WAPO: thedonald discussion board is GONE!

[lindysalsagal]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/02/05/why-thedonald-moderator-left/

TheDonald’s owner speaks out on why he finally pulled plug on hate-filled site
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=691

The Army veteran, a site moderator who owned its domain, watched with growing alarm as racism, threats and QAnon references flourished on the pro-Trump site. His former co-moderators called him a ‘sellout’ who went ‘rogue’ after internal schism.

Jody Williams in his home office. Williams owned the domain for TheDonald.win but removed the site after the Capitol riots. (Matthew Busch for The Washington Post)

The story of TheDonald, a furiously pro-Trump forum that became an online staging ground for the Capitol assault, is a cautionary tale about the Internet’s dark side. What began on Reddit as an online political rally for an upstart presidential candidate turned increasingly foul as Williams fought — and often lost — against what he said were “nefarious forces” determined to advance the most extreme ideologies, including white supremacy.

Williams — who controlled the Web address where the forum moved after Reddit expelled it last year — finally took decisive action on Jan. 21, two weeks after the Capitol assault, after waking to news that a group of other moderators had started their own site and used it to attack him. Soon, Williams used his power as the Web address owner to knock TheDonald offline.

Then he defended himself publicly against his former compatriots, who had criticized him as a “rogue” and a selfish coward. Williams, who lives in Texas and has three young children, also endured death threats, online harassment and FBI questioning, he said.

In response to such critiques, Williams said he wanted Trump to win and stay in the White House. He didn’t want to destroy something he had spent so long growing. He didn’t think, until the very end, that it was necessarily his call whether to blow it all up. He thought his actions as a moderator, part of a team that removed 3,500 problematic posts and comments on an average day, helped keep the worst stuff at bay — while also helping Trump.

[Clash City Rocker]

1. When I picture the weirdos who post on boards like that, they all look like that guy

[SunSeeker]

2. Right?

[underpants]

3. My wife was monitoring that site for a while

Some seriously crazy stuff.

[masmdu]

4. It is still live under a different name.

It is horrible stuff.

[blueinredohio]

5. Too little, too late.