emails about their DU posts. paineinthearse was the most active of them.

[babylonsister]

29. All Hat, No Cattle got me here. nt

[rug]

30. Sean Hannity was bashing it before the election

so I took that as a recommendation.

[auntAgonist]

31. I honestly can't remember how I found DU, but glad I did. nt.

[Roon]

32. Someone in a chat room was posting late breaking news

hours before the news hit the MSM. I had to find out where he was getting his information from and I signed up that day!

[mwooldri]

33. Democrats.com.

Now I know the Democratic Party has their website at democrats.org but yes I put in the .com part. That site isn't bad either but it had a few refugees from here. I hung out in their forums from time to time... and posted a bit and read a bit. Learned about here and just stuck around for a bit.

Mark.

[Autonomy]

43. Yay! Glad to see someone else from that site over here :)

[giant_robot]

34. I found it through hated.com

Lots of links to good places there.

[seg4527]

35. wow, 5 years ago

there was something about bartcop on c-span. from bartcop, i found a link to DU.

[diamondsndust]

36. i found it thru a link from our old pal Jerky over at...

http://dirtfiles.com

[Guava Jelly]

37. I found it via Bartcop.com

I used to post there but since i upgraded my computer and lost my login info.
I could never get anyone to send me my forgotten password..so instead of starting over i came here

[bigwillq]

38. When I googled Howard Dean

a link came up to DU and I've been here ever since. :)

[LaurenG]

39. I googled two words "democrat" and "underground"

I was so sick of what was happening I started frantically searching for others. It brought me here. I lurked for a year and then when I tried to join, I couldn't because you guys were using all the DU bandwidth so I had to wait until after the elections before I could get on.

[maveric]

40. In January 2002 I just happened to google "conservative idiots"...

on a whim after watching some wingnut on CNN and BANG! I've been here everyday since.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

60. Ha! I like that!

:rofl:

[otherlander]

41. I was talking to someone on a chatroom

and they said something like, "You should go to Democraticunderground.com, they'd apreciate your ideas."

I think I was starting to annoy them...:silly:

[Autonomy]

44. haha welcome to DU!

I'm sure you'll fit right in here. :)

[otherlander]

46. huzzah!

:bounce:

[Left Is Write]

45. Moonbeam_Starlight told me about it.

[applegrove]

47. I was on another board - I really didn't know anything about web forums.

I was being run down by constant freeper bullshit that obfuscated the debate. People kept mentioning the DU. I signed up one day and thought - now this is it. Discussion without anyone claiming Nazis were socialists and right wing extremists have never done anything wrong in the history of the world.

[Rowdyboy]

48. Linked to MYDD.....which I found totally by accident.

[ZombieNixon]

49. A friend/coworker randomly dropped a mention at the end of a conversation

about work I was doing with theater lighting for his show.

All downhill from there. :silly:

[Robbie Michaels]

50. Through an email

I wrote an Op/Ed for Radio News America regarding Andy Stephenson's passing and KyndCulture sent me an email telling me you guys voted it for Greatest that day. Until I received that email, I had no idea this board existed. Of all the boards I've belonged to, this one is the best and that's why I'm still here. Thanks for making me welcome. :grouphug:

[RevolutionaryActs]

51. I don't remember anymore.

Link on some site, I think? :shrug:

[Broken_Hero]

52. one of

my wife's co-workers, told us about this site. I put off checking it out for about a month, or so, and started reading threads in january of 2005...The first posts, that hit me, where the very well, crafted/written posts by Plaid Addler, and I lurked for about 5 months, before signing up...I just had to see if the debate, and what not was viable, and in most cases, it is.

I had been on other chat forums, and chat sites, but the debate, was down right mean, and nothing was being gained ...

Most fights at my other sites where...

"W doesn't know what he is doing, there are no wmd's, I believe this man, lied us into war"

Response: "Shut up you damn liberal commie! You have no idea what its like fighting terrorism, and you should just leave the USA"...

Not to enlightning is it? DU was a WHOLE SHIT LOAD better...granted, there are some major flaming threads, but usually the discourse is kept in check, and not unleashed into rage(mostly!)...:)

[Mojambo]

53. I just can't remember. It bugs the hell out of me. n/t

[begin_within]

54. Turned left at Greenland.

[enigmatic]

55. Nicely Done

:thumbsup:

[begin_within]

58. Thanks

I don't know why, it just popped into my head immediately upon seeing the thread title.

[Vidar]

57. Came in from the Kerry board.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

59. I used to frequent politicalhumor.about.com. (My story on joining DU)

At the time of Dumbya's second coronation, they had a link to a little something they called The Top 10 Conservative Idiots. :D I read it, and was pissing myself, it was so funny.

All that summer I would hop onto DU whenever I thought I could get a glimpse of another Top 10. I also started peeking in and lurking around the boards, just watching what was going on. I thought that it was pretty interesting, but I told myself I wasn't about to actually join or anything like that.

September 24th, 2005 was the day of the big peace march in D.C. I happened to be on DU at the time, lurking on GD--and then something popped inside of me. I just HAD to talk about this. So I joined, just for kicks. By the end of the day, I had over 100 posts and was addicted.

Throughout September/October I was solely concerned with GD. I had popped in the Lounge once, and found you all to be despicable lazy sloths concerned wholly with debauchery. (My fellow GDers did nothing to dissuade me from this erroneous belief. :evilgrin:)

I got to the thousand post mark at Scoot-Scoot's indictment, about a month after I joined. After that, I started getting a little bored of all the flaming that had become part of GD. So I peeked my head in here again, feeling more tolerant than before, full of adolescent curiosity as to what torrid subjects y'all were talking about.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

;)

:toast:

[wildhorses]

61. this guy that I used to IM sent me a link to one of the subforums...

I got to looking around (curious critter that I am) and once I found the Lounge I was hooked!!!

[wildhorses]

63. too late for edit but I guess you could say that I came in

through the back door so to speak

[Redneck Socialist]

62. I googled "bush is an idiot"

or something like that and ended up at toostupidtobepresident and followed a link from there.

I think.

It was a while ago.

[Cathyclysmic]

64. DU found me.

I honestly can't remember. It may have been through a link from another blog or message board. It was over 2 years ago.