What did DU used to be like?

[Hardrada]

And will it ever be the same again?

[taterguy]

1. At this point, we don't know

[HopeHoops]

2. I'm thinking it probably didn't involve a cheese sandwich

Seriously, I'm a fairly new member (June or July 08 or something), but I've seen a change. It was fast, furious, angry, and aggressive on political issues. But then the moron, Darth Cheney, and the swarm of minions were sent back to their lairs and - "Yaaaawwwnnnn. Anyone got a cheese sandwich?"

[Swede]

3. No,there was always goofy stuff,maybe even moreso.

Fried chicken wars,Laura Branigan wars,and on and on.

[HopeHoops]

4. That probably pre-dates me. I think I started in June or July of 08.

[taterguy]

5. You missed all the good stuff

[HopeHoops]

7. Hey, we've got boobies, white penis, cheese sandwich, Olive Garden and an Asian woodcarver now!

[Justpat]

16. delete

[KamaAina]

27. And Bobby Jindal

or whatever his name is...

[Hell Hath No Fury]

88. Yaks...in THONGS!

Yes, I have been here that long... :D

[FarLeftRage]

6. A lot calmer than it is now...

And they used to have a forum that was more quiet than the lounge.

I don't think it will ever be the same.

[Aristus]

67. The Meeting Room.

Lots of astrology, lots of Zen. Probably the smell of incense and patchouli. It was very mellow, man...

[FarLeftRage]

89. Yes, thanks...

I couldn't remember the name, but I do remember hanging out there... and it was very mellow.

[Left Is Write]

8. We all ate chicken while posting sex threads and watching Fat Actress on TV.

[HopeHoops]

11. Funny you should mention sex threads - I just posted this poll this morning...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x8569754

[old mark]

50. And I missed all that......nt

[petronius]

61. Fat Actress - that was quite a show!

:rofl:

[Sky Masterson]

9. It was fun

in a different way.
I miss a few of the fun people who rarely post here anymore. :cry:

[Swede]

17. Yeah,I miss February,too.

:shrug:

[flvegan]

18. Motherfucker.

Beer all over my keyboard. Came out my nose...damn it burns!

[Swede]

20. Those good old days will not return.

All 28 of them. :toast:

[flvegan]

21. Stop it!

You're wasting beer!

[Sky Masterson]

22. All things aren't as they appear.

Enjoy your chuckle.

[Swede]

25. No offense meant,Sky.

[Sky Masterson]

28. Thats cool

No worries. :thumbsup:
I can take a ribbing.:)

[Career Prole]

10. The user names of those who

have me on "ignore" have changed. :)

[CreekDog]

12. Well, apparently it used to be better

you know when things were different.

strangely enough, the lounge was apparently better before i started posting here. :eyes:

[TZ]

14. It's your bad taste in music

That ruined the lounge!!111!!! : P

[SoCalDem]

13. NOPE.. nothing stays the same

Back in mid 2001, we were ALL united because of the 2k election, and other than the occasional "Nader" threads, there was little dissent..

as 2002 approached, the internecine kvetching started, and some people around here "keep score", and the petty infighting started....it increased with every primary..every election..and now ee are where we are..

I miss a lot of the old-timers:(

[Shakespeare]

19. That's a pretty good summary.

There are a lot of old-timers I miss, too.

Shakespeare, formerly Not_over_it.

[hellbound-liberal]

93. Nice to see you are still around, SoCalDem. I keep in touch with Crewleader from the early days

I don't think the old days were necessarily better but we did seem to have a stronger bond because of the first stolen election.

[graywarrior]

15. It's always been whackadoodle

Or maybe it's me that's been whackadoodle.

[3.14158675309]

29. Locking

Please, no posts about self gratification and deprecation.

[graywarrior]

31. Did I say whack a noodle?

No....no I did not. I said whackadoodle!

[3.14158675309]

32. tomato towMAHtoe

They BOTH translate to "beat a white penis"

[graywarrior]

34. You're a boob

:hi:

[TZ]

44. And water is wet.....

Him and Dr. Strange. Two boobs in a bra ;)

[graywarrior]

46. Slippery when wet...

:evilgrin:

[3.14158675309]

76. We are upstanding members of this community

when someone mentions two boobs in a bra...

[tigereye]

23. much smaller and there was often more actual discussion instead of frequent

bickering and hyperbole.

[truedelphi]

45. Ah those were the days.

But then we are all so much older and wiser now (?)

[AlCzervik]

24. It used to be a series of tubes.

[sniffa]

26. And the jokes were better

Today's humor is severely lacking though I must step up and claim my own faults in this humor recession.

[AlCzervik]

30. See my answer on the running gags thread.

;-)

[La Lioness Priyanka]

33. now its a series of tied tubes. nt

[Dr. Strange]

35. La Lioness Priyanka's post resulted in a pregnant pause in the Lounge.

Many knew what she was trying to say, but no one wanted to help with the delivery.

