GOOD NEWS - Democratic Underground 2000 spots better than DailyKos

[davefromqueens]

Well it has finally happened. According to Alexa's rankings, Democratic underground ranks just above 5200 and DailyKos ranks just above 7200. This may be the first time DU has crushed DK and it surely won't be the last. It may even happen everyday.

To understand what an accomplishment this is, understand that DailyKos had a virtual monopoly on the progressive blogosphere. This is the equivalent of a mom and pop store overtaking Walmart.

While DU was building coalitions, discussing issues, demonstrating tolerance, servicing its customer, and actually caring about issues important to Democrats, something else was going on at Markos Moulistas site.

Moulistas let his inflated ego get the best of him and decided that blogads generated from Orwellian searches for trolls and flamewars was more important than issues like health care, education, the economy, and foreign policy. Moulistas over time managed to irritate thousands of Democrats, from Obama to Swanson to Palast to Shaheen to Hackett, along with many of his former front pagers and his tech guru Peeder. Eventually people had enough. They witnessed how the site allowed what is referred to as Kos Kops or the Kostapo effectively ruin the site with double standards, hypocrisy, and constant literary urination in people's earnest work. As the straws accumulated, it reached a point of critical mass. So like Sears, the big bully on the block is now a pariah.

I am a rock solid centerleft Democrat. (Yes Big media most of America is center left) I have 15 years of work and accomplishments helping Democrats from things such as mailing envelopes and making calls for Democratic congresspeople to some of my more well known public events. (Hannity, Bushman, aggressively taking on Right wing dirtbags wherever they may appear) I speak for a large number of Democrats when I say that Kos is bad for us, bad for liberals, is driving people away from our party, and that all of our interests are better served if this turnoff troll is marginalized the way the Right should have, but never did, marginalize Ann Coulter years ago. Coulter turns republicans into Democrats. Kos turns democrats into republicans. He must be rejected and denounced for this reason.

[BlooInBloo]

1. "DailyKos had a virtual monopoly on the progressive blogosphere"...

A larger falsehood has scarcely ever been uttered.

[davefromqueens]

2. Had

but thankfully no longer does.

And that's a good thing.

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. Kos turns democrats into republicans. He must be rejected and denounced for this reason.

Sounds like someone got banned... Kos is a good guy buzz off

[WeDidIt]

17. And it's DAMNED TOUGH to get banned at DK

Mostly, trolls end up being castigated and getting recipes posted in their diaries.

[Howardx]

24. no it isnt

you just have to disagree with the in crowd

[davefromqueens]

26. Tens of thousands banned from dailykos

And while some are trolls who should be banned, most were actual Democrats.

My crime was standing up to and exposing the Kostapo and I had over 10,000 comments there.

For those who don't know

Kos users = Mostly good people
Kostapo - a bunch of people who monitor thoughts all day long and start cyberbullying person after person who posts a comment on an issue that doesn't tow the product line.

It is the fact that Kos allowed his site to be taken over by the latter which has driven most people away. If you check Jotter's weekly statistics the site's active users is about 5% of the UserIds. (most have been banned or have left)

I am an adult. I have two prestigious licenses, a permanent certificate to teach grades K-6 and I'm a member of the New York State Bar. Both jobs require me to exhibt a lot of patience, indeed extra patience, for differing views than mine in which I have to listen, engage, and accommodate.

I am the same way politically. I will crush right wingers but I can certainly allow them to speak. I have no problem with people disagreeing with me for I"m comfortable in my views.

The problem with Kos is that he has the same mentality as the intolerant crowd that composes most of the Right. He is illiberal in practice and gives the progressive movement a very bad name. (All the while actually undermining it and bashing people who are part of it) Is this something we want speaking for Democrats? The answer is No b/c if he somehow becomes more influential, he will sink the party. There's a reason why Hillary criticized him in 2007 and Obama lambasted him in 2006 in an article that appeared in the Washington Post.

[kstewart33]

4. Please explain Alexa's ranking and what these numbers mean. eom

[davefromqueens]

7. I'm not the preeminent expert

I can give a layman's opinion.

It keeps track of site hits for the day in some form.

EVERY day this year Dailykos had more site hits than Democratic underground until yesterday.

in fact Kos' site, which one time ranked in the top few hundred along with Huffington Post, has now dropped below DU.

Usually it would be the 2nd biggest site of so called liberal politics. That has now changed. For those who don't know, he has irritated so many Democrats of so many different stripes. I know the man's history and can detail better than anyone how the site works. Google my name davefromqueens. I was one of the "biggies" there. I write well too which I guess I should be able to do considering that I'm a teacher and a lawyer.

[kstewart33]

25. Thanks for the info, and welcome to DU! eom

[Jane Austin]

5. Gosh, I love Kos . . . but spend a lot more time on DU.

I love to read the diaries over there that DUers and others bring to my attention.