[chknltl]

36. Crazy Gugenheim and Southland Shari

Wits and whips.... loungers gone but not forgotten. No the lounge will never be the same but that doesn't mean the lounge has gotten better or worse or even changed much from my perspective. I am still a newbie to many here and not truly a loungerat but in my few years, I have not noticed an appreciable change. Here is a typical loungethread from close to when I joined the DU: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x3917798#top

In remembrance of CG, Viking Kittens!: http://www.vikingkittens.com/

[Hardrada]

37. Yes, it was perhaps a bit more flirtatious!

[Hardrada]

38. Perhaps the Old Lounge was like the strip of bars in San Diego

that used to serve battleship sailors.

[Taverner]

41. SouthlandShari is one cool woman

:toast:

[chknltl]

47. Yes indeed she is...

...and I do miss her. She was warm, flirty and witty. I never knew what she looked like, (it never really mattered to me) but I heard she was quite the 'hottie'. She made me write "I'll never talk bad about GD again!" x50 times once!

Because I recall her famous whip-wielding-dominatrix avatar, I just spent the past while checking out another dominatrix, Gen from Genetorturers. Here is one of Gen's songs (with a morbid comicbook style video-sorry). It's one of my faves from her band: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RESLG3p3fCE&feature=related

[Taverner]

49. Yes, she is a hottie - "Walking streak of sex"

[chknltl]

52. Again, not that it matters.....

....wasn't there a photo or two runnin around here of her? Was she hotter than California Peggie?*
*(The one real reason all us guys are so very nice around CP of course! :) )

[YDogg]

39. less like FARK.

Or more like FARK, depending on one's perspective.

[Taverner]

40. Back in the old days, manna rained from heaven every time you made a post

Everyone smiled and payed for each other's kids college education

We all drank Cristal out of ice sculptures and the music was always Mantovanni.

[trof]

81. And we followed a column of fire at night.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

42. it was rare that the same person who accused gays of being racist, would then make xenophobic

threads in GD.

now, i notice its quite the norm

[omega minimo]

58. that's crazy

:crazy:

[La Lioness Priyanka]

62. gays are racist for using other civil rights analogies. however questioning jindals

american authenticity or pointing out his foreignness, thats par for course

[SoxFan]

43. Then & Now

GD then...


GD now...


The Lounge then...


The Lounge now...


LBN then...


LBN now...

[chknltl]

48. Bravo!

ROFLMAO!!! Well done! More like this would be better.-(please)

[Ptah]

51. Superb!

[wickerwoman]

57. Brilliant!

How do you nominate for a DUzy?

I joined in early 2002 under a different name. It hasn't changed that much. Bickering that used to focus on a few people is now spread over many but that doesn't seem to be a bad thing. The only thing I really miss is the Ask the Admin forum. It was great having all the best flame wars concentrated in one place (for those of us too timid to enter the Gun Dungeon or the Israel/Palestine forum.)

There's a lot of people I really, really miss but I don't think the substance of DU has changed much over the years.

[Hardrada]

86. Yeah, I miss a bunch of them too. I used to learn quite

a bit from Night Train for instance and a few others.

[Hardrada]

82. LOL! and Hurray!

[sammythecat]

53. It was wonderful. Better in every way.

Funnier, more informative, more caring. The people then were better than now. It's been all downhill since those long ago days and will never be as good again. The old timers who've left have been replaced by lesser people for the most part. They'll never know what it was really like. Words can not convey the magic that was here in the days of old. :eyes:


DU is 8 years old. These are still the good ol' days.

[asteroid2003QQ47]

70. It's social entropy in action and those at the bottom of the ladder...

have recently gained what seems to be a very secure foothold and
have driven away most of the "old timers" of which you speak.

[sammythecat]

80. I was trying my hand at a little sarcasm there.

I'm not always successful at that, either here or real life. I thought the rolling eyes at the end would suffice for the bright red dripping wet sarcasm thing. That thing just seems so heavy handed to me. I suppose I should try to use it though.

I understand your point, but I think the negative term "entropy" might not be the most accurate description of the evolution of DU. It changes all the time, and, depending on individual perceptions, sometimes it gets better and sometimes worse. The addition or subtraction of a handful of frequent posters is enough to alter the dynamic of any of the forums either way.

DU has grown from a small town to a good sized city. Which is better is entirely subjective I think. Some like the charm and coziness of a small town, some like the bustle and excitement of a big city.

One theory for part of the nostalgia for the old days of DU, and this is one I can relate to, is that back then everything about the internet, chat rooms, message boards, Napster, was all new and exciting. Dancing hamsters went viral.

My attempted sarcasm was in reaction to the, unintended I'm sure, implication that the newer people here somehow don't measure up to the "fallen heroes" of DU's early years.

[asteroid2003QQ47]

90. Fleeing the insanity at GDP...

I missed your sarcasm (which would appropriate commentary had it been aimed at GDP).
(I totally agree with you as to the "sarcasm thing" and almost never use it unless it in itself is sarcasm)
I'll try to not let it happen again.

[sammythecat]

94. No problem, if there's any fault, it was mine.

Seriously. I need to be more mindful that using sarcasm can be very risky when people aren't familiar with the person using it. Just so happens I got myself in a little tangle just today. You didn't misunderstand, I was just unclear.

Glad we're straight now. :-)

[swag]

54. Clean as a hound's tooth, Serpico. Clean as a hound's tooth.

[swag]

55. .

[swag]

56. Far less Cenkful.

[Name removed]

59. Deleted message

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

[TZ]

63. .

:thumbsup:

[madinmaryland]

68. ..

Yeah, I bookmarked that one last year. What a freaking train wreck.

[redqueen]

85. I'm kinda surprised no one is defending that. (nt)

[ForrestGump]

98. Well, I furnished the poster/poseur with a succinct

encapsulation of the only kind of rebuttal he can't really satisfactorily meet with one of his inevitable "oh yeah? well, YOU are one, too!!" strutting-bantamesque comebacks. Does that count?

:hug:

[LeftyFingerPop]

99. You're calling him a poseur?

I must be in an alternate universe or something.

[ForrestGump]

95. Go fuck yourself

dumbass.

[LeftyFingerPop]

97. He's right

dumbass

[Radical Activist]

60. wrong thread

[BarenakedLady]

64. Pure debauchery and mayhem

Pretty much the same.

:shrug:

[Sky Masterson]

65. Until all the newbies showed up

;) :hi:

[ScreamingMeemie]

66. All hearts and flowers and happy stuff.

All the time.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

91. Those were the days...

[NJmaverick]

69. In the old days, you had to get up an hour before you went to bed

and walk uphill both to and from school. The temperatures were 40 below in winter (whith 3 foot snow storms all the time) and a 120 and humid in the summers.

[Hardrada]

87. But we had character and that's what counts!

[Arugula Latte]

71. Well, we had to hand-crank 'er to start 'er up in the morn

In the winter, sometimes she'd get frozed up. In a blizzard, if got a notion in yer bonnet to travel from the Lounge to GD, ya'd have to tie a rope to yerself to find her way back. And, of course, we all wore onions on our belts, as was the fashion of the day.

[SarahB]

72. More free thought

In many respects.

I dearly love some of the people here, but my time to "DU" has gone way down and there's just more people in my life that I enjoy otherwise spending time with. I just don't want to sacrifice other relationships for this place.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

73. Much like this:

Mother: Oh dear, oh my! That's horrible! The man on the television just said that three Brazillian soliders were killed!
Father: Gee willikers, yes, it is horrible! But how much is a Brazillian?
Child: LOLz!

[Midlodemocrat]

74. The lounge hasn't been the same since the douchebag wars.

A lot of good souls were lost during those epic battles. Some remain scarred for life.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

92. Those wars rage on to this day

Will they ever end?

[enigmatic]

75. Better than it is now, I think n/t

[mopinko]

77. it's just bigger. harder to get to know people

other than that, the batshit crazy stuff has always been here.

[Bucky]

78. I remember back in the 50s and mid-60s they didn't allow sex threads.

Us old timers started being able to slip in sly sexual innuendo around '64 or '65, but the un-mod mods back in those days used to censor even banal cuss words like "damn" and "hell" until George Carlin started posting under the username No_Nixon69. I think the squares they had moderating in those days didn't even get the "69" reference.

By the 70s this place totally loosened up with the introduction of naked posting, but DU didn't really take on its current flavor until the Reagan administration got rid of the Fairness Doctrine for the internet in '83 and quit requiring mandatory Freeper responses for every non-Lounge OP.

[Hardrada]

83. I used to lurk here when I was in Junior High since I thought

I could learn something about beatniks.

[hunter]

79. I remember you could pick Ralph Nader up by the ankles and use him like a club.

Damn you Nader voters! Here's what you can do with your candidate! Smash! Bang! Blood and guts splattering all over the place!

The wounded Nader accolytes would slink away quietly never to return again, but a few kept coming back for more.

Sadly Ralph Nader is getting a little worn around here for the beating. All that's left of him is his feet. :boring:

Ralph Nader -- perpetual presidential candidate of Nervous Conservative White People!

The gore would get so thick around here you'd need a flame thrower to clean it up.

[crimsonblue]

84. Sunshine and daisies

And people could fart rainbows. I shit you not.

[datasuspect]

96. there were some really interesting people here