Why wouldn't I love "The Orange Place"?

[NMDemDist2]

6. welcome to DU

and we Democrats like a big tent, Kos can run his site his way and Skinner et al can run this site their way.

I never liked Kos' site layout, had trouble navigating it so I've been a DUer since day one of my online political activism. But Kos has his place also.

Nice to hear our ranking are up though....

[davefromqueens]

8. I hope I can contribute

and as I navigate the site I'll learn the ins and outs.

However I do thank everyone. Your site has linked many of my better articles before. Things I've done:

1. The guy Hannity tried to have falsely arrested at the bookstore.
2. Exposed MCcain's townhalls as farces.
3. Shot the video of Randall Terry in Va. Beach and sent it to Max Blumenthal.
4. Dressed up as George Bush and gave Joe Lieberman a hug as he walked in a parade in 2006.

but 99% of what I do is actually low key and behind the scenes.

[zippy890]

9. no point trashing another liberal site

there's room for all.

I like DailyKos for certain info.

[Javaman]

10. Please explain the ranking for those of us who haven't a clue. nt

[changemonger]

11. What a load of BS

I prefer DU, but Kos is a great voice for the progressive movement.It's more than insulting to compare him with Coulter. I respect your accomplishments helping Democrats, but I doubt you've done more than Kos.

[davefromqueens]

27. response

I do what I do to help Democrats and I'm sure you do what you do.

I'm not saying everything Kos has done is bad, it's not.

But if you think he's a friend of the progressive movement, you are mistaken.

It does not help when he takes potshots at Kucinich after the election.
It does not help when he tells 600,000 Nader voters, most of whom voted Democratic, some in tight congressional races, that they can F themselves.
It does not help Democrats when your response to 4 dead Americans in Iraq is "screw them.?"
It does not help Democrats when one of your front pagers, Laura Clawson, says at 2007 YearlyKos that in sum and substance, blacks don't blog here b/c they are poor, uneducated, and don't have computers.
It does not help Democrats everytime he goes on TV with his smarmy smirk.
It does not help Democrats everytime he runs solid progressives out of town like Swanson, Palast, Sheehan or moderate Dems like Hackett.

My list is much longer but here's a good start.

[crispini]

12. I've always found Kos a bit hard to navigate.

And there is next-to-no chance that a noob who posts something will get noticed, due to that weird diary system.

[rvablue]

13. Sorry, but when you equated DKos with Ann Coulter, you outed yourself.

There isn't a "rock solid centerleft Democrat" that would ever say such a thing.

And this is coming from a Hillary primary supporter who couldn't even look at DKos for several months without getting really mad.

With that said, it serves its purpose and has some interesting reads and information, although I, of course, prefer DU.

Go home.

[davefromqueens]

18. really?

I think my track record is something quite to the contrary.

I'm not interested in getting into an argument with you but it seems your comment suggests you are acting in such a way that you are projecting onto me.

[davefromqueens]

22. and you need work on your reading comprehension skills

For you completely misrepresented what I said.

1. I never equate dailykos with coulter. In fact most users there are great democrats.

2. Kos on the other hand and a few others? Not so much.

[WeDidIt]

14. This is nothing but flamebait

PTTTTTHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

[Joe Chi Minh]

15. I've never read Kos since the day it claimed the election results were "bona fide",

denying machine fraud. Got a feeling it was the 2000 election, too. First principles trump all.

Salon wasn't a whole lot better with one of its high-profile columnists pronouncng on the election, but once they went into different ownership, I knew what to expect.

[davefromqueens]

19. They kicked them out

and Obama left too. And Hillary

and Greg Palast
and david swanson
and countless others.

Yet Obama did exactly what was needed to protect the vote.

[Joe Chi Minh]

20. It will be good when his team put in place firm safeguards, such as pencil

and paper ballots and neutral, federal, supervisory officials.

[davefromqueens]

23. election reforms I seek

1. A paper trail for every vote.
2. Every voting booth - no more than 300 people per booth for the entire day.
3. Automatic voter registration at age 18
4. Federal law doing away with felony disenfranchisement of people who did their time.
5. Making Washington DC the 51st state and Puerto Rico the 52nd. (and there's your supermajority in the Senate.)

[AntiFascist]

16. Also, DailyKos often gets promoted by the teevee media...

including KO who posts on his blog there. Bill Maher has had Markos on as a guest a number of times.

I've never seen DU mentioned except when they want to make a big deal about tinfoil hatters on the internet talking about chemtrails or HAARP. This happened at a time when DU was drawing a lot of web attention due to its focus on Bush Admin corruption.

[aquart]

21. And here I thought of DailyKos as tiny and dinky. Who knew?